Broken Frontier

Out of Order—Visionary Comics’ latest release—is a small digital volume that looks fantastic but doesn’t quite take off on a narrative level. The trouble is that nothing by the comic’s end stands out as memorable: the characters are one-dimensional, the plot is simple, and the story’s climax lacks any great excitement for a book that works as a metatextual examination of that very emotional reaction.

Out of Order tells the story of Dirk, an office drone who acts as a yes man but has flights of fantasy to escape his boring life. He’s called upon by his boss to stay late. His overtime assignment: make copies, endless copies. Of what, we don’t know. For what, we don’t know. It doesn’t really matter; when Michael Scott isn’t a permanent fixture among the filing cabinets, work tends to be rather boring.

But everything that can go wrong does, so Dirk winds up using a forbidden copier to meet his quota. To make sure it works, he tests it out on his comic book. And from the pages of the book, the copier gives life to the lurking monster within. From this point, the rest of Out of Order turns into a predicable cat-and-mouse chase between Dirk and the monster he’s created.

The writer and artist of Out of Order is someone who only goes by the name of “D-Art.” Well, whoever D-Art is, I admire his visual command of the book. The black-and-white illustrations are clean and light, characteristic of the comical tone the story is aiming for. And it’s not the art alone; D-Art controls his panel layouts with smooth efficiency.

But, the story, no matter how it it’s intended to be, just doesn’t grab me on any level. The dialogue of the characters is wooden and, at times, self-serving to illustrate the obvious themes the book is tackling. By the end, I simply wasn’t left with any lasting impression. I have great respect for Visionary Comics and many of the digital books they produce. Furthermore, D-Art is clearly a talented artist who loves his craft. But Out of Order won’t be among his greatest hits.