If you know me, you know that I fucking hate "I FUCKING LOVE SCIENCE." Its breathless nerd pandering bullshit drives me fucking bananas, much like XKCD or the Oatmeal whatever other "TESSSLLLALAAAAA" type horsedickery is floating around the internet. "SCIENCE!?!?" being some smug fedora rallying cry irritates me to no end.
That said, I love Nowhere Men, a comic that says
Nowhere Men is a book that seems to be an incredibly decompressed superhero origin comic, but one that is so rich with detail and history that you don't actually care that you're not sure where the actual story is going. The world of Nowhere Men begins when you ask a single question- what would the world be like if scientists were like rock stars?
The story tracks the dealings of World Corp, a company created by four very different visionaries, and how it has impacted the both the world and the four men who created it. As well, it follows the crew of the World Corp Remote Site "Nowhere" and the strange effects that some unknown agent is having on them and their desperate attempts to save their own lives. AS WELL, the comic is intercut with media artifacts from the beginning of World Corp to the present, magazine articles, newspaper stories, pictorals, ads and even year-end top-ten lists.
Nate Bellegrande knocks the art out of the park, portraying intricate technology and science fiction weirdness as well as his normal human characters. He makes his characters look real, like living people who change their clothes from day to day and appear as individuals, not just "haircut #4 on generic white woman body," as is often the case these days. He captures both the glamour and the weirdness of the science fiction world, making every single panel of the six issues a joy to look at.
Eric Stephenson teases out the story at a slow but steady pace, taking his time and filling enough corners of the world to make it understandable but leaving enough blank space to keep you wondering what
else is going on. Carefully doled out answers to questions keep coming, but then often raise questions of their own.
Fonografiks does a great job creating the media artifacts, imitating Rolling Stone, Esquire and other magazines at various points in time. The ads for World Corp products (and those of other scientific firms) give the world a real, lived-in feel.
Jordie Bellaire nails the palette for the story, able to convey the environmental feeling of each scene. Her colours are remarkably flexible, being used to portray a wide variety of different environments and times, characters and moods.
Anyways, the first trade is out, pick it up.
einsam
Colbitzer
@ 3:32 PM Apr 17th