Spectators

by Brian K. Vaughan, Niko Henrichon (illustrator)

A gripping and provocative graphic novel that takes a hard look at sex and violence, and the very different ways we obsessively watch both.

Hundreds of years in the future, New York City is haunted by many ghosts, including a voyeuristic woman who died in our present day and a mysterious gun-toting man from the distant past. Normally solo travelers, these two specters meet and travel around the world together, bearing witness to society's forward march toward decay.

Readers won't be able to look away as they watch with dark fascination how SPECTATORS explores the fine line between living and watching others live. Explicitly sexy and shockingly violent, this lavishly hand-painted epic is a thought-provoking, metaphysical masterpiece and the most ambitious collaboration yet between Pride of Baghdad artist Niko Henrichon and Saga writer Brian K. Vaughan.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Science Fiction, Fiction, Horror, Graphic Novels Comics, Dystopia

344 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2025

About the author

Brian K. Vaughan is the writer and co-creator of comic-book series including SAGA, PAPER GIRLS, Y THE LAST MAN, RUNAWAYS, and most recently, BARRIER, a digital comic with artist Marcos Martin about immigration, available from their pay-what-you-want site www.PanelSyndicate.com

BKV's work has been recognized at the Eisner, Harvey, Hugo, Shuster, Eagle, and British Fantasy Awards. He sometimes writes for film and television in Los Angeles, where he lives with his family and their dogs Hamburger and Milkshake.

Reviews

[Krystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's no Saga but it's still a fun read that gives you a lot to think about - particularly with the current state of the world.

The story is a ghostly observation of a dystopian future, in which the world is on the brink of collapse. Two voyeuristic ghosts form a friendship as they explore the world in its current state, providing an interesting reflection on sex and violence.

There's plenty of kinky stuff and there's plenty of violence, and between the two it makes for a really intriguing story that asks why some things are taboo and others not. It's honest and frank about the nature of humans and it's a somewhat depressing view.

I enjoyed the way this made me think. I'm trying to be a little more open-minded when it comes to sex in media (I've always been quite a prude about it, so this kind of story hits its target audience with me) and this made me appropriately uncomfortable. At the same time, I enjoyed the challenge it put forth and how cleverly it did so.

The artwork is fun, creating depth and beauty when needed and laying the story out in clever panels. The narrative was easy to follow and the art definitely complemented the story. This was a brilliant use of the medium - a novel of this story wouldn't hit nearly as hard as this did with the visual accompaniment.

This won't be for everyone, but I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a sci-fi take on sex vs violence.

With thanks to Image Comics for an ARC

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spectators by Brian K. Vaughan is a truly unique read, captivating despite its seemingly simple premise: two ghosts, one a victim of a mass shooting, the other of a bizarre sexual mishap, simply chatting.

The book kicks off with a bang (literally). A woman, bored at the movies, starts scrolling porn and is about to masturbate when a gunman opens fire, killing everyone. Years later, as a ghost, she encounters a cowboy-esque figure, and their unlikely conversation begins.

Their discussions, spanning from childhood traumas and sexual awakenings to politics and favorite movies, offer a somber yet insightful walk through life's fleeting moments. It's a testament to the power of everyday talk, set against the backdrop of humanity's twilight. This out-of-this-world premise largely succeeds due to its focus on the intimate, human connection.

While I found the middle section could occasionally drag, with some conversations feeling like filler, these moments are thankfully infrequent.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Spectators and would highly recommend it to anyone seeking a truly different and thought-provoking reading experience.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd meditation on voyeurism, mass murder, and the goofy double standard of Americans when it comes to our attitudes toward the depiction of sex and violence in the media.

Of course the book is filled with graphic sex and violence, with the sex sure to outrage someone at some point while the violence will go unremarked. So in many ways, its a stunt, an attempt to prove a point.

Big picture aside, this is mostly the story of two people forming a bond as they carry on a conversation over a couple of days. They come to like each other, just as I came to like both of them.


Disclosure: I received access to a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.com.

