Subgenre

by Matt Kindt, Wilfredo Torres (Illustrator), Bill Crabtree (Colorist)

From the New York Times bestselling creators of BANG! comes a mind-bending, multi-dimensional murder mystery presented in a pulp magazine-sized format!

A man is living two lives. He is a private detective in a dystopian cyberpunk future trying to solve a triple murder. But when he falls asleep—he wakes up as a wandering adventurer in a barbaric fantasy world where magic exists. Is he two separate people? Or is he a third person that has undergone a psychotic split? He jumps back and forth from sword-wielding barbarian to jaded private eye trying to solve the brutal crime. But the bigger question is, can he merge these realities without losing himself?

Subgenre is the latest release from Flux House Books, a new boutique imprint that will feature the writing (and sometimes) art of acclaimed comics creator Matt Kindt, with crime, science fiction, horror, and humor stories, all told and presented in startling and untraditional ways.

Collects Subgenre #1–#4.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Cyberpunk

120 pages, Hardcover

Published July 9, 2024

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of worldbuilding in this one, or should I say worldSbuilding!? Fictional people from fictional realities turn out not to be that fictional, they seem to want to escape those aformentioned fictional realities, and that turns out not be too healthy for our real realities.

Thing is, it sounds more interesting than it is in the book - it doesn't really do anything surprising or very interesting with it. The main character V comes to a realisation about himself, and I just found it hard to care.

Kindt has some fun with characters jumping between his earlier works, and because of that has some fun with the comic's formatting, but you get the feeling that Kindt thinks it's all a lot smarter than it actually seems to me.

The last page of the book is supposedly written by an AI that Kindt entered words and phrases into and I want to meet the reader who believes that's true.

(Thanks to Dark Horse Books for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)

[Wolky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ending a graphic novel well is the hardest part, and this story ends well I thought.
I'm disinterested by the idea that cultures and narratives shouldn't mix. So the climactic explanation wasn't to my taste. The diversity of art style was impressive, and the idea of a writer genuinely leaving their own world is original. That the primary reality is the male protagonist of every lit fic having a crisis took the originality down a bit for me. But it was well balanced by the execution.

[Alex Sarll]

A cyberpunk detective in the first issue becomes a barbarian warrior in the second; it's not a new idea, with the one good episode of Westworld's third series among the obvious examples. But that's not to say it can never be done again, especially when other versions save one from having to watch the rest of Westworld's third series. This has problems of its own, though; Torres' art is reasonably good at selling the different realities, but not on a par with Snyder and Manapul's similarly themed Clear, and held back by insufficient variation in the tastefully muted colour palettes. Kindt's script pokes at big issues – AI art, IP hoarding, the various definitions of escapism – but never seems to end up with much to say about them. The various meta references to his own previous work might have been more satisfying if I'd read more of them, but I was amused at the balls of revealing the whole story to be the real story behind Wold Newton, which of course was already sold as the real story behind the pulp heroes it appropriated. Maybe somewhere out in the multiverse there's a world where this wasn't less than the sum of its parts.

[Glenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comic series “about” P.K.Verve, Kindt’s “Dickian” sci-fi hack who appears in his other books as a side character but who takes center stage here as he genre-jumps between various realities. It’s imaginative and fun in a “spot the Kindt cross-reference” way but in the end I’m not sure I get the point. It’s territory that King has explored before (“Revolver” was more of a success). 3.5 rounded up because I like the art.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Going for a bit too much concept. A series where every issue is a different genre with these same characters could be fun. Maybe I’m simple.

[Jesse A · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not loving this from the usually reliable Kindt.

[Rick Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

A private detective takes on a case involving a triple homicide and follows the breadcrumbs all the way into an alternate dimension featuring a medieval/barbarian fantasy setting. The mystery spirals into more than just a whodunnit as he tries to unscramble reality itself. A play on varying genre tropes, it's clear Matt Kindt was trying to have fun with this one as he flexes some comedic chops but overall I can't say much of the intrigue held for me beyond the first issue. Some solid artwork from Wilfredo Torres and Bill Crabtree makes this somewhat enjoyable, but overall Subgenre is an entirely forgettable work from Kindt.

[H. Givens · Rating 3 out of 5]

A metafictional multiverse story would have to be pretty incredible for me to like it at this point. I didn't like most of them to start with because it's usually lazy writing that sounds pretentious (looking at you, Grant Morrison), and now they're a dime a dozen. But I do like that this resolves questions I had about Folklords in a satisfying way, so I kind of came around at the end and added an extra star, and it improves Folklords in retrospect for me.

[Stewart · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uninteresting Philip K. Dick-esque metafiction that goes nowhere and says nothing that hasn't been said before, and better. Where earlier works like Mind Mgmt and Ether were brilliant deconstructions/recontextualizations with great writing and plotting, this is just dull and corny.

This might be where I really tap out on Kindt's stuff for good.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

A meta story about a private detective who then starts jumping into a fantasy world and back. You can tell that Kindt thinks this is way more clever than it is. It had a hard time holding my interest.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

A better take on Kindt’s Verge character than Bang was but this one also doesn’t stick the landing. It did at least feel more like it justified its existence with a couple interesting thematic ideas and the art was very fun.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another weird Kindt book.

This one features a detective in the future that is also a Conan the Barbarian-like warrior . . . or is he just schizophrenic?

The art is great but the story was . . . lacking. Kindt didn’t stick the landing on this one.

[Jason Pollard · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

Really fun, mind-bending stuff! Wish it was a little longer to build out the world & ideas some more, but what's there is cool. Thanks to Dark Horse & PRH for the DRC!

[Jonathan Roberts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really sure what happened in this book. It was interesting to look at but story wise I didn’t love it

[Al Capwned · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't care at all about anything in this comic and I will probably forget it by tomorrow.

[Ma'Belle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Definitely recommended for readers already familiar with Matt Kindt's previous major works such as Mind MGMT and Revolver. It gets pretty meta and personal.