Anemic Bloodstream
Knowing of
my
strange
fascination
with
Bloodstream,
Johanna Draper Carlson kindly sent me the first issue of the
series.
Based on the solicitation copy for later issues, I had hoped that the
comic might provide similar unintentional humor. Unfortunately,
the book is just flat-out bad. Johanna covered many of the book's
problems in
her
review, but here is a short list of my own complaints:
- Why does Vic suddenly look a lot sleazier (if not like a completely different character) starting on page
four? (I think it's because he's suddenly wearing shades and his
hair has gotten longer in back.)
- Isn't it a bad idea to be seen openly in the location where
you're abducting your test subjects?
- What kind of doctor would attribute the survival of one test
subject injected with a "synthetic blood substitute" to a feisty
personality? "Based on your reaction to the medication, I can see
that you're a Pisces!"
- Why use restraints that don't really restrain your subject?
(Ah, that's right: Because you want to depict her writhing
around.)
- I had to go back and count how many story pages there were
because it felt like nothing happened in this issue. (There were
22 pages of story.) Perhaps I'm getting spoiled by reading trades
more and more, but this can't be a good way to hook new readers.
Furthermore, as Randy Lander noted in his
"Snapshot" review, "the issue ends not on a cliffhanger or a big
revelation but in what feels like the middle of a scene." I
actually had to flip back to make sure I hadn't missed something:
Although the story stopped, there were still ten pages left
in the book, but they turned out to be mostly preview pages for another
series involving
scantily-clad female test subjects and too much green and red.
- Finally, the art in Bloodstream feels sloppy and
amateurish. There's no sense of depth to scenes: Everything
looks flat and in the foreground, perhaps because everything is
rendered in the same loose, blotchy manner.
Ah well. It looks like my interest in this comic was spoiled by
actually reading it. Even my hope of seeing some expert hallway
navigation seems dashed by the looks of the
online
preview for Bloodstream #2. Apparently Amber
will spend more time fighting a wolf in the snow than masterfully
maneuvering through corridors.
