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The Private Eye #1-10
The Private Eye
Because retailers, readers, and Robert Kirkman demanded it, the online sensation from Panel Syndicate's Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Paper Girls) and Marcos Martin (The Amazing Spider-Man, Doctor Strange: The Oath) is finally coming to print with this gorgeous deluxe hardcover edition, presented in the story's original widescreen format!
Years after the digital cloud "bursts" and exposes all of our worst secrets, The Private Eye is set in an inevitable future where everyone has a secret identity. Following an unlicensed P.I. who is thrust into the most important case of his life, this sci-fi mystery explores the nature of privacy with frightening prescience.
Collects The Private Eye, #1–10.
Years after the digital cloud "bursts" and exposes all of our worst secrets, The Private Eye is set in an inevitable future where everyone has a secret identity. Following an unlicensed P.I. who is thrust into the most important case of his life, this sci-fi mystery explores the nature of privacy with frightening prescience.
Collects The Private Eye, #1–10.
300 pages, Hardcover
First published December 17, 2015
About the author
Brian K. Vaughan
971 books13.5k followersBrian K. Vaughan is the writer and co-creator of comic-book series including SAGA, PAPER GIRLS, Y THE LAST MAN, RUNAWAYS, and most recently, BARRIER, a digital comic with artist Marcos Martin about immigration, available from their pay-what-you-want site www.PanelSyndicate.com
BKV's work has been recognized at the Eisner, Harvey, Hugo, Shuster, Eagle, and British Fantasy Awards. He sometimes writes for film and television in Los Angeles, where he lives with his family and their dogs Hamburger and Milkshake.
BKV's work has been recognized at the Eisner, Harvey, Hugo, Shuster, Eagle, and British Fantasy Awards. He sometimes writes for film and television in Los Angeles, where he lives with his family and their dogs Hamburger and Milkshake.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 559 reviews
May 15, 2021
(A-) 81% | Very Good
Notes: A bright and shining dark age, it’s quaint and quirky to its core: a fictive future’s disavowal of its Apple days of yore.
Notes: A bright and shining dark age, it’s quaint and quirky to its core: a fictive future’s disavowal of its Apple days of yore.
December 15, 2018
Ok, the ending kind of ruined the whole thing for me, but that's my problem, and I know it.
sigh
At first, this was a pretty easy story for me to get sucked into because the art was cool, the colors were vibrant, and the premise was interesting.
At some point in the not too distant future, the Cloud Bursts.
Yeah, the Google Cloud.
So everyone's secrets become public knowledge, and the world as we know it is destroyed. Out of the ashes of that world rises...something else. Not only is there no more internet, but everyone goes to extreme lengths to guard their identity.
And I'm about 50/50 as far as love/hate goes with that last part of it. Sure, at first glance, it sounds sorta possibleish.
Ooooh! We'd all freak if everyone knew our secrets!
But at closer inspection? Ehhhh. Not so much. I mean, the main character says that the most damaging thing that came out of it was that everyone knew everyone else's search history.
And when he said that I was like...Yeah, AND...?
You would have to be working under the assumption that almost everyone has some vile secret kink. And the truth is, they don't. They might think it is, but weird stuff is normal. And Weird isn't Perverted.
For example, if I found kiddie porn on my husband's computer, I would freak the fuck out. That's horrifying shit. But if I found out that his search history had something like "naked co-ed foot fetish", I'd just raise my eyebrow and shake my head. I'm not going to kick him out because he wanted to watch 20 year olds lick each other's toe jam.
The toe jam thing is a shot in the dark because Hubs is smart enough to clear his browser history.
My point is, for the vast majority of us there would be mild discomfort if our online life were hacked. I'm just not seeing how (for the average person, anyway) it would be something of apocalyptic proportions. Besides, if everyone was hacked, I don't see how there would be much finger pointing going on. You may know about me, but I also know about you.
Then again, I'm the last of a dying generation. I didn't grow up with the interwebs, camera phones, or instant gratification. I'm not saying we were smarter, but we knew to burn the evidence.
Seriously. Compromising letters and pictures were the first things to go in the fire after a breakup. And you didn't hand that stuff out lightly, either.
Naked pics? No. Unless you had a Polaroid or a darkroom. Then...maybe. Otherwise, you'd have to give them to the neighborhood drugstore for development. And even if they were the kind of place that sent them off, the person behind the counter always took them out and 'checked' them to make sure they were ok. You didn't want Gladys (who taught your Sunday school class when you were in 3d grade) looking at pictures of your tits or boyfriend's dick!
What I'm trying to say, is that we were a bit more careful. So, maybe this is more of a realistic scenario than I think?
I don't know. The stuff leading up to the ending kept me interested, but then it sort of went off the rails.
It was just too melodramatic for me to buy into, and I don't do well with ambiguous endings, so this one probably never stood a chance with me.
And I'm sorry that I didn't like it as much as everyone else, but that's probably because I spend my days yelling at kids to get off my lawn. Take my opinion with a grain of salt, because everyone else seemed to love this.
sigh
At first, this was a pretty easy story for me to get sucked into because the art was cool, the colors were vibrant, and the premise was interesting.
At some point in the not too distant future, the Cloud Bursts.
Yeah, the Google Cloud.
So everyone's secrets become public knowledge, and the world as we know it is destroyed. Out of the ashes of that world rises...something else. Not only is there no more internet, but everyone goes to extreme lengths to guard their identity.
And I'm about 50/50 as far as love/hate goes with that last part of it. Sure, at first glance, it sounds sorta possibleish.
Ooooh! We'd all freak if everyone knew our secrets!
But at closer inspection? Ehhhh. Not so much. I mean, the main character says that the most damaging thing that came out of it was that everyone knew everyone else's search history.
And when he said that I was like...Yeah, AND...?
You would have to be working under the assumption that almost everyone has some vile secret kink. And the truth is, they don't. They might think it is, but weird stuff is normal. And Weird isn't Perverted.
For example, if I found kiddie porn on my husband's computer, I would freak the fuck out. That's horrifying shit. But if I found out that his search history had something like "naked co-ed foot fetish", I'd just raise my eyebrow and shake my head. I'm not going to kick him out because he wanted to watch 20 year olds lick each other's toe jam.
The toe jam thing is a shot in the dark because Hubs is smart enough to clear his browser history.
My point is, for the vast majority of us there would be mild discomfort if our online life were hacked. I'm just not seeing how (for the average person, anyway) it would be something of apocalyptic proportions. Besides, if everyone was hacked, I don't see how there would be much finger pointing going on. You may know about me, but I also know about you.
Then again, I'm the last of a dying generation. I didn't grow up with the interwebs, camera phones, or instant gratification. I'm not saying we were smarter, but we knew to burn the evidence.
Seriously. Compromising letters and pictures were the first things to go in the fire after a breakup. And you didn't hand that stuff out lightly, either.
Naked pics? No. Unless you had a Polaroid or a darkroom. Then...maybe. Otherwise, you'd have to give them to the neighborhood drugstore for development. And even if they were the kind of place that sent them off, the person behind the counter always took them out and 'checked' them to make sure they were ok. You didn't want Gladys (who taught your Sunday school class when you were in 3d grade) looking at pictures of your tits or boyfriend's dick!
What I'm trying to say, is that we were a bit more careful. So, maybe this is more of a realistic scenario than I think?
I don't know. The stuff leading up to the ending kept me interested, but then it sort of went off the rails.
It was just too melodramatic for me to buy into, and I don't do well with ambiguous endings, so this one probably never stood a chance with me.
And I'm sorry that I didn't like it as much as everyone else, but that's probably because I spend my days yelling at kids to get off my lawn. Take my opinion with a grain of salt, because everyone else seemed to love this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 21, 2016
Damn it!
I really liked this.
This wasn’t just swinging, this was Chewbacca swinging through the forest with an Ewok doing a Tarzan yell.
