Too Good To Miss—Bodies by Si Spencer
If you caught the Netflix adaptation of Si Spencer’s mind bending, cross time murder investigation involving four detectives and one dead body, you already know why Bodies might be too good to miss.
If you haven’t heard of the Netflix show or Si Spencer’s graphic novel, you have a double treat in store.
The Netflix adaption did a good job of making the four detectives distinctive. Spencer’s eight issue mini-series collected together into one graphic novel, did an even better job.
You’ve probably heard that the book is better than the film. In this case, the visuals of the comic book are better that the TV show.
In order to make each of the four detectives distinctive, Spencer used four different artists with very different styles. Meghan Hetrick, Dean Ormston, Tula Lotay and Phil Winslade each take charge of a different section of the story and a different character.
The Victorian world of Detective Inspector Edmond Hillinghead is created with dark shadows and unusually shaped faces. The stark red of Hillinghead’s glasses give him an immediately recognizable appearance. But there are no rose coloured glasses here. The Victorian world is a dismal and depressing struggle between the disregard of the upper classes and the poverty of the lower classes.
The artwork of the Second World War is a combination blackouts combined with an orange hue punctuated with the occasional flashes of yellow explosions. Detective Sergeant Karl Whiteman exists in a murky reality in which he navigates his role as police officer alongside running the criminal gangs of the East End.
The clean lines of the 2020s presents realistic skin tones among pastels to present Detective Sergeant Shahara Hasan. She is a modern police officer with a methodical approach and ruthless determination. But the difficulties of balancing personal beliefs, work and romance amid persecution and harassment often lead Hasan to a feeling of rage against injustice.
In the dystopian world of Maplewood, the stark colours and shifts between cartoon-like images and sketched uncertainly represent the challenges of dealing with the pulse that has wiped the memories of the everyone. It is an unusual world, containing familiar elements that manage to exist just beyond the reaches of clear understanding.
The four different styles and four different detectives will need to solve the mystery of the same body appearing in different time periods.
Spencer offers a surprisingly consistent narrative as the story moves between detectives and time periods. There is mystery and intrigue presented around the four detectives, each with there own secrets and challenges.
If you usually read comic books, this is surprisingly different. The stakes are high and the characters engaging. If you like detective fiction, historical fiction, science fiction or crime fiction, there is something for you here. And in bringing them together, Spencer produces a surprising and original story.
And if you’ve already watched the Netflix adaption, you’ll already have more than enough reasons to read Spencer’s original story.
Pick up your copy of Si Spencer’s Bodies (this is an affiliate link which will provide me with a small income, but won’t cost you any more).