The original volume of Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan's Demo is one of those series that comic fans hold near and dear to their hearts. It was the breakthrough work for both creators involved, leading to Wood's future Vertigo work on DMZ and Northlanders, and Cloonan's American Virgin with Steven T. Seagle. Now, six years after the first volume ended its twelve issue run, Wood and Cloonan are back with six new installments.
Keeping the same format, Demo is a series of done-in-one stories that explore a variety of different themes. Issue #1 of volume 2 is titled "The Waking Life of Angels", following a young woman named Joan who is haunted by a recurring dream of a stranger falling to her death. After not sleeping for days, she makes the rash decision to go globetrotting and seek out this person she's seeing in her dream, playing the role of a guardian angel.
Wood gives us a solid comic book, even though astute readers can probably pick up where the narrative is heading within the first few pages. Thankfully, the ending really isn't the point here, as it's never been in Demo, but more so the journey along the way. Joan isn't a particularly unique or even interesting character, but through her Wood is able to explore the ethics of being a human being. These are the thoughts that give this issue legitimate weight and make it worth the read. Are you responsible for saving a stranger halfway around the world that you've never met if you have the knowledge to do so?
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Just like Wood, Cloonan is able to jump right back into the world of Demo as though she never left, delivering stark black and white interiors. Her best work comes out in her closeups and facial expressions, of which there are plenty. As Joan gets closer to the climax of her journey, Cloonan makes it a point to make the panels more and more claustrophobic, and it works to great effect.
Being a black and white book, Cloonan's backgrounds are hit and miss; blank sky and outdoor structures usually wind up looking a bit drab, but that is counteracted by insanely heavy details on the panels set inside. In particular, the deco on the interiors of St. Paul's Cathedral is phenomenal. Even rendered only in inks, the details are spot on.
As a bonus throughout this volume of Demo, you'll be getting a few pages of back-up content that will vary from month to month. For issue #1, there's an interesting discussion of the history of Demo and what led up to this new volume by Wood and Cloonan. In addition, there are cover sketches, thumbnail layouts for the entire 22 page story, pencilled pages and a short preview of issue #2. Better yet, the price tag is still at $2.99, so it seems we'll be getting a whole lot of extra content for the standard price.
In the back-up conversation, Wood likens Demo to short films: a snippet of a character's life, one moment in time. I'd say that about sums it up. Here's to another stellar volume of Demo.
