Geoffrey vs. Velvet Volume 1: Before the Living End

This post will kinda sorta violate the ethos behind these blog posts. Since I have yet to publicly define the ethos of this blog, I shall do so now.

When it comes to talking about comics, or indeed any form of so-called "geek media", so much of what is written is negative. It's just nerdrage after nerdrage about everything from Pakistani Ms. Marvel to J.J. Abrams on Star Wars and blah blah blah. If you are a geek/nerd/some other identifier that gets what I am talking about, you know what I mean. You've probably done it. Nerdraged. I know I have.

If I am going to spend time writing about comics, which I love, I am not going to indulge in this. It's low-hanging fruit to come up with witty barbs with which to sting the hands of those who would craft these geek media artifacts which I may scorn.

This blog is only for me to write about comics (and maybe other stuff too but for now comics) that I love. I sorta dropped the ball on that in my New 52 post, which was not overly negative but really did indicate my feelings about the failings of the...see? There I go. Not gonna do it.

So. Comics I love.

Which brings me to Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's Velvet: Volume 1 - Before the Living End.

I decided to try some creator owned stuff. I picked three comic writers that I genuinely enjoy and ordered the first trades of some of their series. All coincidentally Image publications. The already mentioned Velvet, Bedlam by Nick Spencer, and Rick Remender's Black Science.

Since I paid for and read all three, I feel like I want to write about all three, even if my level of love for the three works is varying and therein lies the violation in a kinda sorta way.

I did not love Velvet. I guess I liked it well enough. Epting's art (colours by Elizabeth Breitweiser) is wonderful. The character of Velvet Templeton is different and compelling (a middle aged bad ass female spy). The rub is that I guess I do not love pure espionage stories. This work seems very old school James Bond. The story turns, while not being maybe that surprising, are well told and since this is but the first chapter of an ongoing, I suppose it could surprise the reader well enough down the line.

So. Lukewarm? Yeah, I guess. I was kind of disappointed. I LOVED Brubaker's run on Captain America and have loved some of his other work. I really felt the ball was in my court for loving Velvet.

I'd still recommend it to people who like pure espionage stories. I am not super familiar with the genre, as it leaves me cold, but this does seem like a comic that would really blow someone into that kind of thing away. I honestly think my parents would LOVE it but getting them to read graphic fiction would be a huge feat. I will probably try anyway.

I really want to support creators of work I love and I genuinely feel bad that I did not like this as much as I was thinking I would going in.