This wasn’t just breaking bad, this was Harvey Korman on the Carol Burnett Show breaking character.
This wasn’t just playing, this was flipping it upside down, reversing the strings and playing a funky left handed Star Spangled Banner.
This was really good.
The writing and art team of Brian K. Vaughn and Marcos Martin have produced in The Private Eye an original and clever social and political satire that is smart and fun and devilishly witty.
Using as a setting what is left of Los Angeles in 2076 (there is a tattooed gamer gramps as evidence), Vaughn describes a world where anonymity and private identity have become the most sought after and fiercely guarded civil possession. Government sanctioned reporters, the Fourth Estate, have replaced police and unlicensed paparazzi have become that generation’s private / public criminals.
Full of wickedly imaginative details – like a visit to Madonna’s tomb and Schwarzenegger General Hospital – The Private Eye is a blast.
I really liked this.
This wasn’t just swinging, this was Chewbacca swinging through the forest with an Ewok doing a Tarzan yell.
This wasn’t just breaking bad, this was Harvey Korman on the Carol Burnett Show breaking character.
This wasn’t just playing, this was flipping it upside down, reversing the strings and playing a funky left handed Star Spangled Banner.
This was really good.
The writing and art team of Brian K. Vaughn and Marcos Martin have produced in The Private Eye an original and clever social and political satire that is smart and fun and devilishly witty.
Using as a setting what is left of Los Angeles in 2076 (there is a tattooed gamer gramps as evidence), Vaughn describes a world where anonymity and private identity have become the most sought after and fiercely guarded civil possession. Government sanctioned reporters, the Fourth Estate, have replaced police and unlicensed paparazzi have become that generation’s private / public criminals.
Full of wickedly imaginative details – like a visit to Madonna’s tomb and Schwarzenegger General Hospital – The Private Eye is a blast.
April 19, 2016
For years, we trusted our most sensitive information to something called the Cloud... Until, one day, the Cloud burst. Our passwords, medical records, credit card information, e-mails, internet search histories, you name it - all of a sudden, everybody had access to all our personal data, access to our darkest secrets and desires. Careers were ended, friendships destroyed, families disrupted.
A new appreciation of privacy emerged, and by the year 2076, the year of our story, the internet is but a vague memory. Actual physical objects are in demand once again, and when it comes to exploring alternative identities, well, we now simply do that in the real world rather than online: by putting on some form of disguise before stepping outside. It's a great premise, especially for a medium that has been obsessed with secret identities for most of its history, plus a cute twist on the superhero genre: costumes everywhere, minus the super-powers.
What really makes The Private Eye stand out, though, is its lively execution - not an easy feat for a story that is set in the future and could easily turn out a bit on the alienating side. Brian K. Vaughan's writing feels fresh and relevant, Marcos Martín's artwork sharp and snappy, Muntsa Vicente's coloring bright and vibrant. There is a strong sense of design throughout that is inventive and unusual enough to provide the story with the futuristic vibe it needs but never gets stagy or confusing.
I was reminded of Moore's Top 10 here and Ellis' Transmetropolitan there, which is by no means a bad thing - the poppy sci-fi noir of The Private Eye certainly holds its own. Good stuff!
A new appreciation of privacy emerged, and by the year 2076, the year of our story, the internet is but a vague memory. Actual physical objects are in demand once again, and when it comes to exploring alternative identities, well, we now simply do that in the real world rather than online: by putting on some form of disguise before stepping outside. It's a great premise, especially for a medium that has been obsessed with secret identities for most of its history, plus a cute twist on the superhero genre: costumes everywhere, minus the super-powers.
What really makes The Private Eye stand out, though, is its lively execution - not an easy feat for a story that is set in the future and could easily turn out a bit on the alienating side. Brian K. Vaughan's writing feels fresh and relevant, Marcos Martín's artwork sharp and snappy, Muntsa Vicente's coloring bright and vibrant. There is a strong sense of design throughout that is inventive and unusual enough to provide the story with the futuristic vibe it needs but never gets stagy or confusing.
I was reminded of Moore's Top 10 here and Ellis' Transmetropolitan there, which is by no means a bad thing - the poppy sci-fi noir of The Private Eye certainly holds its own. Good stuff!
February 18, 2016
With four or five series (or more?) running, Brian K. Vaughn is kind of an unstoppable bullet of a comics master, and I am reading with some relish at least four of them that I can recall at the moment: Saga, Paper Girls, We Stand Guard. And this. I am not really sure this one is my absolute favorite of the above, but for sheer ideas and audacity it is still amazing. A sci fi comic about a time in the future, year 2076, when there is no longer any internet. . . a comic that is released initially exclusively on the internet! The story takes place after the Cloud--where presumedly all of our personal information will be eventually stored--burst, raining down the secrets of everyone on the entire world. In a time when people seem to be almost constantly in disguise, now possessing each and every one of them a secret identity. Secret identities?! As Jan points out, that is what sci fi superhero comics are all about, and so this is a nice way to tie privacy issues to the comics obsession with secret identities.
The main point of this comic's exploration is privacy, the loss of it in the present and future. What does it mean to have it? To lose it? And it's about our obsession with the internet and our loss of privacy through it.
The main character of this ten issue comic, now collected in a gorgeous $50 oversized hardcover edition (Okay, I got it from my library), is P.I. (or private investigator), a "paparazzo" who hunts down information for people. In the main story, he does this hunting for one woman in particular, as PI stories typically go, who has lost her sister. So it's sci fi noir mashup!
Vaughan's great as usual with the ideas and humor and dialogue, Marcos Martín's artwork is inventive and fun, and Muntsa Vicente's color is wild and splashy. A great team. There's a futuristic, glossy feel to it I like a lot. Way fun. And scary, too.
An example of some of the interesting stuff they pack in: Separating the rising climate-changed tide of the Pacific from L.A. is a massive seawall nicknamed Wonderwall. That figures in the story, you might guess.
Well, with Vaughn, in some ways like Alan Moore, who he tips his hat to, given he political nature of this venture, there are plenty of references to pop and comics culture. Not as densely packed with intertextual references as with Moore's Top Ten, where everyone has a superpower, but this is part of what Vaughn has in mind where everyone here is in disguise. Another tribute to Moore from Vaughn is that the back of P.I.'s hooded cape is a face that resembles (okay, maybe just a little?) the mask from V for Vendetta, an echo of the eighties Cold War fears about the loss of privacy via Thatcherism, and other Big Brothers. This tale is about paranoia and real fears, too, as V for Vendetta is, though the latter is certainly more politically activist.
I don't know if this is a great comic, finally, but it is smart and clever, and touches a nerve for me as I am sure it will for others. Way fun, but with serious ideas to think about. You have to look at this one!
The main point of this comic's exploration is privacy, the loss of it in the present and future. What does it mean to have it? To lose it? And it's about our obsession with the internet and our loss of privacy through it.
The main character of this ten issue comic, now collected in a gorgeous $50 oversized hardcover edition (Okay, I got it from my library), is P.I. (or private investigator), a "paparazzo" who hunts down information for people. In the main story, he does this hunting for one woman in particular, as PI stories typically go, who has lost her sister. So it's sci fi noir mashup!
Vaughan's great as usual with the ideas and humor and dialogue, Marcos Martín's artwork is inventive and fun, and Muntsa Vicente's color is wild and splashy. A great team. There's a futuristic, glossy feel to it I like a lot. Way fun. And scary, too.
An example of some of the interesting stuff they pack in: Separating the rising climate-changed tide of the Pacific from L.A. is a massive seawall nicknamed Wonderwall. That figures in the story, you might guess.
