Written By: Gerry Duggan
Art By: David O’Sullivan
Published By: Image
It’s amazing what a strong voice can do to a narrative. You can drown your comic in internal monologue and sprinkle on the exposition, and if it’s fun to read because the character is fun to listen to, then you got yourself a good book. Well, good-ish. I’m not going to sit here and tell you Analog is the best thing ever, but there are worse ways to handle a ton of text boxes.
It all comes down to Jack McGinnis. He’s got an attitude that would have done him well in Sin City, and he kind of reminds me of John McClane from Die Hard. There’s this gruff, no-bullshit way to his speech, less misanthropic and more disappointed, and he really sells the opening pages. Those opening pages end in a gunfight, by the way. You’d be upset if they didn’t. What’s great about them though is Jack is pleading his case, going, “if you shoot me, I’ll shoot back and so will my friends,” and it’s honestly impossible to tell if he has friends. He sounds like someone who pisses off more people than he pleases, and he sounds like someone who is used to lying.
He’s fun.
His world too is interesting, or at least enjoyable. The Internet went public and everyone knows everything. There was a South Park episode about that last year. I guess the result is a dystopia where important documents are now analog, and Jack is a deliveryman. Cool.
I guess I don’t know what to think about this world. It’s fine, though I don’t think I’ve come away all that invested. The book plays at some socio-political stuff, most notably Facebook and the whole Russian thing, but it hasn’t committed to doing anything with that yet. It’s very much a first issue in that regard, hitting its obligatory world building and violence, though at least it does both with some finesse.
The artwork is fine. I like the coloring and facial expressions, though I’m not blown away by anything either. The coloring is a bit saturated, but it fits the tone.
Analog is a nice first issue to what could turn into a cool story. I’m not exactly blown away by anything here; however, I like the potential I’m seeing. Jack has a lot of charisma and just enough gruff to him to make him fun, so if nothing else, we’re in for a cool action showcase. I’m curious to see where this goes.
