Vendor - The Future is Here

By Joe Hilliard

Today we look at the science fiction graphic novel Vendor, written by Kevin Abrams and Adam Moore, illustrated by Nicc Balce, published by Viper Comics.

Vendor follows John J. Vendor, dealer in body parts through a twisted tale of a future gone wrong. The Earth is infected by the Moss, a strange green infection that eats away at the human body, eventually consuming it. The new commodity of exchange? Body parts that can be grafted on to replace the infected ones. A vehicle literally costs Vendor an arm and a leg. Abrams and Moore put the length of the graphic novel to good use in setting up this near-future dystopia. I’m tempted to place Vendor in the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction, and considering there isn’t much interesting there anymore, this was a treat. Books like The Electric Church by Jeff Somers mimic the hardboiled dialogue, the techno-frenzy, the body fetishes, without delving into something really new. Without making it come alive. Pastiche. Abrams and Moore don’t fall into that trap. While playing with the conventions of the hardboiled man-on-the-run scenario, they drop in interesting shade of Dashiell Hammett’s The Dain Curse, and the cyberpunk damn the corporation ethos, the storyline for Vendor is definitely its own creature. Abrams and Moore make good use of a central image - the mutability of the human form. This permeates the entire graphic novel. A frenzied chase in the second half of the book becomes horrifyingly maniacal as Vendor and his adversary repeatedly slice off their own limbs and replace them with those of the zoo animals around them. It’s a society that has gone wrong, even beyond the tragedy of the Moss infection. People have simply gone wrong. Vendor is the quintessential honorable man in a dishonorable profession in an sick world. He has belief where there is none. His belief drives the plot, even into the depths that his world falls.

Nicc Balce’s art is very direct and angular for this book. It reminds me somewhat of Kevin Nowlan, but with a light bigfoot overlay. They’re good pencils, unique, vibrant, and they fit well into the story. His faces neatly convey the mayhem and strangeness of Vendor’s world. He brings a believability to men with snakes for arms amongst the more mundane. I also like his fairly rigid adherence to a grid layout of the pages. When he does break from them, as in a reaction shot multiplied closer and closer midway through the book, those sequences become particularly striking. Altogether, some very excellent artwork.

Which is not to say the book is without faults. Vendor’s history, his relationship to the Moss, is not so much of a mystery as presented. Some of the flashbacks come off clunky. They add a depth, and are not badly done, but don’t seem as integrated as tightly into the overreaching story. The ending images reminded me of those from another recently reviewed Viper title, Gypsy Joe Jefferson - the purging and walking away. I understand the symbolism of it, and the set-up for a potential next time, but reading them so close together made the Vendor ending less effective. None of this should discourage you from seeking out this book. It’s too good to pass up.

Currently Vendor is slated for release the last Wednesday of July 2008. It's a good hardboiled cyberpunk story cloaked in science fiction and modern ethical concerns. Artist Nicc Balce's website is: http://www.the-null.com/.Viper Comics website for Vendor is: http://www.vipercomics.com/features/vendor.asp. Check them out.

Next, we'll take a look at Josh Fialkov's current entry in the Top Cow Pilot Season contest, Alibi.

           Add A Comment to this article
          Email the Author of this article

Herein we discuss ... all the things you watch read and play