Rendition and covert, illegal interrogation, those activities usually denied by politicians and spymasters but something most folk probably accept is going on all the time. But when it involves Adi Tantimedh’s La Muse it takes on a whole new level as we find out after several days of nasty interrogators grilling our gal that she’s still smiling and hey, guess what, the interrogators are all broken. No fisticuffs, no use of super-powered muscles clad in revealing lycra, no heat vision or laser blasts from the eyes. Nope. Adi had her talk to them. Admittedly La Muse can be pretty persuasive, but even so the point that words remain the most effective and flexible of tools over brute force, threats and intimidation is a heartening one. And as a scene I found it quite powerful – it reminded me of Straczynski’s Babylon 5 episode where Sheridan is interrogated, both in its quiet, self-contained power and the way it takes place mostly in one, little room (both are scenes you could imagine easily working on stage for those very reasons).
(panels from La Muses’s interrogation, written by Adi Tantimedh, art by Hugo Petrus, shown on Big Head Press)
And boy, this one-page-at-a-time format has had the side-effect of ratcheting up the dramatic tension in my opinion, as well as boosting visitor numbers to the Big Head Press site hosting La Muse. I really can’t wait to see where Adi and Hugo take this and after what I’ve read so far I’m not going to make any predictions as to outcomes, only that it will probably be something unexpected and well worth waiting for. Its been intelligent, very contemporary and often funny and sexy as well as delivering a great storyline – publishers, you should be beating a path to Adi and Hugo’s door for the print version.
Mon, Oct 29, 2007
Comics and cartoons