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acrisalves's review
4.0
https://osrascunhos.com/2018/01/15/the-complete-phonogram/
Eis o predecessor do The Wicked + The Divine! Reunindo a mesma equipa explora os poderes que advém da música criando magos e deuses urbanos capazes de manipular o pequeno conjunto de adoradores que consegue reunir. Não só manipulam como os seus próprios poderes divinos advém deste grupo de seguidores.
Depois de uma curta aventura de um dos principais magos da música que acaba com as sombras de uma deusa mal reencarnada, é-nos apresentado um conjunto de diferentes perspectivas sobre uma mesma noite. Cruzam-se influências e poderes diferentes, mostrando-se como alguns se mantém presos nas suas capacidades enquanto seguem, como sombras as dos outros.
A maioria dos episódios são acompanhados por letras de música que se contextualizam na história e lhe conferem um pouco da sua própria força – temos alguma música pop, alguma música alternativa ou indie. Não faltam as referências obscuras a canções que dão novos sentidos à história e que aconselho a ouvir em paralelo com a leitura.
Ainda que possua todos estes elementos, não foi uma leitura que me tivesse agradado especialmente. O ambiente é soturno e as personagens são um conjunto de manipuladores egoístas que têm algum motivo para todas as acções que efectuam. As excessivas referências exteriores tornam, por vezes, a leitura lenta ou, caso não se tentem perceber, desinteressante.
Existem algumas experiências narrativas interessantes, como a percepção de um mesmo episódio por diferentes perspectivas, ou, no final, a apresentação de pequenas histórias, paralelas, centradas em personagens menores. A história tem alguns momentos que me captaram, sobretudo na forma como usa a música e as várias vertentes que a envolvem (como a dança) para gerar poder e manipulação mas, no conjunto, está longe de ser uma grande leitura.
Eis o predecessor do The Wicked + The Divine! Reunindo a mesma equipa explora os poderes que advém da música criando magos e deuses urbanos capazes de manipular o pequeno conjunto de adoradores que consegue reunir. Não só manipulam como os seus próprios poderes divinos advém deste grupo de seguidores.
Depois de uma curta aventura de um dos principais magos da música que acaba com as sombras de uma deusa mal reencarnada, é-nos apresentado um conjunto de diferentes perspectivas sobre uma mesma noite. Cruzam-se influências e poderes diferentes, mostrando-se como alguns se mantém presos nas suas capacidades enquanto seguem, como sombras as dos outros.
A maioria dos episódios são acompanhados por letras de música que se contextualizam na história e lhe conferem um pouco da sua própria força – temos alguma música pop, alguma música alternativa ou indie. Não faltam as referências obscuras a canções que dão novos sentidos à história e que aconselho a ouvir em paralelo com a leitura.
Ainda que possua todos estes elementos, não foi uma leitura que me tivesse agradado especialmente. O ambiente é soturno e as personagens são um conjunto de manipuladores egoístas que têm algum motivo para todas as acções que efectuam. As excessivas referências exteriores tornam, por vezes, a leitura lenta ou, caso não se tentem perceber, desinteressante.
Existem algumas experiências narrativas interessantes, como a percepção de um mesmo episódio por diferentes perspectivas, ou, no final, a apresentação de pequenas histórias, paralelas, centradas em personagens menores. A história tem alguns momentos que me captaram, sobretudo na forma como usa a música e as várias vertentes que a envolvem (como a dança) para gerar poder e manipulação mas, no conjunto, está longe de ser uma grande leitura.
space_gaudet's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
tdwightdavis's review
5.0
This is one of the best comics I’ve ever read. It’s beautifully drawn and colored. And the narrative is insane and wonderful. If you love music and comics, this is the book for you. If you love and hate love, this is the book for you. If you hate how pretentious you were in your early 20s, this is the book for you. Hey. This is the book for you.
bluehairedlibrarian's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I love Kieron Gillen, so I found this collection extremely disappointing. The lead is a character so insufferable as to almost be a villain, and clearly is also some sort of stand-in for Gillen. There is an unspecified magic system that rarely actually results in any magic and lacks any sense of consistency. Also there are so many music references from the 90s Britpop scene that if you are not familiar with that time period of music, you will likely be very, very lost.
