Broken Frontier

... of Guiding Lines Vol. 2, No. 1

Howdy, howdy everybody!  Why, as a matter of fact, this IS Guiding Lines!  My name is Scott Hinze and if you’ve never heard of me, consider yourself a very lucky person.  It’s a whole new era for Guiding Lines here at Broken Frontier.  Things must have gotten pretty out of control for dear ol’ Frederik to ask me to do this thing for/to his readers (do you want me to put you on a leash right away, Scott?! [Laughs] – ed.).  But I promise, I’ll do my best to lead some of the smartest comic fans on the net to fine Wednesday releases without dropping spoilers, repeating the same genre two weeks in a row and will do all I can to avoid the deadly eye-rolling smilie.

Before I get started with my recommendation, let’s briefly look back on the 20+ month history of the column and past writers’ recommendations starting with the origin of GL.  In this column’s past, you’ve been guided to series such as Superman: Birthright, Small Gods, Arrowsmith, District X, Powers, Firestorm, Aquaman, Ex Machina, Strange, Black Panther, Tupelo, Captain America, TMNT, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Lone, JSA, Losers, Young Avengers, Jack Staff, Nightwing, The Human Target, New Avengers, Stray Bullets and Hawkman.

Now that’s quite a list of fine comics.  I hate redundancy in these sorts of things, so I will avoid returning to any of these titles for future column topics.  Sorry creators, I know how important a thumbs up from this fanboy is, but your book must have peaked too early or something.

Now, on to my first recommendation:

The Surrogates

It’s 2054 and the merging of advanced robotics and virtual reality technology has created The Surrogates.  These human replacements are owned by 94% of Americans and have altered the economy, culture, crime and health of society equaled only by the automobile.  People can loaf at home in comfortable furniture while their surrogates work, play, socialize and live life for them.  The surrogates are very expensive, but never get sick, smell bad or need make-up.  In fact, many men and women find that being together while not ‘jacked in’ is disturbing and uncomfortable. 

In this world, your fellow man can be someone’s character in a real-life massively multiplayer online role-playing game.  Lieutentant Greer & Sergeant Ford are two cops that investigate surrogate disablings in the Backbone District of ‘Central Georgia Metropolis.’  By interviewing users, meeting with forensic examiners and downloading the final memories of the ‘victims,’ the very personable officers carry out cool sci-fi police work.  Other great moments include much sexual identity confusion (ala today’s chat rooms – not that I know anything about that) and a frozen character jerking to life to apologize saying, “Sorry, Harv.  I was on the can.”

With an excellent premise, strong characters and believable dialog, it’s hard to accept that this is writer Robert Venditti’s first published work.  There is a huge amount of exposition that needs to occur in these futuristic mysteries so Venditti communicates everything he needs his audience to know in interesting scenes that also establish character relationships.  The bad guys are very dark and mysterious while the good guys are funny and have wonderful, quiet moments.  He has also mastered the all-important art of comic book pacing by writing in important panels without dialog and making sure we get enough of each scene without getting bored.  Venditti could have saved many of the reveals for later issues in a more brutish, cliché fashion, but opts for a more content-filled read to my great enjoyment.

All of the art responsibilities are handled by Brett Weldele, who you may have seen in The Last Straw Man & The Clockmaker for Image or Julius for Oni Press.  His style may not be every hardcore comic fan’s taste, but boy-howdy, I love this guy.  Telling a clear story is his primary objective.  Knowing who is who, what to read next and providing the appropriate atmosphere are the important (yet sometimes least valued) assets to comic crafting and Weldele has a firm grasp on this.  You won’t see uber-realistic renderings, complete backgrounds or lens-flares but there is plenty of cool angels, scene-setting colors and warm characters.  Basically, if you can appreciate the Ashley Woods and Ben Templesmiths of comic art, you’ll be very happy with Brett’s fine work.

The hype around this book mistakenly dubs it a super-hero comic.  But The Surrogates doesn’t even have any flippin’ super-heroes.  There are androids, cops and mysterious energy but no super-heroes.  One of the things that tick me off about comic perception today is that everyone thinks it’s all “super-hero genre.”  Both non-readers and people who should know better moan about this.  It’s ironic that Top Shelf Productions, a company that’s made a name for itself publishing excellent books about everything but super-heroes is doing a Sci-Fi book that they dub as a super-hero read.  As a fan of all comics, read this title for its quality story and art, not the wacked-out label.

This is risky business, writing Guiding Lines.  I don’t get advanced copies of any books (yet - :wink: ) and am asked to recommend books before they’re in stores.  I have only the last couple of issues to work on, and preview art and hype—not the best tools to guide comicdom by.  But, I have true faith in the boys on The Surrogates and Chris Staros at Top Shelf (he’s certainly never let me down).  If issue #2 is as half the read #1 was, than this will be a worthy spotlight.

Guiding Line:  The Surrogates looks back to classic sci-fi literature and more recent post-modern movies to provide comic fans with a truly original experience.  The combination of the crisp and refined story with the art being organic and emotional sets the perfect tone for this trilling futuristic journey.