Written by: Jacob Semahn
Art by: George Corona & Jen Hickman
Published by: Image
I feel like the damning criticism of the present in No 1 with a Bullet could become something more apocryphal as time goes on–it’s not a far jump from Google Glasses to the internet-infused contacts of this world. Technology has a way of progressing faster than social norms and mores too, but that’s its own conversation. Suffice to say, I won’t be surprised if everyone has “magical” contacts before I die, and I certainly won’t be surprised that people will be making sex tapes with them.
Oh yeah, this comic is about sex tapes in a world with internet-infused contacts. It’s also about consent, victims, cyberstalking, and how one unplanned problem can ruin your life.
N1WAB is the kind of comic with a big message first and a story second, though the creative team manage to weave the two together quite well. I sometimes feel like I’m being preached to, but it’s a preaching that makes me receptive to the message, because Nash is a really compelling character. And her world is way too damn familiar for me to not connect with it. I’m not sure how far into the future we are, but it isn’t very.
I don’t mind though. The book sets out to humanize the other side of tabloid media and internet infamy. Someone gets filmed doing something stupid and it gets ten million hits. Everyone is talking about it, pointing, laughing, and enjoying. Meanwhile, that someone’s life has been turned upside-down. Sometimes it’s for the better…sometimes it isn’t. For Nash, she’s now being stalked online and off, she’s lost her job, her friends, and some of her sanity too.
All because someone filmed her without her knowing.
And I’m sitting here going, “I like these characters and this world,” yet my focus is on how everyone has a camcorder in their pocket. Security cameras are everywhere. Our internet footprint now feels tangible, not some anonymous place where we can be mean to each other without consequences. You can Google my name and find me. If someone had been an asshole at my last office Christmas party, you’d probably also find me drunkenly dancing to Journey.
Thankfully my cowworkers kept their phones in their pockets.
I really like N1WAB. I think the artwork pops, I think issue #3 handles a panic attack in a very stylish and engaging way that still feels tense, and I love the police officer in the beginning few pages. His manner of speech is rock-solid writing. Yet I don’t want to talk about that because this book’s message is clearer than its story: The world we live in lacks empathy and will enjoy your weakest moments for the cheapest laugh it can find. Meanwhile, the victims we laugh at are reduced from people to things.
This is an important book. I’m glad it’s a good one, but man, does it really feel necessary too.
