Matt Kindt and Wilfredo Torres craft a mind-bending mystery for Dark Horse Comics with Subgenre #1.
We reviewed the book on the Stack podcast. But in the interest of highlighting more about the title, here’s a summary of the conversation with our thoughts. And if you prefer the longer audio version, that’s below as well!
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Subgenre #1 Review:
To say too much about Subgenre #1 is to ruin its surprises. But suffice it to say it starts as you’re typical, hardboiled, Blade Runner-esque detective story, and spirals in wild directions from there.
Host Alex Zalben called the comic his “pick of the week,” and called out how he’s always looking forward to a Matt Kindt book because you don’t know where it will go. “There was this anticipation the entire time as… Until there is that inevitable twist, and it’s bigger and weirder than I expected.” He also noted that Torres’s art is a different sort of look from a Matt Kindt book, stating it was “more like your typical Dark Horse book,” which helps the issue play against expectations.
Pete LePage agreed, calling out the “tripped-out, fun vibe” of the book, adding that he’s “very excited for more.”
And diving into the plot further, Zalben lauded the book for having “a lot to say about AI and its intersection with art. That’s the thing that’s running through the background, and sometimes the foreground of this entire thing in terms of creation, stealing, and can AI be art? Can you embrace other genres and use other genres? How close is that to ‘I’m stealing other people’s creations?'”
Finishing, Zalben stated that Subgenre takes these big ideas, and laters them over a typical, hardboiled detective tale. “So if that’s your jam, check it out,” Zalben said.
Subgenre #1 Official Synopsis:
From the New York Times bestselling creators of BANG! comes a mind-bending, multi-dimensional murder mystery presented in a pulp magazine-sized format!
A man is living two lives. He is a private detective in a dystopian cyberpunk future trying to solve a triple murder. But when he falls asleep–he wakes up as a wandering adventurer in a barbaric fantasy world where magic exists. Is he two separate people? Or is he a third person that has undergone a psychotic split? He jumps back and forth from sword-wielding barbarian to jaded private eye trying to solve the brutal crime. But the bigger question is, can he merge these realities without losing himself?
Subgenre is the latest release from Flux House Books, a new boutique imprint that will feature the writing (and sometimes) art of acclaimed comics creator Matt Kindt, with crime, science fiction, horror, and humor stories, all told and presented in startling and untraditional ways.
