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Shell suit. The guy on the first page is wearing a fucking shell suit. The colour reminds me of the Quality Comics Zenith reprints, all fluorescent greens and yellows. The greasy ponytail, too. Early 90's throwback.
The possible mistake with the times on the security camera, pages 2 & 3, is echoed in the copy of Young Sluts that Feely buys; camera says we're watching events in 2001, the magazine is June 2002's issue.
There's a completely blank sticker on the shop window, page 4, between 'Thieves will be prosecuted' and 'It is illegal to sell...'. Waiting for LePen to write something in?
The product of Feely's nose-picking shines on his fingertip just before he eats it. Magic mirror.
The bus stop sign, page 7, clearly says 'BUS STAR'. Christ knows why...
The new Greg Feely tells Slade, "I'm here to keep Greg's life warm for you while you return to active duty," page 15, but on page 14 Sade says, "I needed more time. I was promised more time," suggesting that he was already on some form of active duty.
'SPEED KILLS!' on the wall that the toothy garbage truck passes through.
'RIOT SUCCEEDS' on the screen, page 20, seems to be a separate panel from the main image, facing the reader full on rather than being integrated into the LePen image like the others. It's also the only screen which presents this version of events, all the others pronouncing 'RIOT FAILS TO HAPPEN'. The first headline could realistically appear in newspapers, the second isn't exactly earth-shattering. It's like putting 'NO EARTHQUAKES TODAY' or 'COMPLETE LACK OF SCANDAL IN PARLIAMENT' on the front of your paper. Presumably, the riot originally happens, but LePen is in the process of rewriting events.
Two immediate visual references on this page. Firstly, Ragged Robin in the timesuit/the King Of All Tears (who I'm still convinced are one and the same). It makes sense, the theme of changing history through creative fiction recalling Robin's Sky experiences.
Second: the whole page is like a bloody Jean Michel Jarre stage show. The speakers either side of LePen, the massive keyboard (and the one in front of LePen), the colours (fluorescents again), even the keyboard supports look like some stupid prog-rock guitar arsery. In fact, the whole 'Hand' organisation recalls unfortunate prog excess. The clothes, the wigs, the colours, the awful stage props. I hope it all looks like this for a good reason, because, frankly, it's fucking embarrassing. Much more so than Freely's life, which I just took to be the everyday experience of yr 'common man'; get up late for work, put up with a boss who hates you, go home to a cold, lonely house, have a wank, go to bed, do the same again tomorrow.
Hell, I hate the look. I wish it had been black & white, if only to provide some kind of continuity between the cover and the pages inside. The toothy garbage truck looks like Weston pulled it out from his discard pile, left over from his 2000AD days. The colour scheme for everything Hand-related is full-on superhero geek. On the plus side, there's enough detail in there to keep the completely anal occupied for a fair old while.
It's not a particularly confusing issue, it just doesn't seem to go anywhere. I'm going to treat it as an Invisibles side-story until I've seen some more. |
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