[Jenbebookish · Rating 2 out of 5]

*Read 08•28•2025

2 stars.
>
>>
>>>
>>>>
What in the holy orgy hells did I just read?
<<<<
<<<
<<
<
So I expect many others will have come to "Spectators" bc of the name, same as me. The name Brian K. Vaughn carries some serious weight in the comic world; he's seemingly the King Midas of comics as he seems destined to come out with pure gold time & time again. One has quite the bevy of works from which to have come from; BKV has a very diverse catalog, so he inevitably attracts a wide range of readers. One might've come searching for more BKV after reading some of his oldie-but-a-goodies, like Ex Machina or Y: Last Man Standing, both GREAT series that are years old but continue to be recommended & read to this day. Or you could go even older to his earliest work & have picked up one of his Batman titles. (Not likely since it's generally agreed upon that it's not his best stuff) Or of course one might've read some of his Marvel stuff like Runaways, X-men, The Hood or Doctor Strange's famous "The Oath." He also did a fun Marvel Knight's mini series called "Logan" which is less well known but adored by many of those who have read it. His standalones are certainly prospects, as they are very beloved (by me but by many others as well;) The Private Eye, We Stand on Guard, or [my personal favorite] The Pride of Baghdad! But the most likely contenders are no doubt his most recent works, either the popular sci fi hit "Paper Girls," or his newest, most well known, well loved series "Saga," another sci fi hit that is still ongoing to this day despite peaking with it's audience a while back.

So as one can see, Brian K. Vaughn is a name that means something, & obviously especially so to a fan like me who has loved every thing I have read from him, & really reeeally loved a few of those too. To me it’s essentially a stamped guarantee! So when I came across "Spectators” on Netgalley I immediately requested it, tho I was forced to wait weeks & weeks for approval, receiving it only as we got much closer to the release date.

I made the mistake of not doing any research before automatically assuming I would want to read it solely because it was BKV. Had I looked into it—even a little—I probably still would’ve tried it, but I would’ve gone in more cautiously & more importantly, more aware. I had no idea going into this that this was going to be a “raunchy” read—not that that would have deterred me—but I would have adjusted my expectations accordingly bc the cover had led me to believe it would be a Western, or at the very least Western-esque. Come to find it’s not only not a western, but it isn’t even Western-esque & the only Western-ish thing ‘Spectators’ had going for it was the outfit of one of the Spectators….yeah, I was definitely disappointed. Some kind of Western from BKV sounded fabulous & what we got instead was so….not.

Things started out decently, our MC was a slightly-past-her-prime single girl still f’ing around on dating apps with losers that would stand her up & leave her sitting alone in a movie theater when she & her fellow movie goers would clock some loud noise they’d all mistake for the movie next door…that is until some war vet spoke up & insisted that the sound was real live ammunition, which he of course recognized bc he’d fought in wars, & so on and so on. People were slow on the uptake & just dubious about it all until some dumb ass kid playing violent video game but irl came in and started shooting up the whole theater, taking no prisoners, not even our just-got-stood-up-heroine who mind you had just been….masturbating to porn in the theater? (Yeah, you heard that right. Chickadee for some reason took her being stood up as a reason to just say fuck it, & turn on some porn on her phone in the middle of the movie theater and randomly start going to town on her bean.)

BUT THEN…. low and behold our girl is just another blood bath for the shooter to joyfully shoot into, only she raises up out of her body dressed like a 90’s Nirvana groupie & becomes ghostie girl? And she runs into other ghostie girls and boys from all the various generations & eras & she quickly stops caring about the fact that she just died and starts manic pixie dream nympho-ing it up with cowboy ghostie and then they float around and….watch people fuck?

Yep. That’s what happens. They main plot tho is that they are out there floating around looking for a threesome for some godforsaken reason? There’s some sort of commentary about the state of the world, and sex I guess but whatever it is is buried underneath all the pointless wanna-be-cute dialoguing & gratuitous sex scenes. I mean if you’re into the cartoon sex thing this is probably up your alley, but for the rest of us who picked this up expecting your typical Brian K. Vaughn storytelling, the cartoon dicks and vags(vages?) somehow just don’t make up for the lack of plot, or the lack of anything interesting happening like, at all.

