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trevoryan's review
5.0
A "post-internet" world in which people use masks, pseudonyms, and hologram faces regularly. Satire as only a graphic novel can do.
myriadreads's review
4.0
I expected a fun and interesting read, but should have known that I would get much more than that with a story by Vaughan. The premise is fascinating--after the cloud bursts, revealing everyone's secrets, Internet use changes for ever. Now everyone has a secret identity, and laws have been put in place to protect privacy. The story is fast-paced and action-packed, and explores important questions about identity and privacy in the modern age. It's one that I'll likely visit again.
lddlb's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
geekwayne's review
5.0
'Private Eye: Deluxe Edition' by Brian K. Vaughan with gorgeous art by Marcos Martin is a collection of the digital comic from PanelSyndicate.com. I wasn't aware of the title, but it hit all the same buttons as I miss from cyberpunk type things.
It's the near future, and everything is ablaze in eye-popping color (thanks to Munsta Vicente's eye popping colors). The internet has died in a spectacular cloudburst. Global warming means there is a giant sea wall in Santa Monica to keep LA dry. Anonymity is kept behind garish masks that everyone wears. Strangest of all, the press is now the police, and private investigators are known as paparazzi. Intrigued yet?
In this world, we meet our protagonist, wearing a strange camouflage coat, and going by the initials P.I. (among other things). P.I. finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation that may lead to seats of power and a strange plot to overthrow things. He'll make new allies and endanger old ones along the way.
It was originally a digital comic and the aspect is horizontal pages instead of vertical. This collection maintains that ratio and I thought it was an interesting change. The story is great and the visuals are colorful and interesting, with all kinds of weird details tucked into the frames. This collects all 10 issues, and I'm glad I got a chance to read it.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors, Image Comics, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
It's the near future, and everything is ablaze in eye-popping color (thanks to Munsta Vicente's eye popping colors). The internet has died in a spectacular cloudburst. Global warming means there is a giant sea wall in Santa Monica to keep LA dry. Anonymity is kept behind garish masks that everyone wears. Strangest of all, the press is now the police, and private investigators are known as paparazzi. Intrigued yet?
In this world, we meet our protagonist, wearing a strange camouflage coat, and going by the initials P.I. (among other things). P.I. finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation that may lead to seats of power and a strange plot to overthrow things. He'll make new allies and endanger old ones along the way.
It was originally a digital comic and the aspect is horizontal pages instead of vertical. This collection maintains that ratio and I thought it was an interesting change. The story is great and the visuals are colorful and interesting, with all kinds of weird details tucked into the frames. This collects all 10 issues, and I'm glad I got a chance to read it.
I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Diamond Book Distributors, Image Comics, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
psantic's review
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
unladylike's review
5.0
The Private Eye couldn't have hit the crucial journalistic elements of timeliness and relevance better. The premise is both novel and apropos, the writing is executed flawlessly, and the art is gorgeous. What more could you want from a comic book?
It's 50 years in the future (2076) and the only Millennial we see in the entire story is now a living anachronism, constantly asking his grandson for help getting his smartphone or massively multiplayer online first person shooter game to connect. Apparently, his generation took so much Adderol etc. that he's forgotten how the world changed: There is no Internet.
After everyone's most vulnerable, private Internet searches, naked selfies, and everything else bursts into the public from the Cloud, privacy becomes the nation's (world's?) number one value.
Every citizen who can afford it wears a full costume/disguise in public, trades in pseudonyms, and trusts in the Fourth Estate to serve and protect the truth. Journalists have taken the role of the police. And one illegal paparazzo who is known only as P.I. is being drawn into an important homicide investigation.
This was apparently released online-only (at a name-your-own-price rate!), as sort of a joke and an experiment playing with the content and realistic fears within the story. BKV, Marcos Martin, and Muntsa Vicente were apparently putting this together even before Sony's major e-mail leak, before Samsung started selling Smart TVs with the user advisory "Do not talk about or reveal private information in front of your TV [because it is literally watching you now]."
The story doesn't get lost in the world-building, but makes perfect use of it, showing us the day-to-day technologies that have resurfaced: payphones, cassette tapes, pneumatic tubes transmitting freshly-printed information. But there are also various technologies that were developed during the significantly accelerated period of five years before the Cloud burst. So, hovercars, hologram-projecting cowls, etc.
I'm not working through the bonus "leaked" e-mails showing the initial proposals and dialogue as the creators worked out this masterpiece.
It's no surprise to learn this won both the Harvey AND Eisner awards for best Web/digital comic in 2015. But if you don't trust your credit card information being entered onto the World Wide Web via some dark portal known as panelsyndicate.com, then do what I did and walk to your local public library for the wide-screen hardcover version.
It's 50 years in the future (2076) and the only Millennial we see in the entire story is now a living anachronism, constantly asking his grandson for help getting his smartphone or massively multiplayer online first person shooter game to connect. Apparently, his generation took so much Adderol etc. that he's forgotten how the world changed: There is no Internet.
After everyone's most vulnerable, private Internet searches, naked selfies, and everything else bursts into the public from the Cloud, privacy becomes the nation's (world's?) number one value.
Every citizen who can afford it wears a full costume/disguise in public, trades in pseudonyms, and trusts in the Fourth Estate to serve and protect the truth. Journalists have taken the role of the police. And one illegal paparazzo who is known only as P.I. is being drawn into an important homicide investigation.
This was apparently released online-only (at a name-your-own-price rate!), as sort of a joke and an experiment playing with the content and realistic fears within the story. BKV, Marcos Martin, and Muntsa Vicente were apparently putting this together even before Sony's major e-mail leak, before Samsung started selling Smart TVs with the user advisory "Do not talk about or reveal private information in front of your TV [because it is literally watching you now]."
The story doesn't get lost in the world-building, but makes perfect use of it, showing us the day-to-day technologies that have resurfaced: payphones, cassette tapes, pneumatic tubes transmitting freshly-printed information. But there are also various technologies that were developed during the significantly accelerated period of five years before the Cloud burst. So, hovercars, hologram-projecting cowls, etc.
I'm not working through the bonus "leaked" e-mails showing the initial proposals and dialogue as the creators worked out this masterpiece.
It's no surprise to learn this won both the Harvey AND Eisner awards for best Web/digital comic in 2015. But if you don't trust your credit card information being entered onto the World Wide Web via some dark portal known as panelsyndicate.com, then do what I did and walk to your local public library for the wide-screen hardcover version.
woodchuckpie's review
4.0
A fascinating look at privacy in the future combined with a noir plot and colorful costumes.
librarian_of_trantor's review
5.0
I don't read many graphic novels. But I read about The Private Eye in the B&N SFF Blog http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/6-essential-webcomics-you-can-read-in-print/ and it sounded very interesting. It is well written, beautifully illustrated, dark, inventive, thought provoking. Fifty years after the Internet flooded the world with everyone's secrets, the Web is gone and everyone has a secret identity, or three. The Fourth Estate is responsible for maintaining order and librarians protect records with lethal force. The titular private eye investigates the murder of a client and uncovers a diabolical plot to remake the world.
robotswithpersonality's review
A stylish, dystopic sci fi detective noir about privacy, freedom, isolation and connection, looking back at our current technological age and forward to possible dramatic difference with an equally jaundiced eye. More questions raised than points made. As much sex/nudity/violence as I've come to expect from Vaughan after Saga.