Comics I Bought This Week: June 11, 2011
I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got five new comics plus a hard cover collection and a graphic novel:
And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.
“Vertigo Resurrected: Finals” by Will Pfeifer and Jill Thompson
This is a new printing of the Vertigo series “Finals” that originally came out in 1999. It collects the four, and only, issues of “Finals”. I never read these issues but the series was recommended by a friend so when I saw it was being reprinted in this “100 Page Spectacular” volume I snapped it up.
The basic premise of “Finals” is fairly simple. It follows the senior year of a group of college students as they work on their senior projects. Only the college isn’t your usual school. It’s this crazy “Only the strong survive” school. The school president encourages the students to do anything they have to in order to make the grade. Except cheating. That’s frowned upon.
The five student projects we follow are: The main character who made up some B.S. idea about making a hyper-real movie but he does no work on it, his girlfriend who started a cult with her as the object of worship, one roommate who is trying to devolve himself by living like an animal, a second roommate who is a criminal studies major so he’s robbing stores, and a third roommate who is trying to make a time machine.
I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed this comic. It was wacky, funny, and unpredictable yet managed to stay true to the world it created. Despite the fact that it was way over the top I believed it. The plot seemed to move in a crazy but somehow logical way. At first it appear to be a standard “Animal House” crazy college story but then it took a turn into comedy territory of its own.
Though I’m familiar with artist Jill Thompson’s name I don’t think I’ve read much of her work. It’s the kind of work that reads better than it looks just flipping through the book. She uses a lot of expressions and exaggerated poses for comic effect rather well. The storytelling was very well done.
So if you’re looking for something out there, wild, and funny then check out this new collection of “Finals”.
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