I’m sorry BKV but it’s just sooo bad. Like terrible atrocious bad. The “spectators” are pretty unlikable and just plain weird and creepy, everything went on way way too long, as in they could have cut out like at least half of their floating around & saying dumb sh*t, & the ending is anticlimactic. I thought maybe if the world ended it could get at least a little bit interesting? And it seemed like it was going that direction but it never made it there so the ONE thing that coulda bumped this up a star was notably MIA.

Brian, my dude, wtf were you thinking?? Is this just horny nerd can’t contain his horniness and makes a whole graphic novel about orgies so he can draw lots of mushroom tips & twat slits & lotsa lotsa lotsa oral?! You could have just drawn the damn thing and not gotten it published! See how far a name will take you?? This is evidence, once a name becomes a popular or “famous” name, the name can do whatever the f they want and dumb asses like me will read it.

The two stars are bc the art was good/cute, sometimes even really cute, but sadly the pictures are the only good thing about Spectators so don’t read this, save yourself the time… it’s bullsh*t, it’s garbage, it’s boring, unless you’re a dude who has cartoon jerk off seshes, this whole thing has nothing to offer you. Why did I finish this you ask? Who knows. I think I was hoping interesting things might eventually happen, but happen they did….not.

Or wait, at one point they run into Teddy Roosevelt who is of course my favorite president, so that was mildly entertaining but then of course they had to leave him in order to keep looking for the elusive menage a trois! It’s all just very nonsensical and ridiculous and a complete waste of time.

[Michael J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before I comment on SPECTATORS there are two matters of significance I wish to point out:

1) This is mature, adult-oriented content with explicit sex scenes and extreme depictions of violence. If that material is too sensitive to some, please don't read the book.

2) If he never writes anything again, Brian K. Vaughan has already established himself as a legend among comics creators. A visionary. A master story-teller. Crafting tales that are always thoughtful and often provocative. Prime examples of that, and my favorites by him, are Y THE LAST MAN, EX MACHINA, and SAGA. If you need more evidence of that, also check out RUNAWAYS, PRIDE OF BAGHDAD, and PAPER GIRLS.

Granted, there has often been a fair amount of sex and violence in Vaughan's previous works - - but never to this extent. As I read, I often thought that there was more than necessary. This graphic novel could easily be 100 pages shorter and still make its points. However, it appears that sex and violence are a vital part of the points that Vaughan wants to make or hint at.

In short, this is the story of two unlikely-to-become-friends (but they do) individuals who experience the afterlife and share their observations and reflections on the human condition, eventually experiencing the end of the world.

Throughout my reading, I kept hearing the opening lines of the song that begins every episode of television's animated FAMILY GUY sit-com: "It seems today . . . that all you see . . . is violence in movies . . . and sex on t.v." Perhaps that is Vaughans underlying theme - - we have become a country/planet of voyeurs, obsessed with observing violent behavior and sex acts. Is the rise of the film industry a catalyst for this? It might seem so.

Read this, if my warnings don't scare you off, and judge for yourself. I'm planning to return to this and do an even deeper dive and look for those scenes that drive these points home. Or, maybe have an entirely different opinion - since I've over the shock and awe from the first reading.

Keep watching this space.

P.S. . . Thanks to Image Comics and Captain Blue Hen Comics (Newark, Delaware) for sharing an advance review copy with me, without obligation.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This didn’t make me feel good about the future … but it did make me think. And that’s why all books are important.

[Anna Quilter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really not sure what to make of this...
At times I felt it was being provocative for the sake of being provocative...especially during explicit sex scenes.
in turns funny and horrifying...it just threw too much at me...hoping for some hits..

