There are a lot of comics out there, but some stand out head and shoulders above the pack. With “Don’t Miss This,” we want to spotlight those series we think need to be on your pull list. This week, we look at the noir-esque, post-internet sci-fi story, “Analog.”
Who’s This By?
“Analog” is written by Gerry “The Mouth” Duggan (“Deadpool,” “Arkham Manor”) with art provided by David “The Hand” O’Sullivan (“The Crimson Blade”). Regular color duty is done by Mike “Color Me Impressed” Spicer while issue one is colored by Jordie “Color Queen” Bellaire. Letters are placed by Joe “The Wordsmith” Sabino.
What’s This All About?
Imagine a world in which all your secrets were laid bare. Where privacy was a thing of the past and everyone could access everything you’ve ever put out there. Where the internet has been killed via a mass-doxxing and anything of importance must be transmitted through paper and word of mouth. This is the world of “Analog,” the world Jack McGinnis inhabits and works within.
Jack is a Ledger Man, a courier of high profile documents and secrets, a job that garners few friends and quite a large number of enemies. He has to fight his way across the globe, juggling loyalties and making sure that whatever he’s carrying makes it to its intended destination without being copied and without himself being killed. As Jack says, “Ledger men don’t grow old.”
Oh, and Jack’s the one mass-doxxed everyone’s secrets on the internet. That’s probably important to know.
So, Why Should I Read This?
Part noir, part spy thriller, part near-future-science-fiction story, “Analog” does what any good science fiction piece does: it extrapolates upon the current world and wonders what is next for humanity. What will we do with the technologies we currently have, what else will we create, and what problems of today will be magnified tomorrow. The internet revolutionized the modern world, there is no question about that. It’s a piece of technology that even the most forward thinking sci-fi writers didn’t see coming, at least not in the form it’s taken. Now that it’s here, though, we have to reckon with it.
What makes “Analog” work so well isn’t simply the idea. There have been plenty of stories that take the ills of the modern internet and extrapolate outwards, with two Image comics, “VS” & “No. 1 With a Bullet” coming to mind. What Duggan, O’Sullivan, Spicer, and Sabino do differently is that this is not a far-flung future, where the extrapolation of ideas is based on the progress of technology. Instead, it’s a near-future, one based on the future that one simple question begets: What happens when it is impossible to do anything privately on the internet?
For some, this must feel like a silly question. To be private, truly private, on the internet in 2018 is very difficult. This feeling, that everything we do is being watched, broadcasted, catalogued and sold, is what Duggan and Co. tap into with “Analog.” They do what any good story does and turns bits of our fears and our society and amplifies them, turning the world of Jack McGinnis into a future we can imagine living through, a future that doesn’t feel farfetched or too far off. Yes, it does have a few things we don’t, such as AI and street roombas but for the most part, it’s just like today. That’s a scary thought and a scary world that Jack lives in. Despite this, the series is neither bleak nor scary.
There is tension but there is also action and catharsis, such as when Oona kicks the crap out of a bunch of neo-Nazis, and the world presented to us is never grim; it just is. Much of that is due to O’Sullivan’s art and Spicer’s coloring. They paint a bright world, one that, no matter how many dark alleys or shady warehouses appear, the comic never succumbs to that muddy darkness so many other series like to partake in. Its tone is earnest, taking itself seriously, but always with a bit of self-awareness and enough humor to keep the adventures, if not light, then lighter.
Continued belowBy blending a variety of genres and expand the scope of the narrative, “Analog” manages to avoid a lot of pitfalls that other Image comics make when it comes to sustaining a long-term narrative. The “Analog” crew has yet to tip its hand as to the larger endgame, instead teasing us with a variety of directions and developments that can go in a million directions. If these first five issues are any indication, this series can have a lengthy run sustained on the intrigue of Jack’s destruction of the internet alone, not to mention the few supporting characters we’ve seen, their stories, and the stories of what’s on those reel-to-reel tapes. Jump in now, you won’t want to miss this ride.
How Can You Read It?
Issue #5, and the end of the first arc, comes out today so track it down, as well as any back issues, at your local comic book shop or wherever digital comics are sold. For the trade readers and collectors, volume one, which collects issues 1-5, comes out on October 3rd.
