Dave Gibbons is the artist behind Watchmen (written by Alan Moore) and is apparently one of the giants of the comics world. He wrote and illustrated this book, which I believe is only the second I've read by him. It's set in a strange place and time, evoking the mod movement in Britain but with hoverbikes.
Lel and Bok are teens who just want to be Originals, a gang of hoverscooter-riding boys wearing strange puffy-collar mantles and psychedelic dazzle suits; their rivals, the Dirts, are gel-haired leather-jacketed punks with hoverbikes. From the beginning, you can tell that Lel's the sort of guy who's going to get his best friend in trouble or possibly killed, and make bad decisions that screw up somebody else's life.
It's a pretty bleak world: the kids are just interested in getting high, dancing at their clubs, and beating up on the rival gang. Inevitably, the violence escalates beyond the usual brawling and fistfights, there's an end of innocence, and a realization that they're all just kids.
I suppose it was a good book, but just not really my cup of tea. Something about it just didn't click, and I couldn't tell if I was really supposed to sympathize with Lel at all, or just seem him as an arrogant young punk.
Fed to jonathan's brain | January 23, 2005
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