Cómics, Mangas, Comunidad!

Review: The Private Eye #1 

Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin, Muntsa Vicente 

I hopped online this morning to find that the new BKV and Marcos Martin comic — just teased yesterday — was already available. The surprise was increased ten-fold when I learned that their new collaboration was a digital series available for whatever the fuck I want to pay. DOUBLE RAINBOW!!!

BKV and Martin previously collaborated on a Doctor Strange miniseries, Due to the strength of that work, I decided to download The Private Eye #1 post-haste. I paid $2.50 and got myself the PDF version.

Before I cracked open the comic, I shared the link to Panel Syndicate — BKV and Martin’s new digital comic website — with my friends online. The results were largely positive. Most people said they paid $1.

One friend wasn’t crazy about the idea of artists who came up through the system now bucking the system to make a few extra bucks (note: the tacky clever wordplay in that sentence is mine, not my friend’s). He compared their move to Radiohead and a few other musicians. He had a valid point (which I’m not gonna get into now) but I still think that this is an overwhelmingly positive move on the part of BKV and Martin.

Okay, enough bullshit!!! On with the review. The Private Eye #1 is good. No, wait. It’s great. No… it’s fantastic!!!

The tale is told in a horizontal format, which compliments the digital reading experience. However, BKV and Martin made sure to pack their horizontal pages full of story, something that tends to be lacking in most horizontal digital comics.

That packing of story is the reason why they encountered the only problem I have with this digital comic: the letters. The font is cool, but it’s a bit wispy and thin for the size I’m reading at (my laptop is 1366x768). I personally think the font needs to be bolded or slightly larger to be more readable.

The good news is that’s my only complaint! Everything else from the hardboiled future sci-fi noir Los Angeles setting to the main character (and his awesome grandpa!) are kickass.

It’s a private detective tale in the tradition of Dashiell Hammett and other early-to-mid 20th century crime novelists. The catch is that there’s no internet in this future. The data cloud exploded at some point, and social media sharing junkies like me (e.g. our main character’s grandpa) are a thing of the past.

I think the main character (whose name escapes me… maybe that’s the point) is a freelance journalist or something like that. Like a future journo who’s gone rogue. I dunno how to explain it exactly. It ties into things said by the guy with the gun that you see in the preview panels I’ve attached to this post.

BKV’s pacing is great. It took me a few pages to get used to Martin’s visual pacing — especially the flow of the word balloons —  but once I adjusted, it was effortless to read the story.

Muntsa Vicente’s colors are stunning. She uses a gorgeous mix of bright hues and bold dark tones. It sells the story’s fantastic future noir feel, blending patches of popping color with just enough murkiness to make the drama feel dangerous.

Since we’re getting this story directly from the creators, I’m not sure when to expect another issue. I assume it’ll be on a fairly standard schedule since BKV and Martin are used to the traditional comic book release schedule.

But I’m guessing that the timeliness of the next installment will depend upon how well this story is received and how profitable it is for the creators. Maybe I’m wrong about that! In fact, I hope I am.

Anyway, I definitely recommend The Private Eye #1. I’m excited about the story and the delivery method. For digital self-publishers like myself, there’s been an uphill battle for the legitimacy of digital comics, trying to convince print comics fans and non-comics readers alike that ebooks can be as awesome as printed books. I think The Private Eye #1 does just that.