Slice of life

Truth Serum

I remember a few years ago I got into indie comic books in a big way. It seemed every single book that I bought had to be black and white and had to have a circulation of about 10 people. That’s a bit of a lie. Part of the reason I was reading the indie publishers that much is because they were publishing things in the form that I wanted. So I was able to sample stuff like Goodbye, Chucky Rice, A complete Lowlife, Jimmy Corrigan, Box Office Poison, Pistolwhip, Berlin and a slew of other books from Oni, Ait-Planetlar and others. However as time went on, either I lost interest or stuff that interests me was not getting published and I stopped by the indie graphic novel, with a few notable exceptions. Thank god for Jonathan Adams.

He’s the creator of Truth Serum. Until 2 weeks ago I’d never heard of this book or the creator. I just went into the store and started browsing like I’m prone to doing. While going through the shelves I noticed this one book that looked different. It had a beautiful design (a topic I will be raising very shortly on Splash Panel, graphic novels and design) that just came off as utter class.

I picked it up and was really amazed by the quality this self-published book had. I’ve seen a good deal of self-published books in my time and quality is usually sketchy at best. This book was larger than all the other books on the shelf. It had great typography on the cover and the back. So I started to flick through it. Usually what happens when I flick through a book is I get seriously disappointed by the art and put it back down. I know that’s just stupid as most times the story meshes with the art and that style seems perfect all of a sudden. Anyway the art in this case instantly grabbed me. It was clean, crisp and detailed with an overall quality that I really liked…flick flick flick, oh what’s that an introduction by Diana Schutz, of Dark Horse fame! As I continued reading her introduction I started feeling an affinity for the book’s creator. I don’t think I’ve ever bought a book based on just the introduction but I was sold by that alone.

So what’s the actual book about since I’ve written enough about what got me here in the first place. Truth Serum is a hard book to describe and still doing it justice. I guess part of me think I can’t really do it that much justice since it’s a feeling you get after reading it that makes it that good. It’s set in a suburban town called Manchester (for all the Brits out there, it looks nothing like the original Manchester) where the town is packed with ’superheroes’. The catch is you NOT ONCE SEE these ’superheroes’ in action. That’s not what this book is about. In many ways it is just a bunch of people talking, people going through life and people fucking up. It shows the weak and often stupid nature of human beings. Simply put this book is about people. It follows their lives and how they meet and part just as quickly as they came together.

The book is oftentimes slightly surreal but it’s always done in a funny way which more and more creators are finding it increasingly difficult to pull off in comics. Many indie books fall into the trap of make a talking heads book that tries to be deep, tries hard to be thought provoking. What we usually get is 120 pages of pure boredom. People looking at each other for several panels, where the creator is trying to envoke some mood or other. Adams doesn’t play to that game. With the exception of the last story the bulk of this book is a collection of roughly (give or take a couple) 4 page stories. So he makes every panel count. Sometimes when he’s got some space to play he’ll fill in a few panels with randomness that just makes you laugh.

Which reminds me. Everything about this book is meant to make you smile and enjoy yourself. From the description at the back, right to the copyright notice in the front. If you want to see what I mean go check out Adam’s website. For example underneath the cost of the book it writes:

FREE if you run fast enough.
Or punch hard enough.

What I really like is how Adams makes his heroes the villains and the villians the heroes. It’s provides great dialogue which is always something that will stay in my mind. Whenever you leave a book and a couple of scenes or lines stick well and true in your mind, you know the creator has done something right. Jonathan Adams has done a lot of good in this package.

I’m pretty sure you can’t buy this book in bookstores or on amazon as it doesn’t seem to have and ISBN number (giving me the impression that it’s a pretty limited run). If you do find this on the shelves however definitely pick it up. One of the better indie books I’ve picked up in years.

Writer/Artist: Jonathan Adams
Publisher: City Cyclops