Allain, David; Brown, VV; Price, Emma – The City of Abacus #1

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The City of Abacus #1

You know what I like to see in a small press comics series?  Other than talent, writing that will blow my socks off and genuinely innovative concepts, that is?  Ambition.  This series is trying to put out 7 issues between May and November (and they only have 2 on their website as of the end of August, so it’s not looking good), followed immediately by a graphic novel.  Here’s a tip for other people who are trying to pull this off: try to have a few issues “in the bag” before you announce such a plan.  That way you have 6 months to produce 3 or 4 issues instead of 7 and everybody goes away impressed at how forward-thinking you are.  Anyway, nobody ever meets their deadlines in this business anyway, so it’s not that big of a deal.  How about the comic?  Well, this is clearly the start of something much, MUCH grander in scale, so I am instantly not allowed to complain about any of the little things that could have used more explanation.  They’ll get around to them later, or I will complain at the appropriate time.  This is the story of a society that has gone creatively stagnant, as once a week a computer scans the mind of all the citizens and removes any dangerous thoughts.  In this issue we meet the daughter of the man who built this computer ages ago and abandoned her (why she is allowed to keep potentially subversive memorabilia isn’t explained, but I’m sure they’ll get to it), another man who is leading what seems to be a one person resistance, and something that looks kind of like a winged monkey.  It’s off to an intriguing start, but that’s the trouble with reviewing something like this: it is clearly just a start.  I will say that they may have given too much away with the synopsis on the back cover and possibly even with the character descriptions, but that is only if it all goes in the direction that I’m thinking.  Oh, and if “VV Brown” sounds familiar, that’s because she’s a fairly famous as a singer.  Go ahead, hit You Tube and search for “Shark in the Water”.  You’ll have that song stuck in your head (in a good way) for days…  $5ish