A complex occult secret spanning four periods with four different artists, Bodies shows that Vertigo hasn’t lost its appetite for taking a risk.
With most of the creator-owned thunder currently emanating from Image, it may come as a bit of a surprise that this champion has come from Vertigo – an imprint that has lost out as much as any type of to that seemingly unstoppable publisher in recent years.
However, with a sense of history repeating itself that resonates with the temporal shenanigans contained within its pages, this year’s finest restricted Series, Bodies, is a complex as well as strongly authored series marshalled by a British writer.
But this time round it’s not Moore, Milligan or Morrison, however Si Spencer, whose Hellblazer: City of Demons as well as vinyl Underground series for the exact same publisher ploughed a similar furrow with London’s rich occult heritage.
The concept at the heart of Bodies obviously pertained to Spencer in a dream: “four time periods, four detectives, four murders: exact same MO, exact same location, exact same victim… someone’s being murdered — forever”.
That pitch is then mapped onto the style of the comic: each problem features a six-page episode from each of the eras, crafted in an extremely private style by a different artist while still knitting together the bigger picture.
With its backbone of murders in east London linked across the centuries, Bodies owes at least a nod to Peter Ackroyd’s extremely influential book Hawksmoor. However, it’s definitely not the very first time Ackroyd’s themes have been teased into comics form, as well as Spencer doubles down by cutting his narrative across four vividly depicted eras as well as four detectives who definitely are not all they seem.
So, in 1890, with the wounds of the Whitechapel murders still raw, we have Edmond Hillinghead trying to push the authorities force into a more scientific mode of detection while concealing his own homosexuality. In chaotic Blitz-torn 1940, “Charles Whiteman” is a polish emigré hiding both his past as well as his own ruthless criminal activity.
Moving into the twenty-first century, 2014 brings us Shahara Hassan, a fast-tracked female Muslim detective in an progressively xenophobic society, hiding the stamina of her belief behind the ‘banter’ required by the job. Then, in a dislocated 2050, the dreamy amnesiac Maplewood remains hidden from herself by the mysterious mind-scrambling effects of the ubiquitous however as-yet-undefined “Pulsewave”.
For all its complexity, Bodies really requires its biggest suspension of disbelief on the very first page, with the concept that the present-day Metropolitan authorities would take robust action against right-wing extremists, rather than “kettling” as well as intimidating the anti-fascist protesters who stand against them.
However, that opening scene cements the location, in addition to the concept that London’s centuries-deep social strata have been formed by wave after wave of immigrants – a key style that is played out across the complex narrative (along with recurring pictures as well as phrases that weave together the temporal cat’s cradle supporting the story).
Spencer’s energetic dialogue as well as narration, packed with pithy as well as authentic-sounding period touches, produce a strong sense of time as well as place, backed up by the influenced option of artist for each segment.
Dean Ormston embellishes 1890 with a suitably gothic atmosphere; Phil Winslade creates gritty London noir for 1940; Meghan Hetrick gives the present day a high-def, state-of-the-art gloss; as well as Tula Lotay (also the champion of this year’s damaged Frontier award for Breakout Talent) captures completely the dreamlike psychic miasma of Maplewood’s 2050.
It’s worth mentioning right here that the book’s success should likewise be attributed in no little part to colourist Lee Loughridge (a nominee in our Colourist of the Year category), whose intelligent, sensitive work gives each strand of the story its own identity, from the near-monochrome as well as chilling red accents of Victorian London to the trippy cyberdelia of post-Pulsewave 2050.
With the addition of covers by a little army of comics’ finest (including Brian Bolland, Paul Pope as well as Jenny Frison), it’s clear that this is an example of comics at their collaborative best.
However, at the heart of it is writer Si Spencer, being allowed to do a juggling act on the tightrope with no security net. For that alone, in an market frequently characterised by risk-averse give-them-what-we-think-they-want editorial decisions, Bodies deserves all the plaudits it gets.
Broken Frontier awards 2014 overview