15 February 2006

Supermarket #1 (of 4)

Premise: No money, mo' problems...

There's a lot to love about Supermarket. First off, the setting is completely original: a nightmarish near-future where consumerism runs rampant. The artist known only as Kristian manages to make the brightly-lit suburbs seem melancholy and alien.
Next, the protagonist: Pella, an affluent teenage girl who's life changes forever by the end of this issue. Writer Brian Wood has created a fully-realized character that could have easily become a caricature (she is part "trust-fund commie", part spoiled brat, but never veers too far in either direction to become unsympathetic).
Finally, the twist. I don't want to talk too much about it (and there are a few interviews where it has been spoiled; Google those if you want), but at the end of the first issue, I could not wait to find out how the hell Pella is going to get out of this situation.

Click the cover to read the first five pages online:



Recommended For: fans of Blade Runner, American Beauty, and/or Heathers; Socialists; people who know all the words to Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone".
Not Recommended For: economics majors; the well-to-do.

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