Bad Reception

Bad Reception #1-5

by Juan Doe, Mike Marts (Editor)

It’s the celebrity wedding of the century, set in an undisclosed, remote location, with no access to wifi, cell phone reception or the outside world. But the dream wedding becomes a nightmare when, one by one, the guests are brutally slaughtered by a serial killer who brands his victims with a hashtag.

A searing horror story that doubles as a topical, satirical critique on society’s obsession with technology, social media and the cult of celebrity, BAD RECEPTION is written, drawn, colored and even lettered by AfterShock’s very own Juan Doe (DARK ARK, AMERICAN MONSTER, WORLD READER)!

Genres: Horror, Graphic Novels, Comics

120 pages, Paperback

First published December 30, 2020

About the author

Juan Doe is a professional illustrator with many years experience in the comic book industry. He has produced over 100 covers and his sequential highlights includes the Fantastic Four in Puerto Rico trilogy, The Legion of Monsters mini-series for Marvel and Joker’s Asylum: Scarecrow for DC. He is an avid traveler and splits his time between Tokyo and New York.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

The queen of social media and her fiancee get married on a remote island where they decide to take everyone's phone away. Her fiancee has written a book called "# Off the Grid" and they decide to live what he preaches for 24 hours. He's insufferable. Of course, now that everyone is stuck on the island, a killer starts murdering everyone in the reverse order of their social media presence. If this sounds like a TV show from about 10 years ago called Harper's Island, that's because it's the exact same plot.

Doe tried to make this a satire on social media and how they take over our lives. He made these characters all so unlikable and unbearable I couldn't wait for them to all die sooner. They droned on and on forever. Doe did all the creative work himself but he really should have hired an editor.

Doe's art has gotten better but there is an over-reliance on 2-page spreads. Reading it digitally was more horrific than the actual story. The entire 1st issue is 2-page layouts. You either have to reduce the art to half size to read the whole spread at once or keep scrolling back and forth between pages as you read it left to right, top to bottom.

Received a review copy from Aftershock and Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.

[Alexander Peterhans]

Had to stop reading this one, it's a lot of two-page spreads, which is a nightmare to read digitally, especially when the publisher insists on making the book only readable through Adobe Digital Editions (which scrolls as if the app is dipped in thick molasses).

And yes, I have noticed the irony in the book's title.

(Tried to read an ARC through Edelweiss)

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good-looking horror drama, where a pretentious thinker who wants us to go back to our pre-mobile days (and who has titled his book "#hashtagoffthegrid", which is clearly pronounced "hashtag hashtag" and is evidently bollux) and his wife-to-be arrange for lots of peculiar choices of people to be at their wedding, which will be in a place not even Elon Musk's gazillion satellites can link up. A place where someone is going to duly start taking them all out… I say it's good-looking as it's a sheer horror to read this digitally, for the great majority of it is double-page spreads, full of verbose conversations (yep, even with speech bubbles across the middle of what would count as the page-fold) and mucho to-and-fro, left-and-right scrolling. Seriously, if the horror doesn't sicken you (clue – it won't really) the thing will give you motion sickness. I guess that's only appropriate for the theme of the piece, that we stick to the analogue, mind. A reasonable modern bit of grand guignol, but boy – if the introduction features the sole creator kvetching at his year's workload, he might have cut a lot of the verbosity in his story. Three and a half stars, perhaps, mostly going on the style.

[K.S. Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to say the least. I read this digitally, and with the 2-page spread, I was confused until a quarter of the way through because I thought one page was it. I'd definitely prefer it in the normal, graphic novel form, reading a page at a time, and do not recommend reading this digitally.

I was provided a free, advanced copy of this book by Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A group of popular social media personalities go to a remote, destination wedding with no phone reception. One by one they are murdered off by mysterious killer who carves a hashtag into their bodies. It sounds incredibly hack (pun now intended) but it works. I don't think that Bad Reception is going to be remembered as a groundbreaking commentary on the ills of the digital age, but it holds its own as an incredibly stylish horror slasher. A must read for any genre fans.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

The layout and exposition in the first issue is dreadful, but if you push past it you're rewarded with a fun little horror story.

[Paul Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great art and a fun story. If only the zip line going both ways didn't bother me so.