It feels like Gillen was trying to write a story about aging scensters trying to hang on to their youth and control of popular culture as a rising younger generation really came on the scene. If that's what he was doing, he really needed to work on the overall concept and the need for magic was an idea that didn't make it out of its embryotic state. Most of this book is annoying characters being annoying.
With that said, the second volume in this collection is a series of stories telling the same time period from different character's points of view, and it's the best thing about this book. Specifically the issue about Seth the obnoxious DJ and Silent Girl, who quickly became the only characters I liked or cared about. This series of stories had seeds of what eventually became the much better, more interesting, well-written Wicked + the Divine.
McKelvie is clearly a beginner artist in the first pages and his creativity and skill clearly increases as the story goes on. I enjoy his use of fashion to say things about character, and there's a lot more evidence of growth within this one project than with Gillen. Which makes me sad. Because I REALLY love Kieron Gillen.
It feels like Gillen was trying to write a story about aging scensters trying to hang on to their youth and control of popular culture as a rising younger generation really came on the scene. If that's what he was doing, he really needed to work on the overall concept and the need for magic was an idea that didn't make it out of its embryotic state. Most of this book is annoying characters being annoying.
With that said, the second volume in this collection is a series of stories telling the same time period from different character's points of view, and it's the best thing about this book. Specifically the issue about Seth the obnoxious DJ and Silent Girl, who quickly became the only characters I liked or cared about. This series of stories had seeds of what eventually became the much better, more interesting, well-written Wicked + the Divine.
McKelvie is clearly a beginner artist in the first pages and his creativity and skill clearly increases as the story goes on. I enjoy his use of fashion to say things about character, and there's a lot more evidence of growth within this one project than with Gillen. Which makes me sad. Because I REALLY love Kieron Gillen.
rex_libris's review
4.0
In the world of Phonogram music is a kind of magic and power that shape who people are and their world. It takes the idea that a song can change your life, the love, passion and transformational potential of those moments, and spins it into something marvelous.
With all that said I didn't love reading this collection. It took a couple of attempts to get into the rhythm of the story, and even then I found I had to go backwards and forward to weave the narratives together. There was a lack of coherence and details that was a barrier to me really connecting.
Still there was something in Phonogram that had immediate appeal. It's a story I want to be drawn into, something in it calls to the reader. I suspect a further reading will offering me a richer experience.
With all that said I didn't love reading this collection. It took a couple of attempts to get into the rhythm of the story, and even then I found I had to go backwards and forward to weave the narratives together. There was a lack of coherence and details that was a barrier to me really connecting.
Still there was something in Phonogram that had immediate appeal. It's a story I want to be drawn into, something in it calls to the reader. I suspect a further reading will offering me a richer experience.
captainfez's review
5.0
Oi. Do you like Britpop? Did you like Britpop? Are you familiar with the psychogeographical pitches resonating through the shitholes of Camden? Did you have a dog in the Blur/Oasis fight? Were you mad for it? Did you think Luke Haines was more arch (and better, let's face it) than Brett Anderson?
Oh, and do you like magic(k)?
If the answer to any of those was affirmative, you're gonna love this book. And I mean love.
Phonogram was, sporadically, a three-volume, ten-year project. It roped together magic, goddesses and the deep spiritual power that's exerted when you hear your favourite fucking tune and the hairs on your arms pop up like antennae. Over the course of three volumes, Kieron Gillen's writing and Jamie McKelvie's art told the story of a coven of phonomancers - magicians working with musical tools - and of the ruins they leave in their somewhat stylish wakes.
