The Surrogates TPB
I just this afternoon received a review copy of the compilation of Robert Venditti’s The Surrogates ($19.99, Top Shelf), a mash-up of sci fi, crime noir and social commentary. If you want the blurb version of my thoughts, I read it straight through as soon as I had the chance, then took a little extra time to flip through it again.
In case you missed the individual issues like I did, The Surrogates takes place in Atlanta in 2054. The world is surprisingly similar – at the very least, Venditti doesn’t overwhelm with “futurisms” – aside from the creation of Surrogates. These are essentially androids that a person buys and uses to conduct his or her daily life. So while the owner sits in his or her apartment wearing pajamas, their surrogate is out enjoying life and bearing the risks that come with it. The people get stimulation by “linking” through a headset, allowing them to feel everything their surrogate goes through.
The message is similar to that of The Matrix series, but a wise update. (There’s even a not-so-subtle barb at The Matrix in the book) Computers have not overtaken and enslaved us. We have enslaved ourselves. And, especially for those whose predominant form of social interaction comes through MySpace or Facebook, this is a fitting enough concept.
What’s a comic book without a little action, though? That side of things come into play with a mysterious figure that runs around at night, swinging between rooftops (a la Batman) and zapping the surrogates, commanding their owners to “live.” The main characters are detectives, hunting down this creature who’s tearing down the new establishment. Things get fairly “Blade Runner” from there.
But while the book has obvious influences, it offers a good amount of originality, especially considering it’s Venditti’s first book. (He started in the mail room at Top Shelf and has moved onto writing and doing PR for the publisher, which is how I came to know him.) The Surrogates is a strong debut, one that promises much more to come.
A quick mention on the art: I hadn’t seen anything of Brett Weldele before reading this, but he has obvious talent. He does fairly simplistic inking, then uses photoshop for shading, which lends the pages depth. He also uses actual photos for backgrounds or details, and it almost always works well. In a few spots the depth disappears completely, and sometimes the clarity of photos is jarring. But by and large, it’s interesting and fits the material well.
The TPB also has a massive amount of extra material in the back, including “script to finished page” examples and a deleted scene, as well as some great pin-ups by various artists.