The Mechanicals

Southland Tales #3

by Richard Kelly, Brett Weldele (Illustrations)

July 2 2008. The search for Boxer Santaros has reached up into the highest levels of national security. His mother-in-law, Nana Mae Frost, is the wife of the Republican vice-presidential candidate... Texas senator Bobby Frost. Nana Mae is the former deputy director of the NSA, and she has recently been named head of US-Ident... a colossal think tank formed under the protection of the Patriot Act. Us-Ident has just opened its first surveillance facility in downtown Los Angeles, as the Republicans race to secure the state of California for the first time in many years. Meanwhile, Ronald Taverner has begun preparations for his role in a dangerous game of political extortion instigated by the neo-Marxists. He is haunted by a recurring dream that could unlock the key to a top secret scientific experiment.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Science Fiction, Sequential Art, Fiction, American

128 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2006

Reviews

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 4 out of 5]

...но в общем, конечно, такой Пинчон для очень-очень нищих. Келли напхал туда целую кучу всего, но ни мир, ни сюжет не склеились. увы

[Colton Hartzheim · Rating 5 out of 5]

binged the three graphic novels

these are the three graphic novel prequels to one of my fav movies. movie makes a bit more sense now… only a bit… i love it!

[furious · Rating 3 out of 5]

when i finished part 3, i said to myself, "well, that was cool. very weird, but cool. i can't wait to see what this crazy movie will be like so i can figure out just what the hell is going on." ha. joke's on me. it's about a million ideas in a million genres, exploding in your face like supersensory cultural bukkake, a million times a second. the movie is a like a hypersonic rollercoaster cannonball shot thru the neon bowels of the information superhighway. there is no "figuring it out," i don't think. the books have very cool art, i can say that for sure.

[Gilbert Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually terrific. Helps that Richard Kelly is one of my heroes, but the comic book format really suits him. Would love to see him expand upon Darko lore in a meaningful way (something cinema obviously can't do - See S. Darko) via comics.

Love the fact that I read this in close proximity to playing "Killer7", two works that utilize high sci fi to tell "galactic" tales of corrupt politics. Fun stuff.

[J Rudden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every entry in the prequel series drastically changed the way I thought about the movie, but this one really takes the cake. Finding out exactly what happened in Falujah made me shed a year. Well, time to rewatch the movie a third time.

[Romano]

A pesar de estar plagado de Technobabble, considero que ya me es más clara -al menos en una perspectiva superficial- la trama de Southland Tales de Richard Kelly...

[Emmet O'Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

The internet is the future, the future is just like you imagined

[Ben Nash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boxer's story continues as Krysta Now keeps feeding him her script to get ready for...something. The same broadly happens with Roland Taverner (or is it Ronald?). The Marxists and von Westphalen's gang continue on and we're introduced to Pilot Abiline. Through him, we get more of the history of Fluid Karma and the human experiments surrounding it and soldiers. We end out just before the point where the movie picks up.

Reading these three graphic novels was strange. I came from the movie, liking how it didn't quite make sense while still seeming like there was something deeper. It's full of fascinating weirdness. The graphic novels didn't deliver the same sort of experience. Instead, they together made a somewhat disjointed bit of backstory for the movie. I doubt anyone who hasn't already seen the movie would find much use for them.

On the plus side, I enjoyed the loose art style of the series. It was loose and at the same time visually called to the actors from the movie. Each volume ended with some production/promotional? material from the movie.

All in all, I'm not disappointed that I read them, but I'm glad they weren't any longer.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting.

I reserved reviewing and rating until I finished III, since, really, these function as one book.

Not sure how I missed this when it came around the first time. I am VERY curious to see how this plays out in Books IV, V, VI -- aka, the movie.

Honestly, anything involving Nicola Tesla's wacky work (wireless electricity: terrifying and intriguing, all at once), and I'm in.

Lots of fairly big-name stars in the flick (including Sarah Michelle Gellar -- I LOVE her -- as a psychic porn star). And yet, I never heard of it. Weird.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even having seen the movie, I'm still not entirely sure I grasp all the entangled plots, but this has some really interesting stuff that's not in the movie, so that was happy-making.

[Kyra · Rating 2 out of 5]

The introduction of the different storylines could be rather abrupt, which led to some “what is going on?” moments. The premise of the book was interesting, but the execution was lacking for me.

[Joseph Saborio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely need to see the movie again.

[Tanya Bea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Time to see how it all ends!

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad I was able to read these so soon after watching the film. Helped clarify many of the plot lines and character arcs.

[Cory · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh