Sometimes a girl's just gotta a dance.
I’m going to assume that if anyone reads this they are unfamiliar with the comic Phonogram. To sum it up in the most basic way, it takes the cliché “music is magic” and makes it literal. In the world of Phonogram, people literally use music to create magic. It’s a little difficult to explain outside of that because most the magic used isn’t necessarily overt, more like how magic was portrayed before special effects budgets skyrocketed. That means there were mainly subtle changes to reality where no one was sure that person supposedly using magic did anything, but something had definitely changed. That’s really not the point of Phonogram though. Phonogram’s point is mainly to express an open love of pop music (mainly British) by their creators. It doesn’t matter if you know the bands while reading this to enjoy it or get the story but it helps, although the creators go to extensive length to help the reader out that regard, which will be touched on later (as it is one of the more charming characteristics of the book).
Anyway, this is the second series in the Phonogram cannon. The first series was about phonomancer (a mage using music as their magical medium) David Kohl finding out what happened to one of the Goddesses (or maybe an extension, I need to go back and read the series) and also rediscover his musical roots (basically the source of his power). This is the first issue of the second series. Now I know I said that I wasn’t going to review (discuss, talk about, whatever) single issues of comics because the single issue have sort of been losing its way in the comic world, but this is a special case. Kieron Gillen and to a lesser extent Jamie McKelvie (the writer and artist for the series respectively) talked about the importance of using single issues kind of like pop singles in music. Each issue tells its own story but when it’s all written each issue will form an overarching narrative. Adding to that is each single issue includes two back up stories that make up six pages which won’t be collected in the “Singles Club” trade. This makes each issue its own little beast and ripe for consumption. Granted the idea of singles (in music anyway) is much more of a British Ideal (or at least I don’t see it being that important to audiophiles in the States) it works wonderfully here.
The overarching story for this series revolves one night at a club on the eve of Christmas Eve. The club everyone is going to has one rule for the night, the only songs being played are songs sung by girls (also there’s no magic being used but obviously that’s not going to be recognized that well). Each issue will focus on a different character but all take place at the same club on the same night. This story in particular focuses on Penny B, a phonomancer who expresses herself through dance. Her whole intention of going to the club (aside from it just being fun in general) is because this cute boy is making his presence felt for the first time since his most recent break up. Through the course of the night she tries to get the DJ (Seth Bingo, a character who will have his own issue later on) to play the Pipettes song, “Pull Shapes” by coercing him through magic. This royally pisses him off and places a fairly simple curse (I think) on her, which leads to her be turned into a social pariah pretty damn quickly. After some sulking, she shows her potential power and dances her way through her problems and expels the curse. Also showing up for the night’s events are David Kohl and Emily Aster, two main characters from the first series.
It doesn’t seem like a lot of story but there’s a good bit there. It’s more of a character study of Penny B. If you’ve ever seen a girl at a club who is just dancing her heart out and in the process is absolutely intoxicating and mesmerizing to watch dance, that’s Penny B. She ultimately just loves to dance and from the looks of it when she is dancing, she’s impossible to stop. Gillen also drop a number of little tidbits all over the place for music fans to find. There’s also an economy of character development here. At first glance it doesn’t seem like there’s much to these characters but with only a few scenes, you’re easily aware of the characters outside of Penny B. Laura, Penny’s best friend, comes off as a sarcastic wit that is common among the teenage crowd who is basically informed by her musical knowledge (this is readily apparent but once you realize all the references she’s making, it becomes clear). Then there’s Marc, Penny’s supposed crush. He appears in exactly six panels in the comic, but the things you know about are enhanced. He broke up with his girlfriend and he is visibly sober throughout the entire comic to the point where you’re wondering why Penny is even bothering with him (Penny being one of near constant enthusiasm). Finally there’s Seth Bingo and Silent Girl, the DJs, who are complete jackasses (well, Seth is, Silent Girl is basically his accomplice). All three of these characters factor into later issues and their stories are set up perfectly here.
This also touches on the main selling point of this comic, at least to me, Jamie McKelvie’s art. As much as I like and appreciate Kieron Gillen’s writing, I adore McKelvie’s art. To a point it’s a fairly simple art style but to borrow a term I used for Gillen’s writing, there’s economy to it. There are very few lines used in his style but not a single one is wasted and despite this, it still manages to be more detailed than one would thing. Adding to the simplicity is the grid lay out of the issue, which just enhances McKelvie’s storytelling ability. If Gillen never wrote a word, it would be easy to follow this story. McKelvie is reason alone to buy this comic.
The last unique thing about this comic is the glossary and bonus pages of the comic (B-Sides if you will). In the first series, each issue ended with an extended glossary and essays written by Gillen to explain a lot of the throwaway references in the issue. Those are back, although not in as much force as the previous series. This is a handy little feature as it enhances what each of the characters mentions if you’re unfamiliar with a lot of the bands and genres they’re referring to (it’s especially important to really understand Laura’s character at her core) and is worth reading if you enjoy the comic. Also the two back up strips are nice little backups, one introducing a character and the other building a previously introduced character (Seth Bingo).
When it gets right down to it, I can’t recommend this comic enough, even if pop music is so much your thing.
