The Infinite Vacation #1
Have you ever wandered what your life would be like if you had lived it differently? Where would you be if you had went to another college? What would've happened if you asked that really cute sales girl for her number? What if you had pursued your dreams instead of playing it safe? Well, imagine if you had the option to change your entire existence. Just think, what if you could altar something as big as the career you chose or something as little as what you ate for breakfast. This, my friends is the premise of Nick Spencer's Infinite Vacation. And while seemingly a simple premise it provides limitless depth to be mined. And that, dear friends, is exactly what Nick Spencer intends to do
The Good
This comic really captures the zeitgeist of our time. This tech being available as an IPhone app, the Google RSS feed that notifies you of your deaths, the ability to sale your life like a book on amazon. It's all alien but distinctly familiar at the same time.
The main character of this series Mark is very relatable in that everyman since and serves as an excellent guide through this universe of Infinite possibilities. Mark is one of the world's top "vacationers", he manages to swap his life out at least 10 times per day. Despite all his reality hopping Mark can never seem to find satisfaction. He relates to the reader how he always,despite his best efforts, ends up in the same place he left, "Dead-end job. Failed Relationship. Bored. Alone. Miserable." Mark's started to notice that an unnerving number of the Marks he's visited have been dying. On top of that, his therapist (himself), and his tech support analyst (also himself) are idiots and offer no help whatsoever in finding out why.
Ward's pencils and coloring on this book is just amazingly gorgeous. The style meshes really well with Spencer's surreal tale. If you've ever seen the film Waking Life then you should have a very good idea of what to expect from the art. Mr. Ward has quickly shot up on my list of artists to watch for in the near future.
Tim Daniel's panel designs are some of the most creative I've ever seen and really add a dimension to this comic that sets it apart from its peers. They're appropriately trippy, but never difficult to follow. They create an uncanny synergy between Ward's Art and Spencer's writing.
The Bad
There's a commercial that explains how the Infinite vacation works and the switch from Ward's art work to a live model is really abrupt, distracting, and all in all, unnecessary. It really breaks the excellent flow of the issue up to that point.
The Verdict
BUY THIS COMIC NOW!!!
Nick Spencer has once again come up with another title that deserves to be a hit. The premise is thought provoking, the writing sharp, and the art's as mesmerizing as the former two. This is one of those books that's hard to appropriately describe in a review so I strongly suggest that you get out there at get your hands on a copy so you can experience it for yourself.