[Sonja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graphic novel about spectral beings being voyeurs to violence and intimate relations, there is much dialogue about how violence is more visually accepted than sex. Interesting ideas, will not be for everyone. Artwork does not shy away from being vivid, so read and look at your discretion.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Alex Sarll · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Brian Vaughan announced he was going to be doing a free comic about sex and violence, with art from his Pride Of Baghdad collaborator Niko Henrichon (and if you know that graphic novel, you'll know why the newsletter in which they published it was called Exploding Giraffe), it was very much a 'where do I sign?' offer. Since then it's been a long, strange, and yes, frequently explicit ride. More than anything, though, a melancholy one. After the early chapters, only ghosts are in colour, the strange future in which they find themselves rendered in monochrome – a decision which obviously suggests The Wizard Of Oz or A Matter Of Life And Death, even as the story goes to places neither of them would have been able to touch. That greyness aside, the future is...well, lonely, often, and sometimes brutal, but also filled with the sort of incredible yet everyday technology we used to expect from our futures, so between that and the fact it's there at all, not utterly flooded and/or burned, these days I'd call it utopian, despite the way events start trending. And in a sense it's pretty utopian to have top comics creators willingly giving away a whole series for free; part of me suspects it will read considerably better collected than it did trickling out as two or three pages a week. But, much like the people it follows, I'm not brilliant with that level of deferred gratification. Although I'd debate how representative those characters are; at one stage, with another apparent apocalypse looming for the living, one ghost says to another how she enjoys watching the living get horny at times like this: "whenever the general population is unexpectedly confronted with their own mortality, they always return to the same thing". Which...either there are some significant exceptions to that rule, or a lot of people have been having a significantly more entertaining 2020s than me; thus far, this feels like it's been a much better decade for violence than sex. But then they so often are, aren't they? We talk about the world's oldest profession, but organisms that reproduce asexually still prey, so surely violence has been around longer, and all these eons later it remains so much easier to destroy than to create. And somehow so much easier to get our heads around, too: as one ghost says, "I probably had a few thousand orgasms in my life, and I still struggle to remember what a single one of them felt like. But I'll never forget exactly how it felt to get shot to death." Something which then ends up in a feedback loop with our cultural mores, so many places finding sex more taboo than violence, even though one is where almost all of us come from and the other is much more to be avoided. The existence of incel killing sprees has clearly influenced aspects of the plot, but unlike all the chuckleheads happy to blame the nasty interwebs for everything, Spectators knows the roots go back longer; the emotional core of the whole comic, I think, is in a particular scene with a VHS tape which, given Vaughan is about the same age as me, I strongly suspect could be autobiographical. And against those centuries of destructive conditioning, here he does his own small part to push back, with a sometimes strangely heartwarming tale of two ghosts just trying to find a threesome to spy on at the end of the world.
--------------
Rereading almost in one sitting, thanks to Image having finally come back to Netgalley (oh joyous day), though whether this included the new spreads BKV has mentioned, I honestly couldn't say. Perhaps that just means they're very well integrated – though I did notice one page was duplicated in the ARC, even if that did make its grumpy cat even funnier. Certainly the themes and the symmetry come through more clearly this way, and I'm still more impressed at the worldbuilding for how much it stays in the background. A really impressive piece of work, and one I hope endures as it deserves, though the very forces it examines which will militate against its presence in libraries &c already seem stronger than five months ago.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was good! Spectators doesn't break any new ground or offer super new insights into voyeurism and alienation (specifically in the digital age), but it is a well-conceived comic book that presents its concepts in an interesting way. I really dig the spectral spectator-idea (funnily enough, a term paper I wrote on It Follows was titled "Specters & Spectators" lol), the characters are pretty fun and the plot's flow is as smooth as butter, making for a very enjoyable reading experience. I'm a big Brian K. Vaughan fan and he hasn't yet missed for me.

What can I say, it's a solid one-shot and I don't think you'd be disappointed by it!

- ARC provided by NetGalley -

[Lukasz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

This is definitely a “for mature readers” kind of story with lots of graphic sex, violence, and provocative moments. It follows ghosts of a voyeuristic gal and a cryptic gunslinger as they observe the slow-motion apocalypse of a world. It also leans into something more introspective than other Vaughan’s stories. Basically, it shows how obsessed people are with watching tragedy and pleasure from a safe distance.

