A Wide World of Comics

 For this week in the subject of European comics, I read Ranxerox. It was interesting to say the least. The art was very good. The mix between graphic styling and hyperrealism was interesting and all of the character designs were unique and different. It reminded me a bit of the underground comics from earlier in the year, but of a much higher quality.

            The tone reminded me a lot of sci-fi movies of the early 80’s like Blade Runner, and Total Recall. The idea of this sort of high technology, low moral future seemed to be popular in that time period. The not-quite-dystopian future where the control everything and death is completely overlooked and downplayed.

            It is also interesting to note that there are no “good guys” in this comic. We have our protagonists, Ranxerox and Lobna, but they are by no means good. And neither is anyone else in this story for that matter. Choosing a “hero” is pretty much picking who you dislike the least. Ranxerox is a murderer, Lobna is a drug dealer and is awful to her robot “boyfriend” and everyone else is a mixing pot of psychotic. An interesting way to do a comic, but I guess for the type of future they were aiming for it kind of fits.