Well, with Vaughn, in some ways like Alan Moore, who he tips his hat to, given he political nature of this venture, there are plenty of references to pop and comics culture. Not as densely packed with intertextual references as with Moore's Top Ten, where everyone has a superpower, but this is part of what Vaughn has in mind where everyone here is in disguise. Another tribute to Moore from Vaughn is that the back of P.I.'s hooded cape is a face that resembles (okay, maybe just a little?) the mask from V for Vendetta, an echo of the eighties Cold War fears about the loss of privacy via Thatcherism, and other Big Brothers. This tale is about paranoia and real fears, too, as V for Vendetta is, though the latter is certainly more politically activist.
I don't know if this is a great comic, finally, but it is smart and clever, and touches a nerve for me as I am sure it will for others. Way fun, but with serious ideas to think about. You have to look at this one!
November 30, 2018
Great book set in the future about how everything about being a millennial came back to bite them. Now society values it's privacy to the extreme, wearing masks in public to hide their identity. Marcos Martin's art is beautiful and fits perfectly with the future look he's created.
Received an advance copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Received an advance copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
December 22, 2018
Futuristic science-fiction and social commentary brilliance packaged in eye-melting artwork. While illustrated for the internet, the landscape orientation translates to a physically awkward book. Aside from that, perfection.
November 21, 2016
For pure inventiveness, Private Eye is pretty awesome. Available via PanelSyndicate.com on their variable pay system, it is an innovative comic from the amazing Brian K Vaughan (of Saga fame among others). The story is crazy and engaging and lots of fun.
July 29, 2016
Damn.
Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Y:The Last Man) has a knack for writing some of the best comics in the industry. His comics pose complex societal questions while remaining endlessly entertaining. With The Private Eye, BKV has teamed with the superlative Marcos Martin to tackle our fascination with privacy in the social media age via a futuristic noir. Rather than a show ran entirely by Vaughan, The Private Eye is truly a collaboration with Martin. Martin was allowed to experiment with his layouts, craft stunning spreads, and make his most singular artwork that I've seen to date. What's more, this handsome collection transfers the original 16:9 format of the digital-only single issues for a unique, widescreen, hardcover that will definitely be a stand-out on any reader's shelf.
Our hero, known initially only as P.I., is an old-school detective in 2076 Los Angeles who chain smokes legalized weed. In 2076 the entire US populace operates under "nyms," carefully constructed alter-egos that keeps their identities safe. Why all the fuss? The premise is that the cloud "burst" and everyone's search histories, chat logs, medical records, etc. leaked out into the public eye, shattering the veneer of civilization. This is a world that eschews the internet and exalts librarians as the public's information source.
This entire world is brought to life through Martin's outstanding line-work and feels like a plausible vision of the future due to the lived-in nature of the world. P.I.'s office is cluttered with old mysteries, and many contemporary books. I spent minutes pouring over the first few pages showing P.I.'s office to catch his reading stack, and what posters were plastered on his wall. The supporting characters are a fully formed cast, each with their own agency in the story, and their voices sound uniquely theirs, rather than word balloons that could be exchanged between talking heads. The story itself? A murder mystery that draws P.I. and his network of informants into the furthest reaches of this futuristic society. Any more than that risks spoiling an outstanding comic experience.
The world building in The Private Eye will sell you on an America that dresses up in fetichism and halloween costumes to protect their identity. Martin's eye-popping, genre-convention snapping artwork helped to make me feel rejuvenated and highly excited for future experimentation with this new widescreen format of comics. Vaughan, as always, brings the goods. If you are a fan of Saga, then I'd place a large wager that The Private Eye will tickle your fancy. This edition tends towards the more expensive end of comic collections, though I do think it is the ideal format for consuming this maxi-series (the digital version is more affordable and available on panelsyndicate.com). Marcos & Vaughan took a huge risk and swung for the fences with The Private Eye. Given the talent involved, it should come as no surprise that they knocked it far out of the park. This is one of the finest graphic novels I've read in a long time, and recommend it wholeheartedly.
Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Y:The Last Man) has a knack for writing some of the best comics in the industry. His comics pose complex societal questions while remaining endlessly entertaining. With The Private Eye, BKV has teamed with the superlative Marcos Martin to tackle our fascination with privacy in the social media age via a futuristic noir. Rather than a show ran entirely by Vaughan, The Private Eye is truly a collaboration with Martin. Martin was allowed to experiment with his layouts, craft stunning spreads, and make his most singular artwork that I've seen to date. What's more, this handsome collection transfers the original 16:9 format of the digital-only single issues for a unique, widescreen, hardcover that will definitely be a stand-out on any reader's shelf.
Our hero, known initially only as P.I., is an old-school detective in 2076 Los Angeles who chain smokes legalized weed. In 2076 the entire US populace operates under "nyms," carefully constructed alter-egos that keeps their identities safe. Why all the fuss? The premise is that the cloud "burst" and everyone's search histories, chat logs, medical records, etc. leaked out into the public eye, shattering the veneer of civilization. This is a world that eschews the internet and exalts librarians as the public's information source.
This entire world is brought to life through Martin's outstanding line-work and feels like a plausible vision of the future due to the lived-in nature of the world. P.I.'s office is cluttered with old mysteries, and many contemporary books. I spent minutes pouring over the first few pages showing P.I.'s office to catch his reading stack, and what posters were plastered on his wall. The supporting characters are a fully formed cast, each with their own agency in the story, and their voices sound uniquely theirs, rather than word balloons that could be exchanged between talking heads. The story itself? A murder mystery that draws P.I. and his network of informants into the furthest reaches of this futuristic society. Any more than that risks spoiling an outstanding comic experience.
The world building in The Private Eye will sell you on an America that dresses up in fetichism and halloween costumes to protect their identity. Martin's eye-popping, genre-convention snapping artwork helped to make me feel rejuvenated and highly excited for future experimentation with this new widescreen format of comics. Vaughan, as always, brings the goods. If you are a fan of Saga, then I'd place a large wager that The Private Eye will tickle your fancy. This edition tends towards the more expensive end of comic collections, though I do think it is the ideal format for consuming this maxi-series (the digital version is more affordable and available on panelsyndicate.com). Marcos & Vaughan took a huge risk and swung for the fences with The Private Eye. Given the talent involved, it should come as no surprise that they knocked it far out of the park. This is one of the finest graphic novels I've read in a long time, and recommend it wholeheartedly.
October 31, 2015
Society is more concerned with anonymity than ever in this futuristic noir comic by Brian K Vaughan and Marcos Martin.
Originally released in digital-only issues formatted specifically for tablet reading, "The Private Eye" takes place in a possible future of our own, one where everyone’s personal info - from revealing photos to angry emails - is made public in an event known as the “cloud burst.”
Imagine your family members getting a hold of your complete browser history from the moment you first used AOL up through now and you’ll get an idea of why this is bad.
At least my history is mostly just Goodreads. That’s right, no need to look any further. Just Goodreads.
The internet is outlawed and the youth of today grow into the tattooed grandparents of the future, talking about the days of social media and iPhones in the same, slightly senile way Abe Simpsons reminiscences about the onion on his belt:
Meanwhile, people in the real world value anonymity above all us, going so far as to hide behind masks called “nyms” and refer to each other in pseudonym.
In comes our leading man, a “paparazzo” with the skills to get you info on pretty much anyone you want to know. This is a world people aren't a simple Google search, so his skills are in high demand. He’s a risk taker but still low key enough not to get caught.
But like every good noir story, his life is thrown into a world of chaos after a mysterious dame comes to his office looking for help.
Vaughan creates a chilling vision of the future and impressively slips into the type of writing you’d find in classic noir like "The Maltese Falcon." The dialog is wonderfully hardboiled, but also quite funny. The commentary of our social media driven society is clever and never feels mean-spirited.
However, the real star of this book is Martin. He has been responsible for some of the most creative layouts in mainstream comics in recent years with runs on Spider-Man and Daredevil, but using a tablet friendly “widescreen” style really gives him room to shine.
