By now you know the drill, Monkeybrain comics don’t specialize in horror, but they do kick butt. “Monkeybrain Monday” showcases some of the digital titles this small publisher has to offer. They may not be in print, but they’re a hell of a lot of fun.
This is a truly beautiful book; let’s just get that out of the way. Jeremy Holt and Tim Daniel seem to know this too, because the script constantly plays with the visuals. Nothing is quite what you suspect, and it’s a total treat. In a remarkable feat, the world of “Skinned” straddles the line between utopia and dystopia. It doesn’t bother offering the answer either. The Occupye is a readymade solution to reality.
WRITTEN BY: Jeremy Holt & Tim Daniel
ART BY: Joshua Gowdy
PUBLISHER: Monkeybrain Comics
PRICE: $0.99
GET IT HERE: http://www.monkeybraincomics.com/
This is a unique book that knows the medium well enough to take full advantage of genre tropes to achieve its awesome ambitions. This debut issue is a great example of playing with the idea of reality in the limitless world of the page. Entire set design can change in a panel; clothing can disappear, and reappear in a flash. All thanks to the glory of the Occupye.
This fantastic device is installed onto the iris; it lets the wearer literally reshape reality around them. We no longer have to deal with the fixed and mundane nature of reality. Instead we live within our own perceptions. We shape reality as we see fit, and user people into a life of serving these fabrications.
Like any book about lofty ambitions, there are dissenters who don’t believe in this cure-all. The protagonists of the book Aldair and Buoy come from two very different realities but seemingly share the same values. This pushes their paths to intersect. One resists the technology while the other embraces it. One fights for pure uncompromised perception, while the other realizes there is no such thing. One would imagine they have a lot to teach one another.
I’ve never laid eyes on Joshua Gowdy’s artwork before, but its nothing short of incredible. Here, Gowdy channels early Michael Allred with big eyed, vibrant character designs. These beautiful figures live in a pastel colored world that oozes manufactured utopia.
There is a dream like quality to the art, and a masterful deception in his skill. The use of static frames but drastically different backgrounds works beautifully. I can’t imagine how daunting the task of drawing this script must have been, but with the expcetion of one or two line breaks, Gowdy makes it look easy.
“Skinned” is beautiful, imaginative, and thought provoking. It doesn’t really offer any sort of declarative statement about its world but rather speaks through character. Each of the sentiments offered on the page hold a certain amount of weight, but ultimately the perception of the narrative is left to the reader. Like any good science fiction the questions are more interesting than the answers. Although one thing is for sure, if reality is a disease, then “Skinned” is the cure.
Rating: 4.5/5 Skulls.
Skinned #1 will drop on 4/16