(Some housekeeping early on: I haven't read this edition. I read (on ComiXology) the three trades that make up this edition. Goodreads didn't seem to have the three listed here when I was trying to keep records, so I opted for this edition. Still, I read the entire run of the series, which is what this hardback presents. Though some cursory research suggests, I'll be buying this version anyway because there's a newly-added Bowie reference. Oh, you pretty things.)
The first volume, Rue Britannia, deals with a falling-apart mage, David Kohl, ten years post-Britpop. The second volume, The Singles Club takes a different narrative approach and shows an evening as a club night Rashomon, reflected through the experiences of various characters in attendance. The third - a volume, The Immaterial Girl, that almost didn't come to be - provides a suitable conclusion to the series, told as a tale of what happens when power and perfection aren't enough.
I really don't want to spoil the narrative drive of the series, because I found myself consuming this with glee, and would hate to rob someone else of a similar joy. Suffice it to say that it's smart - or smartarse - and is more concerned with gettin' old than you would imagine, given the perennially youthful image of Britpop, all terylene and two fingers in the air. There's a lot in here about identity, and about the role music (and videos) play in the formation of same. From a magic viewpoint, there's a sort of Grant Morrison feeling to some of the ideas, but they seem less - well, less self-important than some stuff you'd find in something like The Invisibles, say.
(Though is that Morrison in there, early on, sucking the life-force out of dance floors? Hmm.)
The art is clean and crisp. It's detailed when it needs to be (and displays some finely restrained colouring) and it serves the story well. Honestly, the uniformity of design throughout the run is reassuring - in other comics where artists have rotated in and out, I've sometimes found it hard to fall through the page again; not so, here.
At its heart, Phonogram is a cluster bomb, just as the best Pulp songs are. It's at once silly and deeply sad, a world that you don't really belong in but that you understand almost instinctively. It makes you feel shit and great at the same time, and it's that tug-of-war between happiness and sadness that typifies, I think, the best Britpop. It's all over this work. If you've ever believed in the songs that saved your life, then you're a phonomancer too, kid.
Hop to it.
Oh, and do you like magic(k)?
If the answer to any of those was affirmative, you're gonna love this book. And I mean love.
Phonogram was, sporadically, a three-volume, ten-year project. It roped together magic, goddesses and the deep spiritual power that's exerted when you hear your favourite fucking tune and the hairs on your arms pop up like antennae. Over the course of three volumes, Kieron Gillen's writing and Jamie McKelvie's art told the story of a coven of phonomancers - magicians working with musical tools - and of the ruins they leave in their somewhat stylish wakes.
(Some housekeeping early on: I haven't read this edition. I read (on ComiXology) the three trades that make up this edition. Goodreads didn't seem to have the three listed here when I was trying to keep records, so I opted for this edition. Still, I read the entire run of the series, which is what this hardback presents. Though some cursory research suggests, I'll be buying this version anyway because there's a newly-added Bowie reference. Oh, you pretty things.)
The first volume, Rue Britannia, deals with a falling-apart mage, David Kohl, ten years post-Britpop. The second volume, The Singles Club takes a different narrative approach and shows an evening as a club night Rashomon, reflected through the experiences of various characters in attendance. The third - a volume, The Immaterial Girl, that almost didn't come to be - provides a suitable conclusion to the series, told as a tale of what happens when power and perfection aren't enough.
I really don't want to spoil the narrative drive of the series, because I found myself consuming this with glee, and would hate to rob someone else of a similar joy. Suffice it to say that it's smart - or smartarse - and is more concerned with gettin' old than you would imagine, given the perennially youthful image of Britpop, all terylene and two fingers in the air. There's a lot in here about identity, and about the role music (and videos) play in the formation of same. From a magic viewpoint, there's a sort of Grant Morrison feeling to some of the ideas, but they seem less - well, less self-important than some stuff you'd find in something like The Invisibles, say.
(Though is that Morrison in there, early on, sucking the life-force out of dance floors? Hmm.)
