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Wow, Demo #6 is getting a lot of discussion in the comic blogosphere. The amazing Dave Fiore has a round-up of posts along with some thoughts of his own. I'm particularly amused by his "post in haste, repent at leisure!" remark. Heh. Don't I know it.

Anyway, my own take on this issue of Demo: the framing sequence was there to show us that the kid could grow up and be "normal". It adds to the utter horror of the whole issue, at least in my opinion. I noted in my rapid review that the real horror of this issue, to me, was how easily the kid and the gardener accepted the display of power. There is some kind of statement there. I'm not going to say it's a "Universal Truth", but there is a commentary in this issue about how we deal with terror.

By my standards, it was an excellent story. If the lack of information about how the boy grew up after he'd essentially committed mass murder bothered me, it was reflected in my giving it four starfish instead of four and a half. Yes, I wouldn't mind knowing the rest of the story, but this tale was only about this incident itself, not about the rest of his life. It didn't bother me nearly as much as it bothered some readers, I guess.

And I've got to completely agree with Dave's comment about the wife... how would she react if she knew what had happened? You would think, all things considered, that this is one aspect of this guy that he really should have told her about before she agreed to marry him. There are two possible scenarios: either he's so insane in that matter-of-fact way that he doesn't think of the event as really important enough to tell her, or he wants to come clean but doesn't think she'd accept him if she knew. I lean towards the latter, since he stops in that neighborhood and even notes that the dog is still with him. The event is still important to him. But if she doesn't know... that's one mighty large secret. And secrets can easily destroy a marriage. So, yeah, I wonder how she would react if she knew.

Er, moving on. I was tempted to send Larry a nice e-mail and try to score a free copy of Demo #7, but I already have it on order at my shop and Larry already sent me an extra copy of Demo #6 which I gave away to another customer (and no, I didn't hear back from him yet). So it seemed like a bit of overkill to me. Still, I like giving stuff away, so:

Although I sort of enjoyed (or at least didn't mind) the issues of AIT/Planet Lar's Scurvy Dogs that Larry Young kindly sent to me for review, I think it would be best for all concerned if I passed my issues on to someone who might appreciate them more than I. The only problem with that is actually finding a person to pass them on to. What I'd like is someone who is willing to comment on them, either on a blog or to send their thoughts to me to publish. I'll send them out free of charge. If you are interested, drop me an e-mail. I've got the first four issues (Larry sent the fourth issue with his happily redundant copy of Demo #6) and I'll send them out to the first person who responds (as long as that person promises to comment on the books publicly (and I'll nag if you don't)). So, anyone up for it?

Update: Someone has accepted the challenge... the books will go out as soon as I can send them.