Riccardo Burchielli

This is the first comic/graphic novel I've read in a long time, and it's really good. Added bonus: I got it from the library. It was the expensiveness of comics that kept me away from them post-high school ($15-20 for something I'm going to read in an afternoon?). Yay libraries!

The other thing that kept me from comics was a seeming lack of grown up subject matter. DMZ is definitely for grown ups. It looks at serious, relevant themes, and it tells the truth.

Very quickly, the idea is this: state militias have effectively seceded from the US, leaving the federal government sequestered on Long Island (of all places). Manhattan is the DMZ (demilitarized zone). If it sounds far-fetched, think of it as a thought experiment: New York City experiencing war the way Baghdad experienced the Iraq War. These books are about the New Yorkers and what they endure, caught between two 'nations' at war.… (mais)

I read comics really fast, so I have a rule for myself when it comes to comics and Goodreads that I have to read a comic collection twice before I write about it here. Public Works is the first time I'm breaking that rule, because I honestly don't want to read it again.

In volumes 1 and 2, DMZ was interesting stuff, looking at the media, the US, and the military through the lens of militarized New York City. Public Works adds a thinly-fictionalized Blackwater/Xe to the mix, but the results are heavy-handed and boring. Wood introduces a new female character who is startlingly poorly written for a series that has already set up a strong female lead. The Big Twist is more "huh?" than "whoa!", and the ending feels too much like more of the same after the first two volumes.

I'm going to keep going with DMZ because I already picked up volume 4, but this was a pretty huge disappointment to me.… (mais)