Being only 10 issues in length, don’t expect a story as deep or affecting as "Y the Last Man" or "Saga." But for readers looking for a thought provoking, wonderfully illustrated noir? Well, look at it this way — you could do a lot worse, but not much better.
kit: Twitter | Tumblr
Originally released in digital-only issues formatted specifically for tablet reading, "The Private Eye" takes place in a possible future of our own, one where everyone’s personal info - from revealing photos to angry emails - is made public in an event known as the “cloud burst.”
Imagine your family members getting a hold of your complete browser history from the moment you first used AOL up through now and you’ll get an idea of why this is bad.
At least my history is mostly just Goodreads. That’s right, no need to look any further. Just Goodreads.
The internet is outlawed and the youth of today grow into the tattooed grandparents of the future, talking about the days of social media and iPhones in the same, slightly senile way Abe Simpsons reminiscences about the onion on his belt:
Meanwhile, people in the real world value anonymity above all us, going so far as to hide behind masks called “nyms” and refer to each other in pseudonym.
In comes our leading man, a “paparazzo” with the skills to get you info on pretty much anyone you want to know. This is a world people aren't a simple Google search, so his skills are in high demand. He’s a risk taker but still low key enough not to get caught.
But like every good noir story, his life is thrown into a world of chaos after a mysterious dame comes to his office looking for help.
Vaughan creates a chilling vision of the future and impressively slips into the type of writing you’d find in classic noir like "The Maltese Falcon." The dialog is wonderfully hardboiled, but also quite funny. The commentary of our social media driven society is clever and never feels mean-spirited.
However, the real star of this book is Martin. He has been responsible for some of the most creative layouts in mainstream comics in recent years with runs on Spider-Man and Daredevil, but using a tablet friendly “widescreen” style really gives him room to shine.
Being only 10 issues in length, don’t expect a story as deep or affecting as "Y the Last Man" or "Saga." But for readers looking for a thought provoking, wonderfully illustrated noir? Well, look at it this way — you could do a lot worse, but not much better.
kit: Twitter | Tumblr
May 25, 2020
The Private Eye by Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin, & Muntsa Vicente
4 stars
Whimsical Writing Scale: 4
Plotastic Scale: 4
Art Scale: 3.5
Cover Thoughts: I do love this cover.
Thank you, Netgalley and Image Comics, for providing me with a copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review.
4 stars
This a bind-up of the entirety of the graphic novel series The Private Eye. There are only ten issues published, so it is a very quick and short read. The plot follows a world where people do not leave their house without a mask. Protecting their identity is the most important thing at all costs. At some point, everyone's personal information was released to the public and now the Internet is obsolete. The art stye and the block lettering of the graphic novel can be unappealing at times, but the story makes up for it with an interesting and captivating plot. Vaughan balances a good mix of funny and dark (as his does in the Saga series). There is a lot of moral ambiguity in this story and it lends to be a good support to keep the novel going. I read this book in 2016 and it's now 2020 when I'm writing my review. Initially, I was very excited about this novel and rated it a 4.5 stars, but I find that I can't remember anything about it besides what I have written in my notes and the basic plot. This is odd because I'm pretty good at remembering stories that greatly impact. I suspect I was quick to rate this so highly because it's written by a favorite graphic novelists. However, I think lowering my rating a bit is reasonable now.
Whimsical Writing Scale: 4
Plotastic Scale: 4
Art Scale: 3.5
Cover Thoughts: I do love this cover.
Thank you, Netgalley and Image Comics, for providing me with a copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review.
June 7, 2017
Another amazing title by Brain K. Vaughan. I believe this man will always be my favorite comic book writer of all time. He just puts SO much detail and great dialog into every single story he does. Even his weaker works (paper girl/We stand guard) aren't horrible they're just decent. Everything else he touches is pure gold (Saga, Runaways, Pride, THIS) SO let's discuss why this works so well.
What I liked: First, the art. It's simple, yet so different. So many unique costumes, so many different faces, and I love how it has this futuristic look but not so far out that we can't relate on some level. P.I. is an amazing character filled with a good sense of morals but at the same time the supporting cast is equally as strong. Love the grandfather as a character who is from our time talking about missing the internet. That comes to my next point, the actual plot. Not having internet is such a ODD concept to US nowdays but it's so fun to see how the world would work without it. Still horrible things happened, and they do put up a good argument for both sides. However I feel it's up to the reader how they want to view it but I like being presented with two different view points clashing.
What I didn't like: The reading style is comic web based so sometimes it was hard for me to get comfortable reading. That's my only negative. Lol.
Overall Private Eye is worth reading. No, screw that. It's worth buying RIGHT NOW. Brain K. Vaughan continues to give us stories that EVERYONE, comic fans and non-comic fans alike will enjoy reading. I recommend this at full price, a 5/5, and can't believe I waited this long to read this insanely good book.
What I liked: First, the art. It's simple, yet so different. So many unique costumes, so many different faces, and I love how it has this futuristic look but not so far out that we can't relate on some level. P.I. is an amazing character filled with a good sense of morals but at the same time the supporting cast is equally as strong. Love the grandfather as a character who is from our time talking about missing the internet. That comes to my next point, the actual plot. Not having internet is such a ODD concept to US nowdays but it's so fun to see how the world would work without it. Still horrible things happened, and they do put up a good argument for both sides. However I feel it's up to the reader how they want to view it but I like being presented with two different view points clashing.
What I didn't like: The reading style is comic web based so sometimes it was hard for me to get comfortable reading. That's my only negative. Lol.
Overall Private Eye is worth reading. No, screw that. It's worth buying RIGHT NOW. Brain K. Vaughan continues to give us stories that EVERYONE, comic fans and non-comic fans alike will enjoy reading. I recommend this at full price, a 5/5, and can't believe I waited this long to read this insanely good book.
April 25, 2020
Earns the highest compliment possible - thought provoking.
December 2, 2020
1. Keď som to otvorila námatkovo kde-tu a zbadala tú otrasnú kresbu, tak sa mi do toho moc nechcelo.
2. Keď som prečítala prvú kapitolu, tak ma to začalo ťahať viac a viac.
3. V polovici som do toho úplne spadla, veľmi sa mi začala páčit celkovo myšlienka toho príbehu a kresba mi k tomu neskutočne začala pasovať.
4. Nakoniec sa to ukázalo ako skvelý príbeh s fajn postavami, dobrým koncom, a záporáci mi neliezli na nervy tak ako mi lezú vo väčšine príbehoch svojimi drsno-trápnymi hláškami alebo suchým charakterom.
5. Odporúčam to čítať digitálne alebo ak už to máte doma v poličke, tak čítať na stole, lebo keď človek číta v posteli/kresle, stránky sa začnú neskutočne na krajoch prehýbať dole. Ten formát je hrozné peklo...
4,5/5
2. Keď som prečítala prvú kapitolu, tak ma to začalo ťahať viac a viac.
3. V polovici som do toho úplne spadla, veľmi sa mi začala páčit celkovo myšlienka toho príbehu a kresba mi k tomu neskutočne začala pasovať.
4. Nakoniec sa to ukázalo ako skvelý príbeh s fajn postavami, dobrým koncom, a záporáci mi neliezli na nervy tak ako mi lezú vo väčšine príbehoch svojimi drsno-trápnymi hláškami alebo suchým charakterom.
5. Odporúčam to čítať digitálne alebo ak už to máte doma v poličke, tak čítať na stole, lebo keď človek číta v posteli/kresle, stránky sa začnú neskutočne na krajoch prehýbať dole. Ten formát je hrozné peklo...
4,5/5
July 28, 2021
Years ago the digital cloud “burst”, revealing everyone’s darkest secrets. The internet was banned and now in this futuristic graphic novel, everyone has a secret identity and journalists are the law.
The Private Eye follows an unlicensed P.I. in 2076 as he works to solve a case regarding the death of a young woman who may have been involved in a conspiracy to bring back the internet age.
The was a unique and engaging futuristic noir that looks at the dark side of social media and the loss of privacy on a larger scale while also having a great sense of humor. P.I.’s grandpa - a tattoo covered millennial who remembers iPads and online gaming - was a favorite for me!
