Page 45 Review by Stephen
Originally this was going to have been called CROWDFUNDEAD, which amused me greatly.
I'll tell you why in a while. This is ever so clever and fresh.
As the cover to SOMETHING CITY made comically clear, we really should share our lawnmowers. Given how modest most of our lawns are, there are a ridiculous number of lawnmowers per suburban square mile.
But we are learning to share more: carpools for school have long been common; now some rent out their homes while on holiday. Then there's the multiple job front whereby students take part-time work while studying and others take on a second and even third job to supplement their primary wages. Plus, there is now an app for everything.
Sebela has combined all three phenomena and pushed them along the trajectory they look like heading towards their logical, perhaps inevitable, conclusions.
So imagine an imminent future with even more flexibility in which we rent out, while we're not using them, our houses, our cars (they don't half sit idle for most of the day, even week!) and even our best clothes which we wear only to weddings. It does make sense, yes? We probably still won't share that packet of Maltesers: some things are sacred, after all. Then we take out bit-jobs - a bash at babysitting, a dash of dog walking, a few hours ferrying folks about as a taxi service - all bid for and booked via cell-phone apps called Dogstroll, CitySitter, Kloset for clothes and 'Palrent' for when you want some idle company.
Charlotte Ellison embarks on all manner of such innocent yet lucrative activities on a daily basis. So why has someone trying to kill her?
Ah, well, they're not exactly. Instead they've Kickstarted a campaign on Reapr, raising a not inconsiderable $1,257,642, with 2,249 backers committed to kill Charlotte Ellison. Someone's popular - or unpopular.
And remember, in a world where any of us might try our hands a anything for a couple of hours if the money's right, who knows what sort of amateur assassins might take the gig at the right bid? You'll not see them coming.
Fortunately you can hire bodyguards with equal ease and that's where Vita Slatter comes in. She may have the lowest rating on Dfend, but she too is wondering why someone might want Charlotte dead.
"Did you cut a guy off in traffic? Act rude to cashier? [Please don't do that.] Borrow something years ago and forget to return it?"
Structured so that the past day's recollection is split between action sequences, the first issue clapped along at a cracking pace, with an assured sense of off-hand humour and expressive outrage reminiscent of GIANT DAYS. I loved Ro Stein's cross-section of Vita's hopefully safe house, using its rooms stairs and landing as panels, with an ever so clever about-turn to keep the left-to-right reading flow.
Lastly, there's a subtle little clue as the TV screen goes blank and plenty of pictures which betray the lies on people's lips. That's good comics, is that.
