Comic book review: Death Vigil #2- Fluffy, irrelevant and lightweight, yet it made me giggle

Writer and Artist: Stjepan Sejic
Publisher: Image Comics
Released: 13th August 2014

It’s the amusing dialogue that makes this book the amusing diversion that it is. There’s nothing particularly original, contemporary or socio-politically relevant about the book, so it’s never going to get a top rating from this reviewer, but it makes me smile and it’s not bashing me over the head with the usual feminist liberal agenda that so many comic books carry today.

I can forgive the cuteness, the fluffiness and the self-aware comic book puns and just read it, smile and leave it at that. Issue #2 clarifies the world that is being created, has a fight-scene interlude to break up what might otherwise have been an exposition heavy issue, introduces a new threat, and that’s about it really.

The characters are loveable and playful and self-aware and they all have great hair, and they are the cool little club that you wanted to join, but couldn’t find except perhaps on the television or in a comic book like this, and they all have cool names that are deliberately geeky, but chic in a hipster kind of way, and they all have cool special abilities, and the animals talk like those old Sandman comics, and they are saving the world, or something, and they look a bit Gothic like a My Chemical Romance video, and they live in a big College era type house, and I’m sure they’ll all have relationships with each other whilst battling the evil emo guys, or whoever the villains are, and it’s going to be a lot of fun, and the dialogue is post modern and witty, and the art is all swirls and double page magical lighning flashes as they swoosh into the night’s sky full of stars with horrible looking creatures biting at their toes.

Okay, so it’s lacking in originality and it’s not really saying anything, about anything. It’s set in a no time as well, a time that looks dangerously close to the mid 1990’s time setting so beloved (because it’s politically safe) of contemporary mainstream comic book writers. It could be 1978 or it could be 2078. The world is merely a backdrop for the cool get-along gang of Emo/Goth dead kids with cool haircuts and swiggly magic powers, but I’m reading it, and the dialogue is funny, and I need something fluffy every now and then, and it fits the bill nicely.

Death Vigil is an average, post-modern, fluffy comic book about skinny dead Goth kids who are far more interesting and verbally witty than their real world counterparts. Compared to my own world it's infinitely more appealing. I'll explain that world to you, the world that surrounds this man, and don’t worry about me. It doesn’t effect me now, not like it used to.

I live in a world of predictable drip, drip, routine, get old, get replaced, no wisdom here. A world of indifferent android people stuck in the ruts and routines of their own creation. Yes, when you compare the world of Death Vigil to my own imitation of life why would I not happily jump into this fluffy, amusing little realm, at least for a while?  The people there are very cool, they talk to each other about interesting things (not sport), they seem happy, they have a cool little gang and I’m really enjoying their amusing verbal interplay. It’s not exactly a revolutionary, matrix shattering, world changer of a comic book, but it makes me smile and that’s good enough for me.


Rating: 7/10

Blitz review: Death Vigil #1- A cool little club of dead people

Writer: Stjepan Sejic
Artist: Stjepan Sejic
Publisher: Image Comics (Top Cow Productions inc)
Released: 9th July 2014

It’s easy to write a comic book that I’ll enjoy and say nice things about in one of these reviews. All you have to do is write a book with likeable characters and decent art. Add that to a good story with a few unexpected twists, interesting and believable villains and none of that feminist liberal nonsense and I’m happy. If you deal with contemporary new world order issues then I’ll be even happier, but as long as you don’t insult me and pretend that it’s still 1993 I’m okay if you don’t want to go too deep into 2014 reality. I won’t give you a 10/10, but I’ll still read a 7 or 8 out of ten book.

Death Vigil doesn’t do the contemporary new world order stuff that would make it a 10/10 for me, but it’s a pretty entertaining read, with characters that I actually liked. It was well written, you get a lot of story for your money, and it looked all right as well. I don’t go too much into the plots and characters in my reviews as I find that really tedious in other reviews that I read. All you need to know about this book is that it’s about a cool little club of Goth types who protect our world from evil spirits and demons. They are dead, but they can walk around and interact with you and me, but they can’t crap and they can’t puke. I learnt that in this first issue.

I enjoyed the book because of the tone of the writing, it had a strong opening, and it had a nice little plot surprise in the middle as well. The characters were written with a smile, and they put a smile on my mug as well. I want to see what they get up to next, and if I were dead then I’d love to join their little club. It’s a cool little club, the kind of club I wished I could have joined during one of the many periods in my life, instead of all of the silent and apathetic people I actually did meet in my teens, twenties and thirties. I’m in my forties now, and I’m still waiting for that cool little club. Oh well, that’s what comics books are for isn’t it? To meet people far more interesting than the boring drone repeaters you meet in your everyday life. So a good book, not great, but it was fun and I’ll keep on reading.
Rating: 7.5/10