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
The Private Eye follows an unlicensed P.I. in 2076 as he works to solve a case regarding the death of a young woman who may have been involved in a conspiracy to bring back the internet age.
The was a unique and engaging futuristic noir that looks at the dark side of social media and the loss of privacy on a larger scale while also having a great sense of humor. P.I.’s grandpa - a tattoo covered millennial who remembers iPads and online gaming - was a favorite for me!
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
March 18, 2016
I really liked this. Among other things, it's nice to read a decent, solid graphic novel that's complete in itself, that's not volume x of series y or something. Set in the not-too-distant future of 2076 Los Angeles, our titular private eye makes his living tracking down other people's secrets. And then, of course, a femme fatale walks into his office and, before he knows it, he's in over his head, trying to stay alive, because some secrets are bigger than they appear. What makes this book special is the fully realized setting. Vaughan posits a future event called the Cloudburst, where everything on the internet becomes available to everyone. All search histories, texts, photos, etc. become public knowledge. Post-Cloudburst, everyone is more privacy conscious, to the extent of wearing masks in public, giving real names only to trusted friends, and so on. It's an engaging idea, and seeing its effects on the world is fascinating. This is science fiction in the classic sense of a literature of ideas, and it's a treat to read. The artwork is gorgeous, the story is thrilling, the characters are believable and fun. Loved this book!
June 24, 2018
This is a high concept sci-fi book where you spend more time thinking to yourself, "Mm, yeah, I see what the author is going for there," than you do thinking, "Hey, this is good."
We are presented with a society that is the opposite of our current oversharing, social-media oriented one: privacy is valued to the point where everyone wears masks and the internet no longer exists. Once you force yourself to give in to the most unlikely stuff (journalists = police), there is a pretty routine crime noir plot with a private investigator teaming up with the sister of a murdered woman to find a killer who is part of a larger plot.
At one point, the sister says to the P.I., "I don't know you at all, do I?" I felt the same way, with the concepts and action getting in the way of actually getting to know any of the characters as people.
And while the art was okay, the unwieldy breadth of this book when laid open just draws attention to the fact that the art isn't special enough to warrant this wide-screen presentation or the hassle of simply trying to turn a page if the book is not fully supported by a table. Designed for a computer screen, it becomes an IRL fail when bound.
We are presented with a society that is the opposite of our current oversharing, social-media oriented one: privacy is valued to the point where everyone wears masks and the internet no longer exists. Once you force yourself to give in to the most unlikely stuff (journalists = police), there is a pretty routine crime noir plot with a private investigator teaming up with the sister of a murdered woman to find a killer who is part of a larger plot.
At one point, the sister says to the P.I., "I don't know you at all, do I?" I felt the same way, with the concepts and action getting in the way of actually getting to know any of the characters as people.
And while the art was okay, the unwieldy breadth of this book when laid open just draws attention to the fact that the art isn't special enough to warrant this wide-screen presentation or the hassle of simply trying to turn a page if the book is not fully supported by a table. Designed for a computer screen, it becomes an IRL fail when bound.
February 24, 2016
Great execution on an interesting concept: what if all our "private" online info was suddenly not-so-private? What would the world look like? This is a crime novel at its core, but Martin's art pops. Well done!
April 24, 2019
Todo lo que escribe Vaughan es oro!! la idea me parece súper interesante y los dibujos de Martin y los colores de Vicente preciosos y para estarse un rato admirando cada página.
February 5, 2016
FUN!
Visually, I love this format.
The version I read was a digital file that blew up each page to the size of my laptop screen, with a different aspect ratio than regular comic books.
This afforded gorgeous scenescapes
Vibrant color... colors for days...
Depth of location
Fascinating scene-establishing shots that paint a broad portrait of the location while including visual details that contribute so much depth to the characters that reside within.
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Innovative visual representation of dialogue
And check out cool layouts like this one which maintain the flow of conversation/action while defining the tone of the scene -- the tumultuous mood established by the dark and rainy sky, with environmental details that fill out the sensory experience of being in that room, down to the taps of rain water as they hit the plants outside.
And check out the emotional depth registering on the facial expressions.
And these are just captures of the first few pages. There is gorgeousness and a visual feast throughout the whole book. I am not familiar with Marcos Martin who did the art, but I'll be watching for his work in the future!!
(I imagine the look would be similar on the printed page, depending on the size and shape of the book. Thanks to NetGalley, I was able to read this on my computer, which might just be the preferred way to read it, I don't know.)
And I haven't even mentioned how great the story is!
Set in the near future, after some catastrophic events have taken down the internet and a new generation has grown up without the connectivity and dependence on tech that has come to define our society and interpersonal interactions. A future that is not at all dystopian, which is a whole commentary in itself.
This story is fun and fast paced, colorful and thought provoking.
Definitely worth checking out!
Also, Brian K. Vaughan. That's prrrretty much all you need to know.
Visually, I love this format.
The version I read was a digital file that blew up each page to the size of my laptop screen, with a different aspect ratio than regular comic books.
This afforded gorgeous scenescapes
Vibrant color... colors for days...
Depth of location
Fascinating scene-establishing shots that paint a broad portrait of the location while including visual details that contribute so much depth to the characters that reside within.
[image error]
Innovative visual representation of dialogue
And check out cool layouts like this one which maintain the flow of conversation/action while defining the tone of the scene -- the tumultuous mood established by the dark and rainy sky, with environmental details that fill out the sensory experience of being in that room, down to the taps of rain water as they hit the plants outside.
And check out the emotional depth registering on the facial expressions.
And these are just captures of the first few pages. There is gorgeousness and a visual feast throughout the whole book. I am not familiar with Marcos Martin who did the art, but I'll be watching for his work in the future!!
(I imagine the look would be similar on the printed page, depending on the size and shape of the book. Thanks to NetGalley, I was able to read this on my computer, which might just be the preferred way to read it, I don't know.)
And I haven't even mentioned how great the story is!
Set in the near future, after some catastrophic events have taken down the internet and a new generation has grown up without the connectivity and dependence on tech that has come to define our society and interpersonal interactions. A future that is not at all dystopian, which is a whole commentary in itself.
This story is fun and fast paced, colorful and thought provoking.
Definitely worth checking out!
Also, Brian K. Vaughan. That's prrrretty much all you need to know.
January 10, 2016
Wow, was this ever good. Really, really good. In a weird future, after an event called the "Cloudburst" exposed everyone's Internet secrets (search histories, etc.) and ruined lives, there is no more Internet. People live behind masks, excessively concerned about privacy and attempting to keep some level of anonymity, and the police have been replaced by journalists (not sure I really understand that, but hey, it's Brian K. Vaughan's vision). Teevee is a big deal and people actually read books and interact with each other. One man, an unlicensed paparazzo, scratches out a living as a P. I. in this world, digging behind the surface level stories that the fourth estate is content to give to the masses, solving unsolvable crimes, like the mysterious death of a woman whose sister comes to him for help. This is a great, old-time detective story in a really imaginative future that is amazingly detailed and colorful and brought to three dimensional life by artist Marcos Martin, whose work reminds me a lot of that done by Moebius (Jean Giraud). As a web comic, this one really popped on the iPad I was using to read it. An amazing, virtuoso piece of work and I would love to see more.
January 24, 2016
A highly enjoyable read. Especially if you've had a few Marihuana brand cigarettes and are feeling a tad paranoid.
I believe it was Terence McKenna who called television the "dominator drug par excellence". I'm sure if he was still alive on this spinning clod of dirt today, he would say the same of the modern addiction to the internet. This P.I. story takes place in a futuristic earth brimming with imagination. Media and Government have dropped the charade of separation and are now one in the same entity. All this after a "Cloudburst" of devestating consequence destroys private lives and renders useless some of our modern technologies. The setting for this beautifully sequenced comic is one of the most original I've encountered.