The story isn’t super plot-heavy, and the pacing is more about vibe than momentum. But it’s readable as hell, and Vaughan knows exactly when to yank the rug out. Henrichon’s hand-painted art is often stunning.

It’s not my favorite Vaughan book, but it’s ambitious and different and I respect that. Is it worth checking out? Dunno, you tell me. If graphic sex and violence don’t disturb you, check this one out.

[Suki J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Image Comics and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.25 stars.

A woman from the present, the victim of a terrible cinema massacre, enters the afterlife and meets a gun-toting man from the past as they watch all the awful things happening to the world in the future.
This is provocative, explicitly sexy, and incredibly violent. It examines human voyeurism in a thought-provoking way that made for compelling reading.
Loved the story and loved the art.

[Ben A · Rating 4 out of 5]

The kind of bonkers ideas you come to expect from a Brian K. Vaughn book filled with sex and violence and also fascinating concepts and interesting commentary on the world that we live in now through the prism of supernatural science fiction. It doesn't quite reach the highest levels of some of his past work, but it's pretty darn good.

Special Thanks to Image Comics and Netgalley for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.

[Bryan Fischer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a WILD book. There is a ton of gratuitous nudity and violence throughout the whole book. But as you read more and more, you’ll find that those are really just distractions from the main themes of the book.

I feel like I could/should write a scholarly paper on this book, which is a pro and a con. It talks about themes of gender roles, sexuality, pop culture, history, politics, etc etc. It really hits on a ton of points, some more subtly than others. Sometimes it was a bit too on the nose or in your face, but generally it was fun to read. The book is essentially a conversation between 2 very different people on the surface, and the dialogue is very well written. I think that’s why I flew through this book so fast. The plot/story of the world kind of just goes on in the background a lot of times, which was interesting.

The artwork was really great too. Looked to me like a combination of watercolour and coloured pencil. I liked the stylistic choices throughout, from the colouring (or lack thereof) to the framing/shot size to the facial expressions.

Thanks to NetGalley and Image Comics for this ARC!

[Rory Wilding · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a subgenre in fiction that touches upon the afterlife, in which those who have died are left to wander as ghostly figures to witness what is going on in the living world. The most popular of these stories may be the 1990 film Ghost, where Patrick Swayze plays a restless soul who sets out to save his living girlfriend, played by Demi Moore. That film is specifically referenced in the new graphic novel by Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon, Spectators, in which one character refers to their current situation as pretty much the opposite of Ghost.

Please click here for my full review.

[Jillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This graphic novel was fantastic! I devoured it in one sitting and couldn’t look away.

The female protagonist, Val, dies near our present day and becomes a ghostly specter.
Centuries later in the future, she spends her time drifting among the living, drawn to watching violence, sex, and sensational content. She eventually meets Sam, a man from a time before hers, just as the world edges toward nuclear fallout and an end-of-days scenario.

The artwork is beautiful and haunting, using a mix of black-and-white and color to distinguish between the different spiritual planes. The story is so over the top that you almost become desensitized to things like one of the side characters being naked all the time. At its core, though, it’s a sharp commentary on modern society, current politics, and a not-so-distant possible future.

As an elder millennial, I felt like this was made just for me. The main character is probably around my age, and her first encounter with an R-rated movie was uncannily similar to my own.

I loved this and will be thinking about it for a long time. I’ll be recommending it to anyone even remotely interested.

Plot:5/5
Writing: 5/5
Art :5/5
My Enjoyment: 5/5

*** I received an ARC and am voluntarily leaving my honest review.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Image Comics for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This graphic novel gives an explicit, in-your-face experience of all kinds of voyeurism, along with the pursuit of happiness and pleasure in an increasingly violent world. It is heavy on nudity, sexual content and violence so please take that into account if you are interested in reading this.

I have enjoyed previous works by Brian K Vaughan (Saga and Runaways), and was delighted to be given the chance to read this as a ARC. It did not disappoint! The art style was not my favourite (there was not a huge variety in people's shapes and sizes which really bothered me), though I loved how it was coloured. In fact, I was very impressed by the use of colour and its absence to represent different planes of existence.

