Demo: Volume 2

Six years ago, Brian Wood was an up-and-coming comic book writer with a short stint on Marvel comics’ mutant books, but with one foot firmly planted in the independent comics scene. Becky Cloonan was a manga-inspired artist dabbling in minicomics and small-press publications. Together, they created Demo, a collection of twelve stories connected by one theme, about teenagers whose “powers” are not cool gifts, whose primary concerns involve surviving adolescence, rather than battling alien invaders and super-villains. The black-and-white series published by indie publisher AiT/PlanetLAR went on to win accolades and awards, and was a break-out success for both creators. A sequel then was almost inevitable but the most striking aspect of this six-issue short story collection, Demo: Volume 2 is how effortlessly Wood and Cloonan continue the thematic structure of the original version, and how successfully they utilise the 22-page format to encapsulate each unique concept. The latest incarnation of Demo blew my mind just as thoroughly as the first, and the only thing that is slightly different is that Wood’s writing is more self-assured, and Cloonan’s artwork has matured magnificently.

Both creators make no secret about their collaboration and the creative process. Every story is accompanied by a text piece that explains the approach to the story, how it mutated from ”“ in most cases ”“ single-word synopses to a fully-fleshed short story, and with inputs from both collaborators. For instance, it is fascinating to note how the word “food” that Wood wrote as part of the original pitch slowly morphed into the second piece ”˜Pangs,’ a rather macabre love story that involves eating, and the thinnest protagonist you can imagine. The first story, ”˜The Waking Life of Angels,’ about a premonitory dream that makes an American woman fly all the way to St Paul’s cathedral in Paris, is probably the weakest of the lot; it warms you up, but it is ”˜Pangs’ that grabs you by the collar and gives you a taste of the psychological depths that Wood and Cloonan plumb through their storytelling. The overall emotional thrust of the story is based on a recurring dream that Cloonan had for a year and I’ll say no more, except that it will hit you like a punch in the gut. The third chapter is a love story, and a cute one at that, probably the only time I would use the c-word to describe one of these stories. It is about a woman with an obsessive-compulsive need to use post-it notes to lead her life ”“ even while responding to her psychologist’s questions about her trait.

One of the most enlightening aspects of reading the commentary for every story is the realisation of how much Cloonan’s art enhances Wood’s writing. Her figure-work is impeccable, and the range of emotions she manages to put into individual characters and their body language is stunning. The first volume of Demo had Cloonan drawing nearly every chapter in a different style, partly intended, partly because she was experimenting between the manga-influenced style that was her forte, and the style favoured by the American market. This time around, her black and white dry-brush skills betray no such insecurity ”“ Demo is Becky Cloonan’s definitive style. Give the woman a white page, and she will return a masterpiece, no doubt about that whatsoever.

The lack of baggage is refreshing ”“ you do not need to have read the previous volume to make sense of the stories in this collection and the characters, settings and concepts in every story are completely independent of each other. Even the concept of having a protagonist with a special ability is tenuous ”“ the use of the word ”˜ability’ feels slightly out-of-place here, let’s just call it a glitch in their behavioural pattern. In some cases, it is straightforward, like the time-travelling capability of Elisabeth, the lead character in chapter 5 (”˜Stranded’), who decides to change her miserable present by going back to the a pivotal point in her past. At first glance, the fourth story ”˜Waterbreather’, about a boy discovering his ability to breathe under water, seems like an exception to this metaphor-ridden form of storytelling. But halfway through this revenge fantasy, familiar idioms are turned over on their head, and by the time the story is at an end, you find yourself numb from the tension, something rare in a mainstream comic.

Most of the stories can be read through very quickly. You can take the easy way out and finish them in one sitting, but that would be doing the book a disservice, because the pleasures of re-reading it is immense. The only bad thing about Demo is that it ends too soon; its length is half of the first volume. Then again, the last chapter ends with a note from Wood saying that more Demo could happen again and we definitely hope that this artistic collaboration continues, if only to surprise us with the kind of breath-taking artistry that the duo has brought into the graphic novel medium.