Demo

Demo #1-2

by Brian Wood (Other), Becky Cloonan

C’est déjà compliqué d’être un ado... alors imaginez avec des pouvoirs !

Par le biais d’histoires courtes indépendantes, Demo raconte les chroniques de jeunes gens aux capacités extraordinaires qui vont devoir, chacun à leur manière, affronter l’amour, la joie, la perte et se frayer un chemin dans un monde où – à l'instar du nôtre – il ne fait pas bon être différent... Une photographie de la jeunesse actuelle où les superpouvoirs forment le prisme révélateur des préoccupations adolescentes.

Immense succès critique indépendant puis chez DC-Vertigo, ce chef-d’œuvre signé Brian Wood (The New York Four, The Massive) et Becky Cloonan (The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, Punisher), paraît aujourd’hui en France dans une édition définitive collectant l’intégralité de la série : soit 18 histoires courtes aux multiples genres narratifs et graphiques. Une véritable bible du comics indé !

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 7, 2015

About the author

Brian Wood's history of published work includes over fifty volumes of genre-spanning original material.

From the 1500-page future war epic DMZ, the ecological disaster series The Massive, the American crime drama Briggs Land, and the groundbreaking lo-fi dystopia Channel Zero he has a 20-year track record of marrying thoughtful world-building and political commentary with compelling and diverse characters.

His YA novels - Demo, Local, The New York Four, and Mara - have made YALSA and New York Public Library best-of lists. His historical fiction - the viking series Northlanders, the American Revolution-centered Rebels, and the norse-samurai mashup Sword Daughter - are benchmarks in the comic book industry.

He's written some of the biggest franchises in pop culture, including Star Wars, Terminator, RoboCop, Conan The Barbarian, Robotech, and Planet Of The Apes. He’s written number-one-selling series for Marvel Comics. And he’s created and written multiple canonical stories for the Aliens universe, including the Zula Hendricks character.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has a sneaking way of striking to the heart and somehow capturing the essence of grief, guilt, melancholy, regret, and loneliness, especially as it feels as a young adult. I would definitely rate this 4-5 stars if I liked short stories better (though this fulfills my desire for short stories to achieve a singular emotional effect or explore a single concept). I will admit that I picked this up mostly because the art is done by Becky Cloonan, and I was curious about her earlier work. The way in which she experiments, finds her own style, and improves as an artist is evident in this collection.

[Nate]

I couldn’t get into this. Demo consists of single issue stories about depressed young people with minor supernatural abilities. The stories are all dour and serious, full of angst and try-hard profundity. Becky Cloonan’s art is quite versatile and often striking, and I appreciate that Wood lets the art breathe by not overloading with text. However, the stories are too brief to leave any big impression, and again, they’re just so dour. This is my first Brian Wood comic and it doesn’t make me excited for more. I’m going to look up more of Cloonan’s stuff, though; her range of styles is really impressive.

[George Monenciu · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGYGI...

...where I introduce a nice collection of short stories that very much resemble "The Twilight Zone" and "Black Mirror" but in graphic novel format. Have a look! And Please Share and Subscribe!

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 1: 4 stars
Book 2: 3 stars

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Demo is a series of shorts focused on different characters. These are very relationship driven stories and I liked what a lot of them had to offer. Some definitely left me wanting to read more about the characters to find out what happened next. Others had a clear finality, but not in a disappointing way. Overall, I enjoyed this book. The art is all black and white. That is not a bad thing to me. There are points where the art is unclear as to what is happening though. I read the collected edition, which is good because I don't think I would have picked up the second volume otherwise and there are some excellent stories in that half. As much as I appreciated the concept as a whole, and some stories in particular, there were others that didn't work for me. I recommend checking it out if you like short, character driven stories.

[DonJulio · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Dix-huit histoires touchantes et magnifiques autour des vies complexes de jeunes gens dotés de facultés exceptionnelles. Les tranches de vie mises en scène dans Demo sont des odes à la connaissance de soi dans un monde terrorisé par la différence."

De beaux dessins avec parfois du pur style manga et quelques superbes planches.
Différents niveaux de lecture de chacune de ces histoires, ce qui leur donne un tour plus complexe que de simples histoires d'ados paumés. Les thèmes abordés par le truchement des "pouvoirs" amènent ainsi le lecteur à avoir un autre regard sur la vie, les relations, le handicap.

Le Volume 2 est assez en deçà par contre.

[Amina]

The graphic novel Demo by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan is a bunch of short stories about teenagers who can't get a hold of their lives. There were three elements that were effective in this book. The first one is it shows the reality. People think that being a teenager is easy, but in reality it isn't. The book illustrates how a teenager's life is when they're in the middle of being a child and an adult. The second element it portrays is that being yourself is okay. In the book, the teenagers are living in a world where being different is feared. At the end of each story, it has the same theme which is, being different is not that bad. Last but not least, it catches the reader's attention quickly. The drawings are well done and in depth that the reader could feel so close to the characters. Everyone who likes comics should read this book because it's the best one yet.

[Au Contraire · Rating 3 out of 5]

i love Brian Wood but this is too much of a mixed bag writing-wise, and i'm not a fan of Becky Cloonan's art. i don't regret getting and reading it though - i think i'll come back to some of these stories.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I originally read this as two separate volumes in paperback. Both Wood and Cloonan have improved over time, but there are still good stories here.