Overall I'm not sure that this was quite as profound as it intended to be, but it is a great stand-alone work.

[mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

So… I knew this graphic novel was going to be explicit, and I was fine with that, I mean, I’ve read Saga and it also has those kinds of scenes. BUT, I didn’t expect it to be this much. And honestly, it does make sense given the plot and the dynamic between the main characters. Still, I felt like in several parts the conversations just went in circles and ended up… nowhere. It’s not that every dialogue between the main characters has to be super meaningful, but I was expecting more than just that.

The story clearly had a lot of potential, but instead of exploring it, it felt like the focus leaned too heavily on the explicit content. And while I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, it did feel like a missed opportunity to add more depth and substance to the narrative.

As for the ending, I don’t know... it felt kinda poetic, which I appreciated, but at the same time I wish they had given us more details about a subplot that was actually really important, because it basically sets up the whole finale. Overall, it was promising, but it just didn’t deliver as much as it could have. For me obvsly.

My final rating is 2.5. It honestly kinda hurts to give it this score because I had much higher hopes. The concept and the potential were there, but the execution just didn’t click for me.

[Chaunceton Bird · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely recommend this for fans of explicit media. If a budding friendship and the exploration of human relations against the backdrop of gun violence, mass casualty incidents, and no-holds-barred sex is your thing, you'll dig this one. It pushes the envelope, so I'm a fan. If at any point in your life you have clutched pearls, this one's probably not for you.

[Marjorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely illustrations and a super interesting premise! A bit wordier than I like my graphic novels but all the dirty drawings made up for it :)

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dont read this if people are behind you.

[Xroldx · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since Saga has been dragging a bit it's nice to read a new Vaughan title that's actually finished and as or even more provoking than Saga and Y the Last Man.
There's an interesting theme and the creators execute it very well.
I did watch Terminator immediately after finishing this book.

[alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars, rounded up. Vaughan introduces some really solid ideas here - apocalypse stories are certainly timely, and I appreciated the commentary on human nature and voyeurism, in which the reader is cleverly implicated - but ultimately there were too many dropped or neglected threads for this to rate any higher.

And although the nudity, sex, and violence were all necessary, Henrichon's illustrations still manage to feel gratuitous, at least on the first two fronts. I appreciated the (seamless, unremarked-upon!) inclusion of a trans character, but apart from that sole eleventh-hour development, every naked body shared the same silhouette. Perhaps if the nudity hadn't been so homogeneous, it might not have felt so... porn-ified? Exploitative? Boring?

I wasn't offended - if you're the type, Spectators is probably not for you - but I was definitely left wanting more.

Thanks to NetGalley and Image Comics for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Bertazzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's like Before Sunrise but with orgies, mass murder and ultimately apocalypse. Loved it.

[Tintaglia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Duecento anni dopo esser stata vittima di una strage in un cinema, Val continua a vagare per il mondo come spirito, spiando l'umanità mentre si avvia sempre più rapidamente verso la catastrofe definitiva.
Sesso e violenza sono insieme la causa e la reazione istintiva alla paura collettiva, e Val li osserva, impossibilitata ad agire, come tutti gli altri fantasmi che si muovono insieme a lei, fra cui un misterioso cowboy.
Solitudine, violenza, violenza nata dalla solitudine, impossibilità di agire; non c'è speranza in questa graphic novel.
Detto questo, io la profondità e l'innovazione me le sono perse.
L'unica netta impressione è che Vaughan abbia voluto caricare i due ingredienti principali per scioccare e sconvolgere il lettore - cosa che con me ha funzionato come al solito, annoiandomi a morte.
Ma non ho trovato profondità né nei personaggi, né nell'analisi di quello che sta facendo precipitare il mondo verso la fine; l'unico spunto interessante è come lo sparatore faccia parte di una sorta di movimento incel che vede nelle stragi precedenti un tetto di morti da superare, e come questo gruppo sia responsabile, in un costante crescendo, di attentati sempre più feroci duecento anni dopo. Forse è solo questa inarrestabilità della violenza, nata e nutrita nell'emarginazione di soggetti isolati se non per il web, l'unico elemento di vero interesse.
Ho trovato in compenso interessante come molti recensori della ARC su Netgalley dichiarassero di esser rimasti infastiditi dall'abbondanza di scene di sesso (che sì, sono tante, varie e probabilmente sfondano il limite della pornografia), ma nessuno abbia speso una parola sull'altrettanto esplicita violenza. Trovo affascinante come il sesso disturbi più della violenza, per quanto esplicita.