I believe it was Terence McKenna who called television the "dominator drug par excellence". I'm sure if he was still alive on this spinning clod of dirt today, he would say the same of the modern addiction to the internet. This P.I. story takes place in a futuristic earth brimming with imagination. Media and Government have dropped the charade of separation and are now one in the same entity. All this after a "Cloudburst" of devestating consequence destroys private lives and renders useless some of our modern technologies. The setting for this beautifully sequenced comic is one of the most original I've encountered.
April 13, 2022
En un futuro muy lejano (o no tanto), todos tendremos una identidad secreta. La información almacenada en la nube reventó y los secretos más oscuros e íntimos vieron la luz. Las redes que creamos y compartimos, solo muestran una cara de nosotros mismos. Es como si WikiLeaks hubiera destapado toda la información posible. Carreras truncadas, seres queridos enemistados y vidas personales arruinadas. Cuarenta días después de lo que se conoce como la Gran Inundación, la nube desapareció.
Varias décadas después, la vida es muy diferente a como la conocíamos. De igual forma que antes lo hacíamos en línea, los estadounidenses en el año 2076 pueden explorar ideas e identidades nuevas cada día. La gente sale sigilosamente de sus trabajos con máscaras y se ha renovado el interés por los objetos físicos como los libros. Liberados de los entornos virtuales, el mundo se ha reconstruido en un formato retrofuturista.
Ciudadanos que pululan enmascarados y acuden a sus lugares de culto sin ser juzgados. Desde los más famosos hasta los más desconocidos, todos pueden pasar desapercibidos en los lugares más sórdidos. Sin embargo, alguien tiene que establecer el control: el Cuarto Poder. La prensa es la ley. Los periodistas ejercen de agentes altamente cualificados que se valen de sus habilidades, armas y ordenes de registro para proteger al ciudadano.
Por supuesto, no todo es tan de color de rosa. Existen los Paparazzi, investigadores privados del mercado negro y sin licencia que consiguen sacar toda la información sensible. Uno de ellos es P.I., nuestro protagonista. La noche en que una mujer ataviada con una mascará de tigre le pide que la investigue a ella, para ver que información puede conseguir sobre ella misma, su vida secreta se verá alterada. Esa misma noche, la mujer muere.
Con un tono de cine negro futurista, cercano a la ciencia ficción más creíble y con un buen poso de crítica social, The Private Eye se ramifica en diez capítulos sin rodeos. La trama es sencillamente puro thriller, directa, y con escenas que transcurren a toda velocidad. Brian K. Vaughan parece haberse vuelto especialista en las persecuciones más adrenalínicas, dado que cada capitulo contiene alguna. Es un comic de acción y un thriller en el sentido más estricto, aunque con cierto fondo, amplificando dicha sensación su peculiar formato apaisado. Un formato que, para servidor, es un cierto punto negativo por su incomodidad, como me pasaba con ¡Universo! de Albert Monteys.
No es difícil creer el escenario planteado por The Private Eye. Imaginar las consecuencias de que Internet se nos vaya de las manos (si no lo ha hecho ya) y los problemas en cuanto a la protección de datos, son uno de los principales atractivos del cómic. La sociedad de consumo y las redes sociales son alguno de nuestros males más actuales. Si lo hacemos con esa edición Deluxe editada por Gigamesh, podremos deleitarnos aún más con el nivel de detalle y limpieza en el dibujo de Marcos Martin, así como en los colores glam y saturados de Muntsa Vicente. Un perfecto vehículo para un discurso que tiene mucho que decir a día de hoy. Si le queréis dar una ojeada, siempre podéis hacerlo online.
The Private Eye es uno de los comics más importantes de los últimos años. Aparte de su galardón como mejor comic digital en los Eisner de 2015, supuso la apertura de Panel Syndicate, una plataforma que permite publicar y descargar esta y más historias de otros profesionales independientes, donde es el lector el que elige cuanto quiere pagar por la obra desde los 0€. Un salto al vacío en el mundo del cómic que según el propio Brian K. Vaughan ha salido bastante bien. Basta ver el buen variado de títulos que caen por allí, como mi querido ¡Universo! de Albert Monteys, Barrier de los mismos autores o Friday, la premiada obra de Ed Brubaker, Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente.
Reseña en el blog: https://boywithletters.blogspot.com/2...
Varias décadas después, la vida es muy diferente a como la conocíamos. De igual forma que antes lo hacíamos en línea, los estadounidenses en el año 2076 pueden explorar ideas e identidades nuevas cada día. La gente sale sigilosamente de sus trabajos con máscaras y se ha renovado el interés por los objetos físicos como los libros. Liberados de los entornos virtuales, el mundo se ha reconstruido en un formato retrofuturista.
Ciudadanos que pululan enmascarados y acuden a sus lugares de culto sin ser juzgados. Desde los más famosos hasta los más desconocidos, todos pueden pasar desapercibidos en los lugares más sórdidos. Sin embargo, alguien tiene que establecer el control: el Cuarto Poder. La prensa es la ley. Los periodistas ejercen de agentes altamente cualificados que se valen de sus habilidades, armas y ordenes de registro para proteger al ciudadano.
Por supuesto, no todo es tan de color de rosa. Existen los Paparazzi, investigadores privados del mercado negro y sin licencia que consiguen sacar toda la información sensible. Uno de ellos es P.I., nuestro protagonista. La noche en que una mujer ataviada con una mascará de tigre le pide que la investigue a ella, para ver que información puede conseguir sobre ella misma, su vida secreta se verá alterada. Esa misma noche, la mujer muere.
Con un tono de cine negro futurista, cercano a la ciencia ficción más creíble y con un buen poso de crítica social, The Private Eye se ramifica en diez capítulos sin rodeos. La trama es sencillamente puro thriller, directa, y con escenas que transcurren a toda velocidad. Brian K. Vaughan parece haberse vuelto especialista en las persecuciones más adrenalínicas, dado que cada capitulo contiene alguna. Es un comic de acción y un thriller en el sentido más estricto, aunque con cierto fondo, amplificando dicha sensación su peculiar formato apaisado. Un formato que, para servidor, es un cierto punto negativo por su incomodidad, como me pasaba con ¡Universo! de Albert Monteys.
No es difícil creer el escenario planteado por The Private Eye. Imaginar las consecuencias de que Internet se nos vaya de las manos (si no lo ha hecho ya) y los problemas en cuanto a la protección de datos, son uno de los principales atractivos del cómic. La sociedad de consumo y las redes sociales son alguno de nuestros males más actuales. Si lo hacemos con esa edición Deluxe editada por Gigamesh, podremos deleitarnos aún más con el nivel de detalle y limpieza en el dibujo de Marcos Martin, así como en los colores glam y saturados de Muntsa Vicente. Un perfecto vehículo para un discurso que tiene mucho que decir a día de hoy. Si le queréis dar una ojeada, siempre podéis hacerlo online.
The Private Eye es uno de los comics más importantes de los últimos años. Aparte de su galardón como mejor comic digital en los Eisner de 2015, supuso la apertura de Panel Syndicate, una plataforma que permite publicar y descargar esta y más historias de otros profesionales independientes, donde es el lector el que elige cuanto quiere pagar por la obra desde los 0€. Un salto al vacío en el mundo del cómic que según el propio Brian K. Vaughan ha salido bastante bien. Basta ver el buen variado de títulos que caen por allí, como mi querido ¡Universo! de Albert Monteys, Barrier de los mismos autores o Friday, la premiada obra de Ed Brubaker, Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente.
Reseña en el blog: https://boywithletters.blogspot.com/2...
January 3, 2019
One can't talk about this comic without talking about its form factor — and it's miserable. Originally designed to be read on a wide screen, The Private Eye is a super wide book. When you open it up, it's in fact too big to hold comfortably, and good luck in storing this monster. Sadly, no matter how good or bad this book was, it's going to be a one-time read, because the form factor just sucks.