I’m going to assume that if anyone reads this they are unfamiliar with the comic Phonogram. To sum it up in the most basic way, it takes the cliché “music is magic” and makes it literal. In the world of Phonogram, people literally use music to create magic. It’s a little difficult to explain outside of that because most the magic used isn’t necessarily overt, more like how magic was portrayed before special effects budgets skyrocketed. That means there were mainly subtle changes to reality where no one was sure that person supposedly using magic did anything, but something had definitely changed. That’s really not the point of Phonogram though. Phonogram’s point is mainly to express an open love of pop music (mainly British) by their creators. It doesn’t matter if you know the bands while reading this to enjoy it or get the story but it helps, although the creators go to extensive length to help the reader out that regard, which will be touched on later (as it is one of the more charming characteristics of the book).
Anyway, this is the second series in the Phonogram cannon. The first series was about phonomancer (a mage using music as their magical medium) David Kohl finding out what happened to one of the Goddesses (or maybe an extension, I need to go back and read the series) and also rediscover his musical roots (basically the source of his power). This is the first issue of the second series. Now I know I said that I wasn’t going to review (discuss, talk about, whatever) single issues of comics because the single issue have sort of been losing its way in the comic world, but this is a special case. Kieron Gillen and to a lesser extent Jamie McKelvie (the writer and artist for the series respectively) talked about the importance of using single issues kind of like pop singles in music. Each issue tells its own story but when it’s all written each issue will form an overarching narrative. Adding to that is each single issue includes two back up stories that make up six pages which won’t be collected in the “Singles Club” trade. This makes each issue its own little beast and ripe for consumption. Granted the idea of singles (in music anyway) is much more of a British Ideal (or at least I don’t see it being that important to audiophiles in the States) it works wonderfully here.
The overarching story for this series revolves one night at a club on the eve of Christmas Eve. The club everyone is going to has one rule for the night, the only songs being played are songs sung by girls (also there’s no magic being used but obviously that’s not going to be recognized that well). Each issue will focus on a different character but all take place at the same club on the same night. This story in particular focuses on Penny B, a phonomancer who expresses herself through dance. Her whole intention of going to the club (aside from it just being fun in general) is because this cute boy is making his presence felt for the first time since his most recent break up. Through the course of the night she tries to get the DJ (Seth Bingo, a character who will have his own issue later on) to play the Pipettes song, “Pull Shapes” by coercing him through magic. This royally pisses him off and places a fairly simple curse (I think) on her, which leads to her be turned into a social pariah pretty damn quickly. After some sulking, she shows her potential power and dances her way through her problems and expels the curse. Also showing up for the night’s events are David Kohl and Emily Aster, two main characters from the first series.
It doesn’t seem like a lot of story but there’s a good bit there. It’s more of a character study of Penny B. If you’ve ever seen a girl at a club who is just dancing her heart out and in the process is absolutely intoxicating and mesmerizing to watch dance, that’s Penny B. She ultimately just loves to dance and from the looks of it when she is dancing, she’s impossible to stop. Gillen also drop a number of little tidbits all over the place for music fans to find. There’s also an economy of character development here. At first glance it doesn’t seem like there’s much to these characters but with only a few scenes, you’re easily aware of the characters outside of Penny B. Laura, Penny’s best friend, comes off as a sarcastic wit that is common among the teenage crowd who is basically informed by her musical knowledge (this is readily apparent but once you realize all the references she’s making, it becomes clear). Then there’s Marc, Penny’s supposed crush. He appears in exactly six panels in the comic, but the things you know about are enhanced. He broke up with his girlfriend and he is visibly sober throughout the entire comic to the point where you’re wondering why Penny is even bothering with him (Penny being one of near constant enthusiasm). Finally there’s Seth Bingo and Silent Girl, the DJs, who are complete jackasses (well, Seth is, Silent Girl is basically his accomplice). All three of these characters factor into later issues and their stories are set up perfectly here.
This also touches on the main selling point of this comic, at least to me, Jamie McKelvie’s art. As much as I like and appreciate Kieron Gillen’s writing, I adore McKelvie’s art. To a point it’s a fairly simple art style but to borrow a term I used for Gillen’s writing, there’s economy to it. There are very few lines used in his style but not a single one is wasted and despite this, it still manages to be more detailed than one would thing. Adding to the simplicity is the grid lay out of the issue, which just enhances McKelvie’s storytelling ability. If Gillen never wrote a word, it would be easy to follow this story. McKelvie is reason alone to buy this comic.
The last unique thing about this comic is the glossary and bonus pages of the comic (B-Sides if you will). In the first series, each issue ended with an extended glossary and essays written by Gillen to explain a lot of the throwaway references in the issue. Those are back, although not in as much force as the previous series. This is a handy little feature as it enhances what each of the characters mentions if you’re unfamiliar with a lot of the bands and genres they’re referring to (it’s especially important to really understand Laura’s character at her core) and is worth reading if you enjoy the comic. Also the two back up strips are nice little backups, one introducing a character and the other building a previously introduced character (Seth Bingo).
When it gets right down to it, I can’t recommend this comic enough, even if pop music is so much your thing.
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