[autumn]

I've chosen not to rate this, because I did not finish it, and think I am not the intended audience for it.

Thank you to NetGalley & Image Comics for an eARC of this graphic novel. All opinions are my own.

DNF @ 25%

I suppose the fault is my own, for not reading the description more closely. I was aware that this was 'erotic' but I have no experience in erotica in the form of graphic novel, and for some reason was not expecting the content to be so *graphic* (jokes on me). For me there was just way too much nudity in the actual images themselves for me to enjoy this, while the storyline to that point was actually pretty engaging and interesting, I just don't think I'm the right fit for this one.

I think a better audience would be those more comfortable with images of a graphic nature, both in the context of sexual imagery & gratuitous violence.

[Síle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Brian K. Vaughan and Image Comics for giving me access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

Spectators is one wild ride. I went in knowing it would push boundaries, but holy hell! This was even more unfiltered than I expected. Everyone is very naked, the apocalypse is in full swing, and ghosts roam freely across the chaos.

It’s visually striking and unapologetically bold, blending end-of-the-world survival with heavy doses of spectacle and social commentary. I’m still not entirely sure what I just witnessed, but it was a strange, provocative, and oddly fun reading experience.

This isn’t a story that holds your hand. It demands you sit with the discomfort, the absurdity, and the constant stream of explicit imagery. And if you’re up for that, it’s a fascinatingly messy piece of work.

[Jessica Stueber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spectators
By Brian K. Vaughan
Illustrated by: Niko Henrichon
Image Comics
3.5⭐️
3 🌶️

🔘Thriller
🔘Erotica
🔘Sci Fi

This graphic novel/manga comic is very different from your average book. It was fun and very creatively laid out.

It begins with a single girl in a movie theater that gets murdered by an active shooter. She makes friends with another ghost. The story takes place as she floats around in what appears to be purgatory, “watching” the living.The world appears to be very violent with a lot of death occurring and very promiscuous as sexual acts occur throughout. The graphics make the story more intriguing and even comedic. I wish the ending had been solidified as it leaves you wanting more.

Thank you to Image Comics and Net Galley for providing me an advanced e-book copy in exchange for my honest review.

Tropes:
🔪 Violence
☠️ Death
🩸Dystopia
🪫Ghosts

[CadmanReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was planning this review, I thought I'd include the line "it puts the graphic in graphic novel," only to discover that's exactly how my local comic shop described it too, and honestly, they're spot on. Spectators is definitely not for younger readers or the faint of heart. It's bold, explicit, and unapologetically NSFW.

The story dives deep into the nature of voyeurism, pushing the idea to new and provocative levels. Vaughan explores how we watch, consume, and judge others, blurring the line between observer and participant. It's full of sex, violence, and moral tension, but beneath the shock factor, there's a sharp commentary on obsession and the human desire to see and be seen.

Visually, it's stunning. The art amplifies both the intensity and intimacy of the story, making it impossible to look away even when things get uncomfortable.

Spectators is daring, thought-provoking, and at times confronting. It's exactly what you'd expect from Brian K. Vaughan at his most fearless.

[Matt Quann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exceedingly sexual and violent, Spectators is another ultra compelling yarn spun by Brian K Vaughan. This graphic novel deserves a dossier of trigger warnings, but I will say that almost all the explicit content is delivered in an impactful way. This is to say that it isn’t just gore or porn for the sake of it.

I do feel that a second read (it’s relatively quick!) would elucidate some of the thematic points more effectively. I’m also an incredible fan of BKV’s dialogue, which forms the bulk of the “story” here as opposed to the near-apocalypse that happens in the background.

Very cool adult GN!