Forgetless

Before he hit it big with “Morning Glories” and his Marvel exclusivity, Nick Spencer wrote this mini-series about several lives intersecting at the title club’s last party.  Closer to Liman’s “Go” than Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction,” this also uses non-linear storytelling to start us somewhere close to the end before going back to the beginning to fill in the details.  Well, that’s several beginnings actually as each issue tends to focus on a particular character.  Your enjoyment of this collection will likely depend on whether or not you find their character traits appealing versus contrived.  If the thought of seeing models who moonlight as hitwomen, an amateur hypnotist and his partner who likes to stick his dick in inanimate objects, and a talk-show host with a costume and sex fetish try to cause each other bodily harm and/or fall in love sounds appealing to you, then check this out.  I’ll concede that the level of “quirk” in the characters and story rises to near-toxic levels here, but I ultimately found the experience more endearing than off-putting.

You also get a more straightforward shot of story in the collected back-up strips “Contributing to the Delinquency of Minors” as three high school friends use their wiles to get some fake IDs and make it into Forgetless.  The enthusiasm of the three leads is infectious and their dialogue crackles with youthful energy.  It also has the most consistently good art thanks to Marley Zarcone.  W. Scott Forbes and Jorge Coelho trade off duties in the main story and there’s a definite style clash there.  Coelho’s almost painterly style works thanks the expressiveness he gives his characters, but Forbes’ is more problematic.  I can certainly appreciate a man who wants to draw from the work of “Freakangels’” Paul Duffield, but his grasp of facial expressions and anatomy isn’t nearly as good.  Even though there are some definite issues here, I’m glad I picked this up.  It certainly won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it’s certainly the “good” kind of different.