We review The Vinyl Underground: Pretty Dead Things. Read on for our impressions
The Vinyl Underground: Pretty Dead Things
Publisher: Vertigo
Writer: Si Spencer
Penciler: Simon Gane
Inkers: Cameron Stewart and Ryan Kelly
Colorist: Guy Major
Letterer: Jared K. FletcherOriginal Covers: Sean Phillips
$17.99 │Color│ Collects Issues 6-12 │ Mature Audiences
Premise: Tabloid darling Morrison “Moz” Shepherd used to live the wild life. Now he saves lives, by cracking the U.K.’s most dangerous occult crimes. But even Moz’s wasted youth couldn’t prepare him for the snuff film he’s just uncovered – a cocktail of sex, drugs, magic and murders stronger than anything he’s ever seen.
A hedonistic cult and a rouge M16 operative have joined forces, dosing beautiful women with a drug so potent they literally love themselves to death. To solve the case and save the girls, Moz will take a terrifying journey though is checkered past – while his friends fend off terrorist attacks on London with Moz’s own fingerprints all over them. Can they defuse this love bomb before the city goes up in smoke?
Review: The final pages of Pretty Dead Things leaves me severely conflicted. Part of me feels that the book was a triumph – a perfect blend of crime, sex and intrigue – but the other part of me was so disappointed in the big reveal that I felt it a slap in the face. You know what they say - the higher they rise, the harder they fall.
Character development is where Pretty Dead Things excels. Detailed above, the story stars “Moz” Shepherd – son of a football star and a porn queen. After royally screwing up his life and spending time in prison in his youth, he sobered up, went to school and got a degree in criminology.
Then there is “Perv” O’Connor. A victim of abuse in his childhood, he now uses his psychic powers to bust predators online – then steal their money. The team uses his powers to get case details before they occur. He is also contacted by spirits who give him clues on their killers.
“Juicy Lou” Hayes works at the mortuary by day, and an internet porn star at night. Stacked like Barbie, she is a nymphomaniac, pyromaniac and the muscle behind the group. I think she has anger issues.
Then there is “Abi” Abiola – an exiled African tribal princess who used to date Moz – till she found him having drunken sex on the floor of a busy nightclub. A bit of a literary genius, she is the brains behind much of the operation.
Together this motley crew makes up the Vinyl Underground, a mysterious group that cracks occult crimes in the underbelly of London.
Despite the obvious character traits that require a stretch of the imagination, the characters feel believable. Perhaps because author Spencer does a fantastic job of infusing every piece of dialogue with characteristics and mannerisms of the individual. After a few pages, I felt a tangible connection to the four lead protagonists.
The mystery itself is also golden. Able to get a head start on the police thanks to Perv’s skills, the team begins to find bodies of attractive, young women littered across London. The bodies are carefully positioned, each with unique causes of death that seem to indicate a cult or ritualistic killing. The brutal murders continue as the Underground shakes down human trafficking headquarters and the list of usual suspects to no avail. Conspiracy moves to the forefront of their minds as clues begin to fall into place.
Then, towards the end of the book, everything shifts. What began as an occult crime tale switches dramatically to one of terrorism and personal vendettas that requires the reader to make quite a leap to accept the change in pace. And I don’t know if I am willing to make that leap. Instead, I read through the final few chapters again and again, trying to see if perhaps I missed clues early on in the book that would have made the unanticipated change in pace a masterpiece instead of a misstep.
The book is good however – if you are able to put up with a pleasant ride to an unpleasant destination. The intrigue and characters crafted by Spencer are on par with some of the best graphic novels I have ever read, which makes it that much more sad when it doesn’t pay off in the end.
The art was enjoyable – simple but stylized. All the main characters have perfectly proportioned faces and figures and appear to have walked right off the runway. This idealized appearance of morally grey characters makes them that much more interesting.
It is worth noting that Pretty Dead Things is mature – lots of gore, nudity and sex await you. Perhaps not the best read on a plane next to an elderly woman, unless you want to repeatedly place your thumb over topless chicks in order to avoid dirty looks.
At $17.99, Pretty Dead Things isn’t going to break the bank if you decided to pick it up. But don’t expect to be seeing any more from the series soon – it was canceled after twelve issues. Strangely, this saddens me. Faults aside, Pretty Dead Things got under my skin because the characters are engrossing and the potential is there. I want to love the series.
In the end, there is enough merit in the book to warrant picking it up. Perhaps now that I have warned you, the blow in the final pages won’t be so severe.
February 28th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
LOL that line about the elderly woman cracked me up. Speaking of experience, maybe? Hmmmmmm?
Hahaha!
Man, I hate when books start out great and seriously go downhill. This one sounds sooo good, too! Very disappointing.
March 1st, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Why couldn’t I have been named something cool like “Si Spencer”?
March 2nd, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Sounds interesting, but you’re right, the shift sounds really odd.