Demo [Comic]

AiT/PlanetLar was so kind as to collect the 12 issues of Brian Wood's and Becky Cloonan's Demo in a single volume. Not having read the singles, I ordered the collection based on some good reviews and generally liking what Wood had done before with AiT (The Couriers and Couscous Express, I think).

The stories revolve around (mostly) young people with some kind of power who experience life-changing events. Except for this common theme, the single stories are not related. Some of them read like riffs on Stephen King novels (for instance "What you wished for", the one with the Asian kid and the dog, or "Emmy", the story with the girl who commands with her voice), others are quiet mood pieces like "Girl You Want", the story of the girl whose appearance changes to whatever the person looking at her imagines her to be or "Stand Strong", the story of a superstrong blue collar worker renouncing easy money from burglary for a simple but good life like his father and grandfather had.

Becky Cloonan's art is very versatile, she can do straight and superheroic (a bit remeniscent of John Romita, Jr.) as well as dark and moody or manga inspired.

Overall, the quality of the stories ranges from mediocre to excellent, but taken as a whole the collection is definitely worth looking at.