One writer, four artists, one colorist, two letterers, four time periods, and a “bunch” of bodies all adds up to one really fascinating exercise in comic book collaboration. Read our review below to find out why you should check out Vertigo Comics’ “Bodies.”
Written by Si Spencer
Illustrated by Meghan Hetrick, Dean Ormston, Tula Lotay, and Phil WinsladeVERTIGO brings you the miniseries of the summer, with four detectives, four time periods, and four dead bodies – all set in London. Edmond Hillinghead is an 1890s overachiever who’s trying to solve a murder no one cares about while hiding his own secret. Karl Whiteman is our dashing 1940s adventurer with a shocking past. Shahara Hasan is 2014’s kickass female Detective Sergeant, who walks the line between religion and power. And Maplewood, an amnesiac from post-apocalyptic 2050, brings a haunting perspective to it all.
“Bodies” is one of those stories where all the creative work is done in service of a very specific core concept. Spencer is asking himself and his team of artists (right down to the bevy of cover artists) to develop a book around a very simple concept and a handful of motifs.
“Bodies” is built around a supernatural parlor trick on the part of Spencer: four “crime scenes” across time are obviously inextricably linked in a very specific way. While each time period has intriguing aspects of their own, that “gimmick” (not meant in the pejorative sense) is by far the most beguiling piece of the puzzle. The book really works because the conceit isn’t neglected or demystified by the stories told around it. In fact, in each of the four time periods, the body at the scene of the crime stops everyone in their disparate tracks.
In the present, Detective Hasan throws her weight around in a London town riled up into a civil unrest. She’s overconfident, maybe even arrogant. She’s good at her job, but pushes it dangerously close to the line sometimes. She’s not the protagonist you expect – none of the characters are, which is a definite strength of Spencer’s writing. And just when it seems like another rough and tumble day on the job, this body gets dropped on her watch. The same goes for the 1890s inspector who operates in the seediest of sectors, the 1940s inspector who has a timely hidden past of sorts, and the far future detective – whose life is turned upside down, even as the future has already left her disheveled.
Each time period has its own vernacular and voice that Spencer has worked out very clearly, even going as far as to lend each one a unique genre feel. In this way, “Bodies” could basically be called an anthology title. At a publishing house like Vertigo that is currently putting out anthology books based on the colors yellow, magenta, cyan, and key black, “Bodies” feels like it fits that philosophy as well. The year 1940 is depicted as a gritty wartime noir. The 1890s, a darkly dry Holmesian affair. Spencer strikes the right chord on all of them, but it’s the speculative science fiction piece that is by far the most beguiling and engaging. Spencer comes up with a veritable future language to use – a code the reader has to crack, even as the central character cracks the mystery of her own circumstances. It’s disorienting in the right ways, and feels more robust than the other pieces. While the lead character in every piece has their own foibles, the actual future setting itself is more of a character alongside Detective Maplewood, and that makes for a fuller experience.
It’s also the most visually interesting, as it invents the most and employs the newly prominent talents of Tula Lotay, who we recently raved about in our review of “Supreme: Blue Rose” #1. If Roy Lichtenstein were still alive, he’d be frantically ripping pages out of Lotay’s books and cursing the sky while trying to appropriate all of it. Lotay’s art feels very “pop art” while still maintaining some wispiness around its edges. Though almost a half-century into the future, Lotay’s London is as sparse and dilapidated as any of the other stories’ cities. While there are some politics and current affair aspects to “Bodies”, Lotay’s future segment feels the most assured commentary in the book and it’s pretty darn subtle. Spencer’s future characters have lost their ways, in a manner of speaking, and Lotay gives their lost world character by taking some of the character out of it.
Continued belowMeghan Hetrick takes art duties on the 2014 London riot story. Her handsome, expressive approach is a clean and modern one. The sterility of the police force vs. the grit of the protesters comes across nicely. There’s an intentional feel of instability to the piece and Hetrick’s greatest contribution to that is in the sense of urgency she supplies.
Dean Ormston imagines 1890s London as a tightly buttoned formal world, with a dark, creepy and mysterious underbelly. As the tight-lipped inspector Hillinghead wanders the city at night, he confronts dirty deeds with a professionalism and seriousness characteristic of the time period. Ormston’s style employs a heavy dose of shadows to establish foggy London, and to lend a creepier air to some of the more unseemly aspects of the story’s events.
Finally, the reliable Phil Winslade tackles the 1940 period piece, which is really one of his specialties. Winslade has a terrific feel for the ornate and stylized noir sensibilities of the time period that comics so often seem enamored with depicting. Winslade, as most artists do, romanticize the period in a really satisfying way. Our enigmatic “protagonist” is handsome, clean cut, and well-dressed – hell, he might as well be Frank Sinatra, based on his appearance. But he holds a secret – one that Winslade clearly had a little bit of fun playing up.
Lee Loughridge colors the entirety of the deal, but rather than taking the Jordie Bellaire “Zero” approach, Loughridge comes up with a unique scheme for the different story segments. The highest compliment I can pay to Loughridge is that if some unspeakable thing should happen to Dave Stewart’s relationship with the Mignolaverse, god forbid, Loughridge could come in and ease the pain quite quickly. The 1890s segment might as well be Dave Stewart coloring Mignola, with the wide palette of moody browns, greys, and black and a sparser, extremely careful application of impactful red hues. Victorian London never looks as good as when it’s extremely grey and grim.
“Bodies” is a remarkable anthological piece of work from Si Spencer and company. It’s very few rough edges come directly from that piecemeal approach to storytelling, where every era is told in a decidedly different style. That imperfection should be embraced, because the comic medium itself is the place for experiments like this. And no matter the artist, the vision seems clear. Spencer clearly had some very specific notes and motifs that he wanted the artists to hit, and beyond the straight story itself, these motifs are fun for the reader to recognize and identify through multiple readings.
“Bodies” can be a number of things for the reader: a strong mystery story, a collection of individual stories (each one nearly as interesting as the next), or a deeply interconnected web of intrigue that exists for the reader to unlock. Whatever the case, “Bodies” certainly deserves to have eyes put on it.
Final Verdict: 8.7 – “Bodies” is a terrific experiment in interconnected collaboration, with a particularly gorgeous speculative take on the future.