And that's a crying shame, because it's an intriguing book. It's about a near future where privacy has run amuck, a very believable near-future given the excesses of European privacy, where you can demand your past crimes be removed from the public record under the right-to-be-forgotten and that your attacks upon a computer be removed under the GDPR because they contain PII. IN the world of the Private Eye, privacy is sacrosanct, and breaking it is a crime.
There's a lot more going on, including the death of the internet and a world of pseudonyms for everyone old enough. Though the future isn't particularly believable (or at least no more so than its obvious ancestor, Transmetropolitan), it is full of intriguing ideas about privacy, connectivity, and communication.
So read this, but maybe online at PanelSyndicate.com, not in this awful, awkward, unwieldy hardcover
And that's a crying shame, because it's an intriguing book. It's about a near future where privacy has run amuck, a very believable near-future given the excesses of European privacy, where you can demand your past crimes be removed from the public record under the right-to-be-forgotten and that your attacks upon a computer be removed under the GDPR because they contain PII. IN the world of the Private Eye, privacy is sacrosanct, and breaking it is a crime.
There's a lot more going on, including the death of the internet and a world of pseudonyms for everyone old enough. Though the future isn't particularly believable (or at least no more so than its obvious ancestor, Transmetropolitan), it is full of intriguing ideas about privacy, connectivity, and communication.
So read this, but maybe online at PanelSyndicate.com, not in this awful, awkward, unwieldy hardcover
January 14, 2020
Un mundo en el que explotó la privacidad de la nube, donde la prensa es la policía, esa es la base sobre la que se construye toda la historia.
PI es el protagonista, un paparazzo, es genial y entrañable, y su sueñadera mola mucho. Su abuelo, el que vivió antes de todo, parece vivir en el pasado. Por último Ravenna, amiga de Pi, llena de coraje. Son los personajes que más me han gustado aunque hay muchos geniales y momentos que marcan.
PI es el protagonista, un paparazzo, es genial y entrañable, y su sueñadera mola mucho. Su abuelo, el que vivió antes de todo, parece vivir en el pasado. Por último Ravenna, amiga de Pi, llena de coraje. Son los personajes que más me han gustado aunque hay muchos geniales y momentos que marcan.
January 5, 2016
Holy cow. This might be my favorite comic I read all year. You know that feeling when you start turning the pages of a book slower as you reach the end, just to try to make it last longer? Not only did I do that, but I just sat there with this book, skimming through it after I read it, reliving the art and world Vaughan and Martin have so intricately created here. I didn't just feel satisfied with this. I felt INSPIRED by it, intimidated. Like I will never create anything this cool and interesting and respectable in my life as a writer.
It seems like every possible detail of this world, a dystopian (sort of?) future where everyone hides their identities thanks to an incident decades earlier that saw the unleashing of all of the data stored in the Cloud, has been attended to carefully by Vaughan and Martin. But even so, it's not "realistic," necessarily. It's just a fantastic allegory for a world created by the mistakes of our current generation of zero privacy.
And the best part is, these details aren't what the story's about. This isn't an exploration of this world, a la Transmetropolitan (which is still a favorite of mine), but rather the exploration of the world happens organically around the Chinatown-style detective story at the heart of this book. We get the details of this world as side notes to the murder mystery, which makes this world feel all the more real, like it's been lived in. This is really masterful world-building wrapped around a genuinely suspenseful future noir, and I'm shocked that Vaughan and Martin essentially wrote this FOR FREE while trying to build their site, Panel Syndicate. It's got to be some of Vaughan's best work to date, and he was just giving it away. Do you get how lucky we all are?
Anyway, I'm done gushing. Just read this book. You absolutely will not regret it. It's almost perfect.
It seems like every possible detail of this world, a dystopian (sort of?) future where everyone hides their identities thanks to an incident decades earlier that saw the unleashing of all of the data stored in the Cloud, has been attended to carefully by Vaughan and Martin. But even so, it's not "realistic," necessarily. It's just a fantastic allegory for a world created by the mistakes of our current generation of zero privacy.
And the best part is, these details aren't what the story's about. This isn't an exploration of this world, a la Transmetropolitan (which is still a favorite of mine), but rather the exploration of the world happens organically around the Chinatown-style detective story at the heart of this book. We get the details of this world as side notes to the murder mystery, which makes this world feel all the more real, like it's been lived in. This is really masterful world-building wrapped around a genuinely suspenseful future noir, and I'm shocked that Vaughan and Martin essentially wrote this FOR FREE while trying to build their site, Panel Syndicate. It's got to be some of Vaughan's best work to date, and he was just giving it away. Do you get how lucky we all are?
Anyway, I'm done gushing. Just read this book. You absolutely will not regret it. It's almost perfect.
November 30, 2018
Brain K. Vaughn is absolutely on the top of his game here. It’s always a treat to dive into a solid non-cape comic, and Brian and Co. have truly put together something great. With a fluorescent color scheme well-retrofitted in a reduplicated neo-neo-noir feel, alongside a well-chosen panoply of internalized references to boot, an enormously rich story is resultant.
As much ironic as much as incredibly well paced story-telling, a story of a post-internet world feels svelte to the touch. Believable as it is enjoyable to read, everything feels extremely well planned out, and the story reflects that. As much owing to the past from which it has been gleaned, genuinely respectful homages are utilized to creative effect, effectively rejoinding something new and fresh to the audience. Crisp, clear, and timely, Private Eye will remain a gem in the comic world for many years to come.
As much ironic as much as incredibly well paced story-telling, a story of a post-internet world feels svelte to the touch. Believable as it is enjoyable to read, everything feels extremely well planned out, and the story reflects that. As much owing to the past from which it has been gleaned, genuinely respectful homages are utilized to creative effect, effectively rejoinding something new and fresh to the audience. Crisp, clear, and timely, Private Eye will remain a gem in the comic world for many years to come.
October 22, 2019
Noir. Personajes cuatridimensionales. Posciberpunk. La Nube. Ritmo (de peli clásica, no de blockbuster). Originalidad. El poder de la información. Homenajes a clásicos del cine. Dibujo exquisito. Recursos que cortan el aliento. Humor aquí y allá. Las implicaciones de la pérdida voluntaria de privacidad a favor de corporaciones. Héroes poco habituales. Mucho cariño vertido en la obra. La que nos espera en el futuro. ¿Os he dicho que me ha encantado el cómic?
April 4, 2016
Brian K. Vaughan has more good, insightful, dramatically-satisfying ideas than should be humanly possible.
May 4, 2016
I have seen the future, friends. And it is not pretty.
Well...okay, it's kinda pretty, if we're just talking aesthetics here. I mean, this is Vaughan and Martin and everything they touch turns to pretty. But the story of our future, that not-so-distant land created by everything we've shared online up to now? YIKES.
See that guy? HE IS US. We, the young GenXers/old Millennials. That's what we're going to turn into. A bunch of tattooed, vaguely senile old bastards, bitching about how things were so much better when the Internet existed and when people knew what iPods were. Wondering what the hell happened to the halcyon days of storing our every photograph and every insignificant thought in The Cloud.
This will literally be us.
Vaughan's brilliant (and, initially, brilliantly online-only) comic series addresses some deep stuff. Forty years from now, is the MacBook Air going to seem quaint? Probably. I'd wager that'll be four years from now, if not sooner. But what about privacy? What would happen if the Cloud were to burst? What secrets would rain down on us and, as happens in PRIVATE EYE, destroy our relationships, lose us our jobs, and totally disembowel our sense of self??
Deep, right? I told you it would be deep.
This vision of the future has us not adopting handles (called "nyms" here) online anymore, because there is no "online." There's no Internet. Give yourself a second to let that sink in. NO. MORE. INTERNET.
Has it sunk in yet? Nope, not for me, either. And I once had dial-up.
