April 20, 2004
2020 VISIONS
Written by Jamie Delano
Drawn by Frank Quitely, Warren Pleece, James Romberger, and Steve Pugh
Published by Cyberosia Publishing
There are certain causes that reviewers and critics champion. In my case, I happen to be a huge proponent of getting worthy works that are either out of print, or that passed by without ever being collected into a single volume, back into the public eye under a shiny and attractive cover. Cyberosia, though a very small company, has been very slowly and quietly getting some of those uncollected works collected into nice packages over the past couple of years. I covered one of them, Damned here in this space a few months ago. And now they have another sterling effort coming up with a hardcover collection of Jamie Delano's 2020 VISIONS.
Originally published by DC/Vertigo, 2020 was a twelve-issue mini-series that told four different stories of a very disturbing and dystopian future United States (and I use that term loosely). Following four characters who are related to one another but unaware of each other's lives, Delano took penetrating looks at sex, terrorism, economic disparity, bio-paranoia, reproductive rights, and multiple forms of extremism and created a future that only the most Darwinian of survivors could enjoy for even a second.
In Jamie Delano's future, this place of what he calls "economic Aparthied," the first thing to die is usually hope. The protagonist of part one, Woychek, initially finds something he has looked for all of his life, but in the end, he will trade it for a false hope and more forms of death than he knows exists. Part two's lady detective, Jack Atlanta, is so traumatized by her world that she fully expects to be brutalized and sexually assaulted every time she leaves her home. Section three's Ethan is simply trying to survive for another day in his life of crime and during the budding of his homosexuality. He is transfixed on the idea of someday finding his twin brother in California, but he is so conditioned to the brutality of his world that he never once allows himself to hold that idea dear. And when we meet Ethan, his twin, in part four, we find a young man who has been brainwashed to the point of finding the idea of holding and loving someone to be so fearful that it causes him to be violent. This is not a pretty world to spend time in.
Indeed, 2020 VISIONS, is quietly a horror novel of the highest quality. Delano may have gone a bit broad in some of his characterizations, and he may have over-estimated the pacing of our societal breakdown, but the contents of this book have a strange and painful familiarity to them. Surgical horrors. Anti-abortion groups that promote serious violence against health practitioners. Exploding medical costs that leave the poor to die in their own filth. Genetic tyranny and separation. 2020 is grounded at nearly every turn in the real and the now, making this a stunningly relevant work.
Artistically, the book is fantastic. Frank Quitely's work in section one is as good as anything he's done in his career. There's a strange scratchiness to Warren Pleece's work that makes Jack Atlanta's androgyny seem natural and unforced. James Romberger's art in section three has to work the hardest to tell any of the stories; the setting of the western plains leaves him to create stronger panels because he cannot tell as much of the story through background detail. And Steve Pugh's ability to draw the physical form with voluptuous zest gives the sexually charged nature of the book's concluding tale a jolt that many artists might not have been able to provide. These four men each draw very differently, but all are well-suited to the tale that Delano collaborated on with them. In many cases, especially books that have an anthological nature, that is rarely the case, so this is a real treat.
However, the real star here, without a doubt, is Delano. Probably best known in the U.S. for his early work on HELLBLAZER, this book is the kind of work for which we tend to define a creator. It's strongly plotted, well-scripted, and if you'll pardon the pun, a visionary work about who we are as a culture and where we are headed. Throw in a serious lack of good science fiction in comics right now, and you realize just how vital this book is. Grade: A
Should It Be A Movie?
Translating 2020 VISIONS to film is a fascinating idea, but not one likely to ever come to pass. The problems are twofold. One, as an anthology, and a long one at that, there is a large amount of material to work with. If you wanted to make a single film out of 2020, you would have to pare away either whole stories from the book, or condense them to the point where they lost their power. Neither of those is really a good idea.
You could go the alternate route and try and faithfully translate Delano's stories to the screen, but there are huge problems with that. One, you're going to end up with a film that is much too long for theatrical release. So maybe you decide to take the material to cable. Well, the Sci-Fi Channel isn't going to air it as is because of content issues. And HBO or Showtime don't generally throw their movie development dollars into hardcore science fiction. So you've lost on two fronts at that point.
So rather than hold your breath for seeing 2020 VISIONS on screen near you (silver or otherwise), I'd recommend you just buy the book and enjoy it for what it is: good comics.
Finishes
CSI: BAD RAP, written by Max Allan Collins and drawn by Gabriel Rodriguez and Ashley Wood, published by IDW Publishing.
IDW's second CSI mini-series finds Gil Grissom and company trying to solve the murder of a gangsta rapper, a murder which gets all the stranger when the suspect list also begins to turn up dead. I've never been a huge fan of Collins' work, but his CSI comics and novels have been pretty much first-rate in how well they capture the character and feeling of the show. Licensed comics can be a horrible Waterloo for both publisher and reader; bad likenesses, watered down plots, and corporate muddling have a tendency to make them unreadable piles of shit. Yet somehow IDW continues to turn out quality material. BAD RAP reads like a sweeps episode done right, involving all the CSIs on a single case and solving a tough mystery. Grade: B+
BUZZBOY VOL 2, written and drawn by John Gallagher, etal, and published by Sky Dog Press.
Volume two of Gallagher's lighthearted Buzzboy tales collects the random stories that have appeared in various anthologies, one-shots, and promos over the past few years. While volume one had a singular tale to follow, and was a much more solid effort, volume two's anthological nature makes for a sadly weaker effort. We never quite get to know the characters the way we do in volume one, and the quality of the stories varies wildly, particularly because Gallagher allows others to come and play in his sandbox, and they do so with much less success. The inconsistency in art quality also hurts the book, as Gallagher works with others to much less success than his own, excellent art. I'm pleased that Gallagher saw fit to get his fans the rest of the material that was floating around out there collected into one spot, but I would be a whole lot happier to see him hard at work on a full-length tale for volume three. Grade: B-
That's it for this week. See you in seven!
E-mail me from the link below. Review materials may be sent to: Marc Mason, P.O. Box 26732, Tempe, AZ 85285. You can also find me at The Comics Waiting Room.
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