Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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a great thriller, 2 Sep 2006
With the Wachowsky brothers' movie, you can now hardly pretend not to have heard about V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, but you may still not have read the comic book. As honest as the movie was, I find it less effective than the comic book for several reasons that I won't develop here, except one : the movie doesn't have the shadowy ambiance where things hide in the gloom and emerge from it to pull you in, which is one of the strengths of the comic book, and largely due to the work of its artist, David Lloyd . David Lloyd's drawings are not calculated to be easy on the eye in an effort to attract the reader, their purpose is purely to serve the story - and David Lloyd likes dark stories. Kickback is his first graphic novel as writer/artist.
My first reaction to reading Kickback was a great pleasure at again finding that familiar ambiance. In the first half of Kickback, you're not told a great deal - there's a crime-laden city, and a corrupt cop in a corrupt force who's plagued by tormenting dreams and regrets. But as soon as you open Kickback you are carried away with it. Even if you are unaware of exactly what is happening, you feel something is going on in the background of the main story, something that's rotten. And when you finish the first half, you feel that everything has slotted into place - that things are really gonna start moving - and then you can't wait to read the second part. The second half is very different, and has a greater degree of action. The hero leaves the darkness of the city, the colours are brighter, and the suspense is breathtaking. This second half is a jewel of realisation - it's parallel stories revealing all of the plot and all of the characters' secrets with a real sense of rhythm and intelligence. Tension heightens with each page in a very Hitchcockian way. Kickback may not revolutionize the comic medium, but it's a very good and effective story - well constructed and well-delivered - by a great author whose work never lacks weight.
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BACK OF THE NET, 21 Aug 2006
Not every comics creator is a writer/artist of this calibre. With KICKBACK David Lloyd (best known for V for Vendetta), whose elegant and pulp-y action art and storytelling already packs a punch, shows that he is a top-notch writer too. Understated but complex characterisations and themes, dream sequences that feel true to dream, some neat cinematic set-pieces and cross-cutting, and best of all, room for the reader too. If you like films like the Jason BOURNE series, NARC / DARK BLUE, and TRAINING DAY, you will most certainly enjoy this. The price too is very reasonable. Here's hoping this is just the first of many original graphic novels from this talented gentleman.
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