Comic review: Negative Space #2- Misery Loves Companies

Art: Owen Gieni
Script: Ryan K Lindsay
Publisher: Dark Horse
Released: 23rd September 2015



‘Misery mourns to be devoured.’ (Manic Street Preachers- Removeables)

I have been thinking about that line, analysing it, deciphering it, and trying to extract every last ounce of meaning from it. I’m still not 100% happy with my conclusions, but as far as I can understand it, what it’s trying to say is that unhappiness feeds on itself, leading to more unhappiness, the cycle continuing forever, more misery, more unhappiness, feeding forever, never satisfied, always unhappy, but demanding more unhappiness.

‘Negative Space #2’ takes this idea of unhappiness as energy, and speculates that as well as it feeding upon itself, perhaps there is some other entity that benefits from it as well? I’ve read about the concept before, the idea that there is a race of extra-dimensional beings that feed on human suffering. They are usually referred to as Archons, or Reptilians, and are often described as working within the bloodlines of the ruling elites of our planet. David Icke talks about it all of the time, so if you are reading this review and are not already aware of the idea, get one of his books, you won’t regret it.

Anyway, the idea of an alien race feeding on human misery is given a slightly new and different take in ‘Negative Space.’ There are no reptilians here, no mention of bloodlines, and no mention of government agencies or any of the real world slave masters of planet Earth. As far as I can tell, the blame is being put onto a private corporation in this book, a corporation that works with the aliens, harvesting the food for them by promoting misery all over the world.

I don’t really have too many problems with corporations. It’s governments that control the world, not corporations. Corporations are powerful, but they don’t have a monopoly on the use of violence. They can’t put you in jail for failing to pay them. They can’t start wars. They can’t even force you to buy their products. Government however, can pretty much do whatever they like. They can extort you, rob you, torture you, kill you and kidnap your kids, then say that it’s legal and that there’s nothing that anybody can do about it.

I didn’t see any mention of government in ‘Negative Space #2’ and I don’t know if that’s a deliberate omission, or just something that the writer didn’t think about. The blame for misery appeared to be completely heaped upon a corporation, and I find that a bit strange. Sure corporations have power, but real power is always within the centralised control system, and that system at the moment is government, not corporations. Corporations do indeed try to pay off politicians and I do understand the revolving door between the two, but government has the gun, and guns have a way of getting things done.

Perhaps the omission will be addressed later? I hope so, because Negative Space is a very interesting book. There is a daft sense of humour to it all as well, making it a very enjoyable, occasionally silly, read.

There are quite a few interesting characters in the book as well. The main villain is ridiculously over the top, (‘I can only beat on a hipster for so long before I need breakfast nutrition.’) and issue #2 introduces a daftly entertaining alien character that is on the side of the heroes.

My favourite character however is the main protagonist, an overweight, unattractive, unhappy, middle-aged bloke. That one character alone is enough to get my interest in a comic book. If I have to read another supposedly ‘rebellious’ book starring a punk haired young girl then I’m going to start losing my mind, so it’s nice to see some real ‘diversity’ in comic books for a change.

I have to mention the art as well. It has a unique atmosphere to it, a dark, almost abstract quality, like it’s touching on reality, but is not quite there yet. It’s unique, and for an equally as unique book, it’s a perfect fit.

Issue #2 of Negative Space adds a heavy dose of dark humour to the pathos of issue #1 and that combination of misery and comedy produces an excellent black comedy with depth and emotional resonance. I need more government in my misery, but apart from that noticeable omission, this is an excellent book that stands out from the crowd and is well worth you investing both your time and money on.


Rating: 8/10 (Not as doom laden as you might think, there is a lot of enjoyable silliness in this one)

Lyrics:

Conscience binds you in chains

Trail by stone hammer and nails

No-one made the holes but me

Misery mourns to be devoured

Killed God blood soiled unclean again

Killed God blood soiled skin dead again

Again everywhere again

All removables, all transitory

All removables, passing always

All removables, all transitory

All removables, passing always

Never grown preserved gently

A bronze moth dies easily

Unknown to others weak to me

Broken hands never ending

Aimless rut of my own perception

Numbly waiting for voices to tell me

For voices to tell me

All removables, all transitory

All removables, passing always

All removables, all transitory

All removables, passing always

All removables, all transitory

All removables, passing always