Instead of relentlessly seeking out anonymity on the web, we're destined to do so IRL (see what I did there? I am so droll) by wearing masks and costumes that obscure who we are underneath. And in the opening panels of PRIVATE EYE's first issue we learn that, after the Cloud bursts, hunting down information about people is now considered a crime, even if the person we're trying to cyberstalk is ourselves.
Imagine it in present-day terms: You're applying for your dream job, so you hire some nifty IT hacker dude to dredge up the absolute worst he can find about you online, and preferably have it scrubbed clean before your prospective employers start Googling the shit out of you. It happens. There are PR firms whose existence relies entirely on this premise.
(See also: Jon Ronson's SO YOU'VE BEEN PUBLICLY SHAMED.)
It's not that much of a stretch, then, to slingshot your imagination into our collective dystopian future and see why hiring a private investigator to scour every library or newspaper or whatever the hell is going to exist by then, looking for dirt on us in the hopes that he can make it go away before someone else finds it.
And you thought this was bad? Oh, honey, no. It can get so much worse.
Explaining why the character(s) in this book would want that information found and destroyed would ruin the fun, so I won't. But it's not as far-fetched an idea as the jovially colourful panels would seem to indicate. At first there's an almost futuristic Mardi Gras feel to the pages, but it's not long before you'll probably find yourself wondering just how close we are to living in a post-Cloud world, and struggling to re-adapt to everything that living offline means for us as a species.
Part of the genius of the book is that, as I mentioned earlier, it was originally available exclusively online, and was set up with a pay-what-you-want distribution system. You could toss a few coins or several dollars at Vaughan and Martin as each of the ten issues rolled out and they'd be all yours in the blink of an eye. Of course, as you get into the story, you realize that the very system you just used to obtain said comics is what the comic is warning against. It's a nice little wink that a lot of BKV's more recent works has as his sort of trademark. We're all in on the same grim joke.
When the series became available in a pricey but gorgeous hardback ("Cloudburst") edition, I whined a little and dropped a few hints, and ta-da! It materialized in my hands. I'd already bought each of the issues in PDFs, but this collection is really breathtaking, so I have no regrets. Besides, these guys put this out there on faith, and given how engaging it is - funny, bleak, scary, surprising, maybe even a bit controversial* - they earned my money and then some. If you're the kind of reader who prefers their art books (because that's really what this feels like) to be tangible rather than digital, this one's a keeper. You won't want to lend it out for fear of fingerprints and a cracked spine; just keep the PDFs handy for forwarding if you're as fussy as I am about that kind of thing.
Be prepared, though, to recognize that the requisite self-insertion character this time around isn't the protagonist, or the femme fatale, or the supervillain. No, my sad little fellow X/Y/Millennial folks: In Vaughan's future, we are Grampa. And we are doomed to rage, rage against the dying of thelight Internet. So before you head over to www.PanelSyndicate.com to start reading PRIVATE EYE, hug your iPhones a little closer tonight. They won't be around forever, you know.
* - Be sure to pay attention to the bit in the cemetery. There's a giant tombstone/monument belonging to a very famous musician who, at present publication, is not at all dead. I'm not sure if Vaughan and Marcos just really hate her or if we should get a Death Pool going, 'cos according to them her number's up in 2017. Place your bets!
P.S. Are you as deliriously excited as I am that BKV has written an issue of THE WALKING DEAD?? Get thee to the aforementioned Panel Syndicate website and snatch it up already!
Well...okay, it's kinda pretty, if we're just talking aesthetics here. I mean, this is Vaughan and Martin and everything they touch turns to pretty. But the story of our future, that not-so-distant land created by everything we've shared online up to now? YIKES.
See that guy? HE IS US. We, the young GenXers/old Millennials. That's what we're going to turn into. A bunch of tattooed, vaguely senile old bastards, bitching about how things were so much better when the Internet existed and when people knew what iPods were. Wondering what the hell happened to the halcyon days of storing our every photograph and every insignificant thought in The Cloud.
This will literally be us.
Vaughan's brilliant (and, initially, brilliantly online-only) comic series addresses some deep stuff. Forty years from now, is the MacBook Air going to seem quaint? Probably. I'd wager that'll be four years from now, if not sooner. But what about privacy? What would happen if the Cloud were to burst? What secrets would rain down on us and, as happens in PRIVATE EYE, destroy our relationships, lose us our jobs, and totally disembowel our sense of self??
Deep, right? I told you it would be deep.
This vision of the future has us not adopting handles (called "nyms" here) online anymore, because there is no "online." There's no Internet. Give yourself a second to let that sink in. NO. MORE. INTERNET.
Has it sunk in yet? Nope, not for me, either. And I once had dial-up.
Instead of relentlessly seeking out anonymity on the web, we're destined to do so IRL (see what I did there? I am so droll) by wearing masks and costumes that obscure who we are underneath. And in the opening panels of PRIVATE EYE's first issue we learn that, after the Cloud bursts, hunting down information about people is now considered a crime, even if the person we're trying to cyberstalk is ourselves.
Imagine it in present-day terms: You're applying for your dream job, so you hire some nifty IT hacker dude to dredge up the absolute worst he can find about you online, and preferably have it scrubbed clean before your prospective employers start Googling the shit out of you. It happens. There are PR firms whose existence relies entirely on this premise.
(See also: Jon Ronson's SO YOU'VE BEEN PUBLICLY SHAMED.)
It's not that much of a stretch, then, to slingshot your imagination into our collective dystopian future and see why hiring a private investigator to scour every library or newspaper or whatever the hell is going to exist by then, looking for dirt on us in the hopes that he can make it go away before someone else finds it.
And you thought this was bad? Oh, honey, no. It can get so much worse.
Explaining why the character(s) in this book would want that information found and destroyed would ruin the fun, so I won't. But it's not as far-fetched an idea as the jovially colourful panels would seem to indicate. At first there's an almost futuristic Mardi Gras feel to the pages, but it's not long before you'll probably find yourself wondering just how close we are to living in a post-Cloud world, and struggling to re-adapt to everything that living offline means for us as a species.
Part of the genius of the book is that, as I mentioned earlier, it was originally available exclusively online, and was set up with a pay-what-you-want distribution system. You could toss a few coins or several dollars at Vaughan and Martin as each of the ten issues rolled out and they'd be all yours in the blink of an eye. Of course, as you get into the story, you realize that the very system you just used to obtain said comics is what the comic is warning against. It's a nice little wink that a lot of BKV's more recent works has as his sort of trademark. We're all in on the same grim joke.
When the series became available in a pricey but gorgeous hardback ("Cloudburst") edition, I whined a little and dropped a few hints, and ta-da! It materialized in my hands. I'd already bought each of the issues in PDFs, but this collection is really breathtaking, so I have no regrets. Besides, these guys put this out there on faith, and given how engaging it is - funny, bleak, scary, surprising, maybe even a bit controversial* - they earned my money and then some. If you're the kind of reader who prefers their art books (because that's really what this feels like) to be tangible rather than digital, this one's a keeper. You won't want to lend it out for fear of fingerprints and a cracked spine; just keep the PDFs handy for forwarding if you're as fussy as I am about that kind of thing.
Be prepared, though, to recognize that the requisite self-insertion character this time around isn't the protagonist, or the femme fatale, or the supervillain. No, my sad little fellow X/Y/Millennial folks: In Vaughan's future, we are Grampa. And we are doomed to rage, rage against the dying of the
* - Be sure to pay attention to the bit in the cemetery. There's a giant tombstone/monument belonging to a very famous musician who, at present publication, is not at all dead. I'm not sure if Vaughan and Marcos just really hate her or if we should get a Death Pool going, 'cos according to them her number's up in 2017. Place your bets!
P.S. Are you as deliriously excited as I am that BKV has written an issue of THE WALKING DEAD?? Get thee to the aforementioned Panel Syndicate website and snatch it up already!
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