Review: Gamma

It started with Scott Pilgrim, but now it’s become obvious: my generation is old enough that nostalgia about the nineties is starting to be prominent in the popular culture. Sure, it’s still in the early days, but I can only imagine that it will continue for quite a while. Gamma (written by Ulises Farinas and Erick Freitas, illustrated by Ulises Farinas), which I’m finally going to talk about now, is definitely a piece of that rising  trend, and gives me hope that these things will work beyond just the nostalgia factor. Or at the very least, we haven’t gotten to the point where these are made by people who don’t actually know why people loved that material.

Now, I have to to say straight away that my experience with this is going to be somewhat biased. As much as I hate nostalgia, it’s impossible for me to say it has no effect on me, I just try to be aware of it when it happens. I still play Pokemon, in fact, and this comic is basically Pokemon fanfiction. It even has the same tone and theme as some of those stories, and while most people would take that as an insult, I mean it in the best way possible. It feels like something written by a fan that embraces what made it work while also deconstructing the parts that didn’t make any sense.

This doesn’t look like that kind of dark deconstruction though. Instead, it feels very much like a cartoon, which caught me completely off-guard. I had no idea what it was when I started to read it, and that remained so for a little while. The art style goes a long way towards keeping the deconstruction from becoming too overwhelmingly dark, especially with the opening that has the perfect setup for exactly that type of story.

One of the limitations of this is that it’s not particularly deep in the character sense, but they’re here to serve the purposes of the story instead of the other way around. Dusty has a character and story arc that you’ve seen before, but the fact that his story is in this genre is what’s new and different. There also just isn’t enough room in this comic for a really deep exploration of anything beyond the story, but that’s an inherent flaw to such a short medium, but the creators embrace those limitations instead of trying to fight against them.

It’s also really well set up without tipping it’s hand too early. Sure, the cover might give you an idea as to what the story is really about, but it’s several pages in before the story really goes in that direction, but once you go back and reread, even a line at the beginning which sounds like someone blowing things out of proportion in a fit of rage makes perfect sense, and gives you incentive to go back and reread, and something new to discover when you do.

My only real complaint is that it’s so short. That’s not to say that the pacing is bad or that there needs to be more to the story, I just want there to be more. Sure, I don’t need more of Dusty’s story or the story of any of the other characters, but I want to spend more time in this world and with these characters. It was really fun to experience it, and while there’s nothing stopping them from continuing this (as far as I know), it is a one shot and therefore, I’ll assume until shown otherwise that this is where it ends.

I fully recommend this comic. It’s only $2.99, so if anything about the premise or what I’ve said about it interests you, go out and get it right away. Yes, there’s a lot of it that really feels like just nineties nostalgia, but it’s still got a solid, fun little story underneath it. Even though I want to see more of this world, the fact that it’s just a one-shot means that you don’t have to worry about getting hooked into a new series, if that puts you off from buying other comics, you don’t have to worry about that. Just go out and enjoy the ride of reading it.

Zac Kandell (known mostly on the internet as Mischlings) is glad that he’s currently on a streak of reviewing comics that he actually likes. If you find what he says interesting, follow him on Twitter at @Mischlings for more, shorter thoughts.