The art is clean and crisp. It's detailed when it needs to be (and displays some finely restrained colouring) and it serves the story well. Honestly, the uniformity of design throughout the run is reassuring - in other comics where artists have rotated in and out, I've sometimes found it hard to fall through the page again; not so, here.
At its heart, Phonogram is a cluster bomb, just as the best Pulp songs are. It's at once silly and deeply sad, a world that you don't really belong in but that you understand almost instinctively. It makes you feel shit and great at the same time, and it's that tug-of-war between happiness and sadness that typifies, I think, the best Britpop. It's all over this work. If you've ever believed in the songs that saved your life, then you're a phonomancer too, kid.
Hop to it.
ellen_mellor's review
5.0
I've just finished The Complete Phonogram by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie and oh god, it's so good. I had read it all in single issues but was absolutely compelled to buy the beautiful hardcover collection of the series (although I may have to go and pull out the singles to read the essays which, unfortunately, weren't included in the volume). But it's such a good series - three very different stories told in three very different styles with Gillen and McKelvie's usual artful experimentation. The basic concept reads very much like 'Hellblazer with Music' but it doesn't stay there for more than a moment before taking you off on a journey that uses the concept of music as magic (and vice versa) to explore the concepts of things changing as you get older and how trying to hold on to the past really fucks you up.
You don't need to know the music that the story is talking about - it is heavily based in Britpop - as the themes are pretty much universal. You get the idea and the musicality through the text and the images, which is not something that I get often in a comic that includes music. Although, saying that, when I first read it I bought at least one new album because it was mentioned in the comic. (And there is at least one more that I want to buy after reading this edition)
So, yeah, I enjoyed it and I think you should buy it.
You don't need to know the music that the story is talking about - it is heavily based in Britpop - as the themes are pretty much universal. You get the idea and the musicality through the text and the images, which is not something that I get often in a comic that includes music. Although, saying that, when I first read it I bought at least one new album because it was mentioned in the comic. (And there is at least one more that I want to buy after reading this edition)
So, yeah, I enjoyed it and I think you should buy it.
readingrobin's review
3.0
I read this on a recommendation from a friend, who usually has pretty good taste. I've read Wicked+Divine, so I was going in with high hopes.
As someone who knows little to nothing about music, I think that I missed out on a lot here. Out of the myriad of bands listed in this book, I think I've heard of about three of them. So already, a lot of stuff is going over my head.
Also, there's never a clear explanation of how this magic works or really what a phonomancer is. Clearly, someone with music magic. But.....they never really use their magic? Except when they want to get into clubs or have someone play their request. I have no idea how the magic system works in this world, and no, I never take "it's just magic," as an answer.
My favorite story would have to be The Singles Club, where it focuses on different characters over the course of one evening. It was a more low key story that was more about fleshing out these characters than telling an enticing story.
I really wished I liked this story more, considering I kept my friend's copy for more than a year and a half.
As someone who knows little to nothing about music, I think that I missed out on a lot here. Out of the myriad of bands listed in this book, I think I've heard of about three of them. So already, a lot of stuff is going over my head.
Also, there's never a clear explanation of how this magic works or really what a phonomancer is. Clearly, someone with music magic. But.....they never really use their magic? Except when they want to get into clubs or have someone play their request. I have no idea how the magic system works in this world, and no, I never take "it's just magic," as an answer.
My favorite story would have to be The Singles Club, where it focuses on different characters over the course of one evening. It was a more low key story that was more about fleshing out these characters than telling an enticing story.
I really wished I liked this story more, considering I kept my friend's copy for more than a year and a half.
doctrfaustus's review
4.0
Rue Britannia - 3.5 stars
The Singles Club - 4 stars
The Immaterial Girl - 5 stars
B-Sides - 4 stars
The Singles Club - 4 stars
The Immaterial Girl - 5 stars
B-Sides - 4 stars