Bionic, an original graphic novel from IDW, deals with love and machinery. It’s the mechanics at the heart of young lives, intertwined with engine oil, and Bionic implants.
This $20 book is a long one, at 188 pages. We get to know a young fellow, named Victor. A nerd, I guess you say. Victor, a quiet introvert, rides his bicycle to school, encountering bullying all along the way. Patricia, the girl-of-his-obsessive-dreams, is suave, popular, and gorgeous. The BIG apple of many a young man’s eye. Until a terrible car accident maims Patricia beyond the scope of traditional medicine. That’s when Patricia Partzlaus’ dad, the owner, and inventor at a high-tech experimental laboratory, restores Patricia by implanting bionic parts.
It’s the one million dollar woman! But Patricia, traumatized by becoming ‘bionic’ is having none of it. She begins acting out, taking risks, living a livewire life.
Patricia and Victor begin a strangely dysfunctional relationship, fraught with social scorn, disbelief, and drama. One day it’s wonderful, the next it ain’t.
Will the two teens remain friends, take it to the next upgrade, or find themselves endlessly rebooting their relationship? Will they even survive the chaos and angst??
Written, illustrated, and lettered by Koren Shadmi (Highwayman, The Twilight Man: Rod Serling and the Birth of Television), Bionic has a ‘hand made’ feel, with pen to paper, and pen to lettering. It’s carefully drawn, coloured, and marinated. At times this works wonderfully well and adds a human side to the sometimes exasperation antics. At other times, we long for cleaner, larger, easier to read lettering, and an improved smoothness to the proceedings.
It’s a fascinating look at ‘what if’, can a geeky teen and homecoming queen make it together, live and unplugged?
IDW, Bionic, $19.99 for 188 pages. Teen +, some partial nudity
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