Demo [Paperback]

Brian Wood (Author), Becky Cloonan (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 8, 2008

Twelve stories of conflicted teens grappling with love, loss, and the joy of finding your own way in life. The Eisner-nominated and critically-acclaimed series of self-contained short stories by writer Brian Wood and artist Becky Cloonan is finally collected together into this complete, bookshelf format volume.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* After only a few glances, you grok why indie-comics mavens rave about the 12-issue comic Demo. Cloonan's artwork progresses from strength to strength, beginning as an Americanized take on grunge manga (big eyes, blank faces, bristling or moppy or no hair, lots of little-line detail) in stark black and white, proceeding through reduced lineation and varying amounts of shading to selectively mounting wholly drawn figures on manipulated photo imagery in the last three stories. Also employing a huge range of angles-of-vision and perspective points, it looks like a billion bucks. The story lines aren't bad, either. They're about late-teens-to-early-thirties crises of separation from home, lover, or way of life. Early on, protagonists have scary psychokinetic powers, such as killing with a spoken word or concentrated rage and shape-shifting according to others' expectations. Writer Wood soon modified and eventually dropped that conceit. The hapless young father in the story excerpted for the inaugural Year's Best Graphic Novels, Comics & Manga (2006) is just a never-miss rifle shot, and the three twentysomethings in the especially effective "Midnight to Six" are unusual only in having stuck to "The Slacker Pledge" they signed in eighth grade. Lacking recurring characters, Demo altogether is less reminiscent of other comics series than of a thematic rather than continuous-narrative novel, such as John Horne Burns' The Gallery (1947). High praise, maybe, but deserving. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Vertigo (July 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401216218
• ISBN-13: 978-1401216214
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 0.6 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #543,651 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Brian Wood released his first graphic novel, Channel Zero, in 1997 to considerable critical acclaim and has continued to create at a brisk pace ever since. Focusing almost entirely on creator-owned projects, he's become one of the most important indie creators of the last decade. Standout books include his The Couriers and Channel Zero series, Demo, Local and Supermarket. He's earned multiple Eisner Award nominations and editions of his work have been published in close to a dozen foreign markets. Currently under an exclusive contract for DC/Vertigo, Wood continues to write his unique brand of iconoclastic creator-owned work with DMZ, Northlanders, Demo and The New York Four.

Brian lives with his wife and daughter in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars to the authors, I bow. Thanks from the heart., December 31, 2005

By 

German Salazar (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Demo: The Collected Edition (Paperback)

Come to think about it, I don't remember how I found about DEMO. I somehow ended up pre-ordering the book three months ago without any expectations other than finding content as different from typical American comic as possible.

There are 12 short stories. After reading 3 of them I stopped in bewilderment. an hour later, I still don't know exactly what I feel about this work.

To put it in ordinary terms, there is very solid and unorthodox storytelling. The script is intelligent, unapologetic and sort of naturalistic in its approach to theme. The stories themselves are... what to say; the Amazon description says it's a collection of "stories of conflicted teens grappling with love, loss, and the joy of finding your own way in life" but that's just a bland and dumb description. It doesn't cut it; it doesn't encompass what this book is about. I can't categorize it myself, so I won't.

If anything, I'd say these stories break with the trivialities and clichéd themes seen in comic books for decades. This is stuff of the new century; this is material that speaks to the progressive and subversive mindset of a new an evolving generation. This is not about teenagers and their `angst-ridden antics'. There's a certain social commentary, it's hidden within the characters behavior and psychological dynamics going on around them. I'll just say that it struck me deeply. I felt as though I was identifying parts of my fragmented spirit, as though when I read, I looked through a mirror and I recognized the misery and virtue of my ordinary human experience.

The visual syntax of Becky's art is quite unique. She crafted a style that stands out (and odd) in the American comic book store. It simply defies the overly macho nature of the dominating comic style that saturated shelves for too long. This is legitimate art. I somehow felt the femininity in the brush strokes, a delicacy in the fountain pen traces, and the strength of the graphic representation of shape, volume, and space. I'm a sort of pseudo-connoisseur of all things Japanese and I know very well when a western artist tried to copy certain mangaka (manga artist) style. The resulting work is often weak and false (pretentious). Nevertheless, there are cases in which an artist successfully "reverse-engineers" the Japanese styles and integrates whatever features she/he wants into an authentic style. I see that sort of thing in DEMO; I call it harmonic ambivalence. It oozes with graphic sophistication, in spite of the often rough vignettes, while at the same time its 'punch' is carried by the weight and scope of its literary features like character development and various thematic experiences that yield a lasting insight into significant aspects of existence and modern life.

As I said before, I stopped at story #3. Why you ask, well, because it's a lot of substance to take in. I prefer to dig each story and enjoy it like it was a drink of exotic tea. I like to indulge in the sort of philosophical wandering, reflect upon this and that; let the story stir the imagination and intelect. Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan crafted an exceptionally honest and passionate work. Its visuals are grappling (and spoke to me as an artist), it entices emotionally with its storytelling, and it motivates to explore facets of identity and existence through its themes.

It's about time we break away from the tedious paradigms of traditional western comic customary clichés.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Independent Collections of Dark Teen Stories, June 30, 2006

By 

Sapphira Gratz "Sapph" (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Demo: The Collected Edition (Paperback)

With DEMO Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan present an amazing set of dark stories with brilliant black/white art. Each story is short but telling, as we see several teens coping with the rougher side of having superpowers. This is much better reading and art than can be found in the similar Marvel comic NYX. I highly recommend this collection over the mainstream's version as it has more grit and more heart.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wish I could give this one SIX stars . . ., July 16, 2007

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Demo: The Collected Edition (Paperback)

I read a lot of graphic novels -- actual stories, not just compiled superhero comics -- and I rarely come across anything this literary. Most of these twelve stories could easily have been published, without pictures, in a "little" magazine somewhere. The intriguing thing is how they evolve, first to last, from "NYC" and "Bad Blood," which actually are about not-necessarily-super powers with a Rod Serling twist, to "One Shot, Don't Miss" and "Breaking Up" and "Damaged," which will stay with you a long, long time. And the last panel of the last story will truly grab you by the throat. Amazing writing.