DEMO - The Collection (6.5/10)

Writer: Brian Wood
Art: Becky Cloonan
copyright Wood & Cloonan, published by AiT/Planet Lar, $19.95 ($13.57 from amazon.com), 328 pages
creator owned!!



The collection contains all 12 issues of Demo ever published. Apparently the series started out as a recycling bin for "NYX", a young mutants in NY series that was not realised by Marvel and the first few stories all revolve around superpowers. Over the course of the series the focus driftes towards general adolescent/early-twentysomethings stories without superpowers.
There is no connection between stories, but each follows the same basic layout. A young adult makes a CHOICE, often prompted by an EVENT and we see the CONSEQUENCES of that choice. Often, these choices made by people on the cusp of adulthood, will define what they or their adulthood will be like. In many cases, the protagonists could be said to chose an identity, chose who they are going to be or who they are not going to be. For instance, a guy who never misses with a gun originally signed up for the army to put his talent to use, but realises he can't shoot people and decides to quit, despite having to support a girlfriend and a baby.

The writing is a mixed blessing. All characters are introduced well, and the major strings pulling them towards this or that outcome of the decision are illustrated well, and above all flow naturally from the dialogue. The dialogues itself are excellent throughout, including poignant pauses, repetitions and the like.
The weakness in the writing is twofold. For one, it is often not immediately apparent why the decision is so important or whether the characters couldn't have just as well decided otherwise. This is mostly due to the fact that each decision's consequences play out pretty much as expected. On the one hand, this conserves protagonism, i.e. the choices the characters make remain meaningful and are not annulled at the whim of fate/the writer. On the other hand, by refusing to throw a wench into the best laid plans of his protagonists, Wood also refuses to test their resolve. It is one thing to swallow a bitter pill, i.e. make a decision in the knowledge that seeing it through will hurt, it is quite another to stick to it when it suddenly turns out this will hurt quite a bit more than anticipated. In Wood's stories the stakes are almost always clear and fixed. Further, we enter each story pretty much with a fixed state of things (i.e. the situation is as it is, we are not party to any prior decisions that would have influenced the stakes of this one). Finally almost all characters are pretty clear about the stakes in general. The combination of these the things hurts the book considerably. It makes identification and empathy difficult. Instead of getting to the point where the road not taken fills us with regret or where we pity the protagonist for the bad result of the decision we supported (/wanted them to make), it's people going about their decision making in a clear-eyed manner, and the decision and the consequences remain mostly their own: Acts of fictional people, strangers, who do as they do.
Second, the ambiguity of the situations presented requires considerable investment on the parts of the reader. There is not enough time (taken) to make us care for the protagonists or their decisions, and as a result the work relies heavily on the reader's willingness and ability to ponder the decision for themselves or relate it to similar experiences from their own life.
Again, this is certainly partly intentional, and the lifelike dialogue is probably meant to help this process along, but ultimately it is not enough. For one, because I believe it is the job of the artist and storyteller to tell a story instead of providing a do-it-yourself guide. As it is, this aspect of the book could just as well be replaced by short-short stories of about ten-lines each, and the instruction to meditate on a bunch of words such as "love", "friendship", "loneliness" etc. Second, Wood does not provide enough meat to guide the reader in that process and consequently the reflections are just as good as the reader's average reflections will be. In other words, there is not enough of a statement there to provide a new impetus, a new direction to one's usual musings on related topics. One might thus just as well start reflecting without the book.

Cloonan's art is awesome beyond words. Framing, pacing, expression etc. are top notch as expected, but what really made me gasp was the incredible range of styles in this book. If the story is about the slacker's pledge and the three signatories decisions how to deal with it now that they're 23, she goes for a cartoony Scott Pilgrim style with clear strong lines. If the story is about a funeral and family dynamics behind it, she goes for slightly frayed lines and lots of blacks. The soldier's story (see above) is illustrated in abstract forms and stark contrasts. The story of a teenager going off her meds and almost insane as a result is illustrated in thin, frayed and hazy lines that vividly show her world going apart. Awesome, awesome, awesome.
Alas, there is a small weakness to the art as well: all protagonists are hip and hot. Granted, it is a very natural kind of hot, i.e. people of this kind do run around, we're not talking about impossible supermen and -women here. Still, it hurts the book in that it separates the protagonists from the reader (unless of course the reader happens to be hip and hot themselves). Again, granted, the problems of the hip and hot are very universal, but e.g. when dealing with a break-up it does make a difference how difficult it will be to find someone new and the hip and hot will very likely have different past experiences than the ugly and uncool. Which in turn influences the range of ressources, coping mechanisms and so on. Further, it simply does not help the story if every protagonist is of the sort one could easily have fallen for when single and at that age. It dulls the reflections the book intends to trigger simply in that imagined affection makes one more lenient and more ready to go along with whatever the protagonist decides.
(This aspect could admittedly be Wood's fault. However, from a review of the scriptbook over at thefourthrail.com, it seems Cloonan had far more liberty than usual and hence it seems reasonable to blame her for the character design. Anyway, the point remains the same regardless of who is responsible.)


Overall, an interesting indy. The art is awesome and the writing technically competent. However, I believe the book falls considerably short of its goals due to weaknesses in plotting and to a lesser extent in character design. As it is, it's an interesting diversion and a nice template for reflection, but in itself it does not say anything substantial nor provide significant new input to the reader's reflections. Still, there is enough variety there that chances of finding something that speaks to you are not bad, it's certainly worth a try.