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Review: Borrowed Time #1
Borrowed Time #1
Written by Neal Shaffer
Art by Joe Infurnari
Published by Oni Press. $6.95 USD
I didn't like Shaffer's last graphic novel, The Awakening, at all, but despite that, he's a writer I've enjoyed and pay attention to. His best work, like One Plus One and Last Exit Before Toll, deal with men falling through cracks, be it reality or social strata, with supernatural elements and always a sense of displacement both sinister and detached. This book is no different, though perhaps with a greater sense of warmth than the others.
Taylor Devlin is a journalistic, who takes an assignment to travel with a crew through the Bermuda Triangle, to add some color and personality to the story of the Triangle's legend he's assigned to write. He leaves behind a loving girlfriend. In this first volume of a multipart series of small, manga sized books, Devlin has a couple drinks with a bartender the night before departure, chats with the crew, and then there is a terrific storm that leaves him the only one left on the boat. He is directed to a cluttered house where an old man explains to him that he is in a reality ten seconds off from the one he knows, so that he may observe others but never again interact with them. He will never see his girlfriend again. He's not alone, though--there are many others in this reality, and they have apparently gotten used to things, including the grungy guy he meets who starts to show him the ropes.
I don't go so far as to seek out this kind of story, but I'm kind of a sucker for it. We all feel we're kind of a "man out of time," to quote the Elvis Costello song, don't we? In at least one meaning of the phrase. Shaffer's pacing is relaxed and there are some pages of silent action that could really have been condensed, but I enjoyed the story enough to want to continue. Infurnari, who won some sort of Oni talent search, doesn't have the unique style of previous Shaffer collaborator Daniel Krall, but he gets the job done with efficient art serving the story rather than trying to call attention to itself. The people look like real people you'd see every day. Kind of a dull over, but a good book.
Written by Neal Shaffer
Art by Joe Infurnari
Published by Oni Press. $6.95 USD
I didn't like Shaffer's last graphic novel, The Awakening, at all, but despite that, he's a writer I've enjoyed and pay attention to. His best work, like One Plus One and Last Exit Before Toll, deal with men falling through cracks, be it reality or social strata, with supernatural elements and always a sense of displacement both sinister and detached. This book is no different, though perhaps with a greater sense of warmth than the others.
Taylor Devlin is a journalistic, who takes an assignment to travel with a crew through the Bermuda Triangle, to add some color and personality to the story of the Triangle's legend he's assigned to write. He leaves behind a loving girlfriend. In this first volume of a multipart series of small, manga sized books, Devlin has a couple drinks with a bartender the night before departure, chats with the crew, and then there is a terrific storm that leaves him the only one left on the boat. He is directed to a cluttered house where an old man explains to him that he is in a reality ten seconds off from the one he knows, so that he may observe others but never again interact with them. He will never see his girlfriend again. He's not alone, though--there are many others in this reality, and they have apparently gotten used to things, including the grungy guy he meets who starts to show him the ropes.
I don't go so far as to seek out this kind of story, but I'm kind of a sucker for it. We all feel we're kind of a "man out of time," to quote the Elvis Costello song, don't we? In at least one meaning of the phrase. Shaffer's pacing is relaxed and there are some pages of silent action that could really have been condensed, but I enjoyed the story enough to want to continue. Infurnari, who won some sort of Oni talent search, doesn't have the unique style of previous Shaffer collaborator Daniel Krall, but he gets the job done with efficient art serving the story rather than trying to call attention to itself. The people look like real people you'd see every day. Kind of a dull over, but a good book.
Posted by ChristopherAllen at 9:12 PM [Link to this post]
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