Demo by Brian Wood & Becky Cloonan REVIEW

Alright! I finished another TPB today! This time, I took the advice of Wizard Magazine (which isn't always wise) and it seems to have paid off. This book is a solid book which highly entertained me through about half of the stories. Half of the book was GREAT, and the other half was good. Mr. Wood is apparently a great storyteller, and he has quite a bit of an artistic flair to his writing. I appreciate the "Indie" feel that this collection has, even if the art is oftentimes sub-par. The art is not bad, and in some cases it is great. The consistency of the art, however, wavers throughout the book. This may be an attempt to vary the art styles, but to me it comes off as ill contrived. That said, art in a sequential art book should be 50% of the score, but if the art lacks but the writing is phenomenal (i.e. in DC/Vertigo's Sandman), I tend to over look the art a bit. BUT, in this case the writing also wavers a little bit as well.

ART

This seemed to be the first thing that I noticed to be distracting in the book. It starts out being heavily Manga influenced with a few hyper detailed scenes that suggested, to me a little immaturity in the art. After the first few issues, the art changes a bit to a more thick inked Indie style for one issue, then its back to Manga stuff. Then the art'll go towards Frank Miller for one issue, then back to Manga. Photostat Hyper Manga - back to Manga. Sometimes it even mixes the art a little. I understand changing the art to coincide with the story, but just doing it for three issues out of twelve seemed disjointed. All in all, the art amplified the story more than it reduced its quality, so I would have to say it was acceptable.

WRITING

This is really where the book takes the biggest hit in my opinion. Don't get me wrong - none of the book is bad by any means, its just that about half the stories are incredible, while the other half are good. The writing seemed to stray from the concept on a few stories, which was extremely distracting. The beginning guise is that these are everyday people with interesting abilities, which works extremely well when Brian Wood sticks to the concept. As a result from his straying, the book doesn't feel cohesive as a whole, and that is the biggest drawback to Demo.

THE FINAL SAY

This book is great. It realistically registers with your emotions most of the time, and even when it doesn't, its still good. It registers a healthy 8/10 on the Richard White SCALES OF JUDGEMENT! This book is a good Indie staple, but there are better Indie books out there, but when Mr. Wood gets a little more experience under his belt... Watch out!