The Private Eye #1
Back Story
My relationship (as a reader) with Brian K. Vaughan provides a great CmX499 story.
I had just started getting back into comic books thanks to my new iPad and discovery of Comixology.
I don’t remember which came first but within the first few weeks I had been exposed to Vaughan thanks to the free first issue of Saga and a mega-sale of every Y: The Last Man issue.
If you haven’t heard yet, Saga is an amazingly written and drawn series. If you have heard but haven’t read a single issue yet you can find the first issue free with Amazon, Comixology and Google Play. I’ve loved every issue I’ve read. There are already so many good reviews on it but I may one day add my voice to the cacophony.
Y: The Last Man falls into the category of incredibly famous series published during my long vacation away from comics. I had never heard about it before. Comixology had all 60 issues on sale for 99¢. I bought the first one and read it. I bought a few more to see if I would love it as much as the first one. In a matter of days I purchased and read every single issue (back then I had a decent paying job). I loved that series. The only reason I haven’t re-read it another two or three times in those moments when I’m waiting for sales or free comics is my heart breaking at the end thanks to Vaughan’s terrific writing. I’ll get over myself, buck up and re-read it all one day for sure.
I only recently started following comic book news so I had never heard of Panel Syndicate or The Private Eye when it first launched or for months afterwards. In fact, I only found it by chance. I self-publish posts on Medium.com as well as read so many from others. Searching for articles about comics I came across this review of The Private Eye.
I clicked that link to Panel Syndicate site in a microsecond after reading the review. Happily I found out that five issues had already been published by then.
Panel Syndicate
Vaughan created Panel Syndicate with famous Spanish (Catalan) artist Marcos Martin (The Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil, Batgirl among others). Panel Syndicate delivers “original comics directly to readers around the world, who pay whatever the hell they want for each DRM-free issue.”
Can’t get more CmX499 than that.
I’ve put this review in the 99¢ section for a reason. Syndicate’s goal is not to offer free comics. They make their comics available to anyone by removing any price and DRM hurdles. They consider 99¢ an issue a good price to pay per issue. If you can’t afford to donate any money for their work, that’s all right. They understand. Many people generously donate extra to compensate for those that can’t or don’t.
If you can pay something you should. Great works, DRM free, from top creators educates the world about an important alternative to distribute and earn from providing artistic content. We need to be supporting this.
I have so far paid just over a dollar per issue. I downloaded #1 donating less than a dollar to try the series. I made up the difference on the second issue not too much later. I added a bit more on other issues to both support the creators (the more money donated, the faster they can get out more issues) and the model.
The Private Eye #1 - Jumping Right Into Action
I’ve always loved great movies that jump right into the action with a taught first sequence that then cuts into the title/credits. Turns out the device works just as well with great comic books.
Page 1: We see behind a camera lense a woman undressing and revealing herself.
Page 2: We learn we have to re-define the word “reveal” for this book.
Page 3: Our photographer gets busted.
Pages 4-8: Awesome chase sequence going from the top a skyscraper to the sidewalk.
Page 9: The photographer loses himself in the crowd.
Page 10: Title.
Good comic book chase scenes are not easy to do well. Done poorly and I’ll be glossing over the panels and flipping pages quickly to get to the end.
I spent time on every single panel of every page for this one. Vaughan and Martin do it that well; a great combination of moment, dialogue and art.
Even knowing the general concept of the book, I still blurted an audible “whoa” seeing that crowd. The detail and especially the difference of every individual on that sidewalk tells you everything about the world you’ve entered and the creative quality of the book itself. I felt the sensation of looking at a large crowd and yet as I then looked closely I saw that each person on the sidewalk (you can never know in this book who’s male or female) as completely different.
It’s 2076. P.I., a crack investigator, works illegally around the press (the law) as an outlaw paparazzo. He specializes in finding information about people. In a world where everyone wears a complete disguise, a Nym, and hides every aspect of hsi/her identity; in a world with scarce available sources of information, few people can do what P.I. can.
An unsolicited client walks in P.I.’s office with a job. The job and her reasons make little sense to P.I. but she pays well and doesn’t give him a chance to refuse. He takes the case. It gets complicated real fast.
Does the formula sound familiar? The Private Eye may be set over 60 years but P.I. takes his cues from Marlow and Spade. He doesn’t work with other peoples rules. He doesn’t shut his mouth. He gets into trouble. He’s surrounded by unique characters who help him and all to often deal with his shit. He even chain smokes (marijuana cigarettes) and works out of an old office that even has it’s own kitchen and looks to be his apartment just as often. Both the writing and artwork give us a character from a traditional role but with his own originality. It works perfectly for this big detective fan.
We have a world with masks and no identities. A world with no Internet but TV everywhere; almost everyone automatically turns the TV on as soon as he/she gets home. A world based in noir but with a full spectrum of creative color.
No comic book fits CmX499 better than The Private Eye. We have an incredible story from top creators with a simple and affordable distribution model. With five issue down we have five more to go. As Vaughan and Martin can’t give us set release dates we have no choice but constantly trying not to think too much and getting impatient for the next issue.
I always fail.
