I need to explain the premise of this comic’s existence before the review, so bear with me. Okay, so Web3 is a new-fangled idea for the next version of the internet which is meant to de-centralise the whole thing away from the small group of companies some feel have too much control over it. Web3 is based around things you may have heard about such as blockchains and token-based currencies and NFTs. (If you’re having to search for meanings for these terms I sympathise.)
It has its sceptics who believe it would simply take control away from one group of people and place it in the hands of another and that without regulation a whole heap of trouble could be the result (but Elon Musk hates it so it has that going for it). The push continues and many are behind the idea. I personally have no opinion because I’m lost already and I’m the one writing this introduction! Anyway, this is where the ‘Nouns’ come in.
You know that whole NFT craze that seems to have died a death? That’s what these are. Every day (apparently forever) a new Noun character will be created and sold at auction. Despite that character being bought by someone it remains devoid of ownership rights and anyone can use that character in any way they see fit. Seems counterproductive but apparently if they’re popping up everywhere then that’ll increase their worth to the person who owns them. Clear? Nope? Thought so, but this is where we find ourselves.
Whether this reverses the downward trend to obscurity that NFTs seem to be on is anyone’s guess but we’re here to read this premiere issue of a new comic based on the idea. Why? Because it’s been written by OiNK’s very own David Leach of Psycho Gran and Dudley DJ fame. In a nutshell, apparently public domain brands are going to “change the game”, the plan being that creators could then concentrate on the quality of what they produce and smaller creatives could share this space. So as a starting point does the Nouns comic work?
The story concentrates on a group of Nouns (basically human bodies with a wide range of completely random heads, anything from an onion to an old boot) making a pilgrimage to Nountown, where all of their kind came from, to meet their creator. It’s all quite overwhelming to begin with; it feels like all the characters are trying to talk at once in a sort of random, unfiltered fashion, perhaps like that used online by people who would have these as their avatars.
Over the first few pages it has a feeling of promoting these NFTs rather than telling a good story or developing characters, but thankfully this seems to be by design. It gives us a sense of their chaotic nature and the world in which they inhabit. In the second half of the comic it settles a bit, we get a decent (and funny) plot and two or three of these strange creatures come to the fore to become genuinely identifiable and likeable.
It’s all drawn endearingly by illustrator Danny Schlitz, David handles the lettering too and colours are by Braga. It looks like a fun, innocent little children’s comic and for the most part it is. There’s some nudge-nudge, wink-wink bits of non-explicit adult humour that teenage readers will get a kick out of and which I found genuinely funny, but for the most part it’s child-friendly. Different audiences will get different things out of it, basically.
Pay attention and there are some genuinely hilarious callbacks to earlier scenes and dialogue towards the end of this first chapter. Once the plot itself gets going it’s fun and topical too. I won’t ruin it for you because it’s a nice surprise and the best part of the comic, so I wouldn’t want to take that away from the experience for any potential readers. I’ll just say it’s bang up to date and involves climate change, fast food and veganism in a clever way that’ll have you laughing.
The narrative captions in particular have many of the best lines. It’s a shame then that a few spelling and grammatical errors seem to have slipped through. These give it a sense of maybe being somewhat rushed to get it out into the market (while the market these are based on is crashing). I may be wrong of course, but it’s just the feeling I get. David’s name is also spelled wrong on the credits page so it may have been more to do with the editing rather than our lettering friend. These few errors (and it’s only a few) don’t take away from the fun to be had though.
At the end of the comic are adverts for various other projects based on Web3 and Nouns and they all went over my head but then again I’m not the target audience for such things. Speaking of which, this comic does have a very specific target audience, basically those clued into everything it’s based upon. I am very much not one of those people, so the fact I genuinely found this to be such a good laugh should say a lot.
I can see what the comic is attempting and it’s an audacious idea. Based on its originality alone it deserves some success. With David at the helm it has a good chance. As a fan of his OiNK work there are moments here that harken back to the best of his Psycho Gran strips and that same sense of dark, chaotic humour. It’s not often a truly experimental comic comes along and as pig pals I’m sure we can all appreciate that.
Nouns is a mini-series from Titan Comics and is available from all good comic book stores.
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