Comic Review: PISCES

We’ve gotten deep into the works of the two minds behind Pisces: writer Kurtis J Wiebe’s hit fantasy satire Rat Queens was reviewed (several times) at Destroy The Brain back when it first came out, alongside survivalist horror thriller Sheltered featuring artist Johnnie Christmas. While the art for the latter was phenomenal, it had a less-than-compelling story so it’s a relief that Christmas is bringing to life the work of a writer whose past efforts were stellar. But I also haven’t read Wiebe pre-Rat Queens and the summaries for Pisces in the previews were frustratingly vague, giving off a distinctive Jacob’s Ladder feel, which doesn’t typically end up being a good thing because, intentional or not, pulling off truly surreal horror is notoriously difficult.

Wiebe approaches it from a somewhat mundane direction; the opening sequence is taut with drama but devoid of any unnatural menace. That doesn’t come into play until the main character shifts from one reality to a different one, but that one is still mostly realistic, if intensely violent. But, much like Jacob’s Ladder, unreal anomalies begin manifesting, disrupting that reality and immersing the story in another one. They’re all grim, desperate places populated by generally unpleasant people; there’s only one visible female character and even she’s as rude as can be. Pisces’ protagonist, Dillon, is damaged by his monster of a father and the Vietnam War and spends most of the comic desperately bashing his fists against the walls of his prison, one that isn’t just metaphorical, as is seemingly revealed on the last page. It’s a complete 180 from what I expect Wiebe to write and jarringly so. I honestly checked out halfway through the Vietnam War setpiece, feeling like I had seen and read this story a dozen times before. The ending twist is clever but also immediately brought to mind Ales Kot’s Change, with which this shares a lot of influences but is far less discreet about them.

Johnnie Christmas keeps the book from sinking into its own mire. His lines are just dirty enough to imbue the pages with grit and grime but the action is also still very sharp, the backgrounds engaging in their richness, and the layouts are often the most thrilling thing happening on each page. The colors by Tamra Bonvillain augment the visuals with mountains and valleys of golds and greens but it’s the cosmic stuff where her work really takes off, subtle gradients of blues giving a soft, detached feel, and the way she colors blood is quite delightful to look at. Letterer Ed Brisson, rejoining Christmas from Sheltered, gives a sterling performance, emphasizing the visceral violence with

I have to make a formal complaint about one thing in this book, though. There’s a lot of bad stuff happening in this book. A lot of really brutal, graphic murder, drunk driving, car crashes. There’s also a two page spread of a floating naked guy, and we get to see every single inch of this guy’s nude body… except his crotch, hilariously obscured by a coincidental air bubble.

Compare this to, say, the issue of Bitch Planet that came out this week. There are so many bare female breasts in that comic, it’s actually funny, plus a whole lot of ladies rubbing all over each other suggestively, etc. Heck, you even SEE a man’s genitals, repeatedly! But really, that comic is tame compared to this one because nobody gets graphically stabbed in the eye and then nearly decapitated in a three panel close up. Reading this issue of Pisces after reading Bitch Planet really reminded me of the absurd double standards still prevalent in comics. A comic that treats body parts exactly as they are, body parts, yet it’s more controversial than a comic where a guy has his face graphically sliced off. Coincidentally, Bitch Planet‘s cover has this “Rated M For Mature” logo and, well, it just struck me as funny in hindsight after reading this comic.

So no, I’m not happy with Pisces. I don’t recommend it; it’s not even a little bit fun, nor is it horrifying. Well, not in the conventional sense. But it certainly does go on at length about how tortured the main character is, so if that’s your thing, have a look.

Pisces.