Heavy Liquid
Writer and artist: Paul Pope
$29.95
DC Comics
ISBN: 1563896354

Paul Pope first emerged in the early nineties, and has quite deservedly worn the 'critic's favourite' badge ever since. Best known for surreal, impressionistic SF in series like THB and One Trick Rip-Off, most of his work was either self-published or put out by indie publishers. Consequently it was something of a surprise in 1999 when he suddenly landed a five issue, creator-owned series from Vertigo - even moreso when people got wind of the relatively free hand he was given by DC in the design of the books, allowing him to dump all the annoying interior ads and minimise the intrusive Vertigo trade dress on the covers. Clearly, it wasn't just the critics who rated the guy.

Over the course of five months, Heavy Liquid unfolded in glorious two-tone colour, with Pope restraining his usual sense of whimsy and creating his most engaging, coherent narrative to date. Readers were left in no doubt that despite the episodic format, this was a Graphic Novel in the strictest sense of the word. And now, you can read it in just that form thanks to the collected edition, released last year.

'S' (for 'Stooge' - an Iggy Pop reference rather than a Larry, Curly and Moe one) is a 'finder' - for the right price he'll locate anything you want, whether it's drugs, guns, money or people. In the past he's worked for the military, but at present his clients are far more likely to come from the shadier end of the social spectrum.

At the start of Heavy Liquid, S has just procured a large quantity of the titular substance from a mob syndicate at the cost of his best friend Luis's life. Heavy liquid is a strange metal that resembles chrome in appearance, and started appearing on the streets a few years previously. Nobody really knows what it is, or where it comes from, but a wealth of urban legends have grown up around it. The Mob is stockpiling it on account of its combustible properties, but what only a handful of people know is that when 'cooked up' (reducing it to a black milk) it's possible to ingest heavy liquid aurally and get an other-worldly high off of it. S is a user and has been addicted to the stuff for some time; it's hinted that this is at least in part responsible for the sorry state his life's in when we meet him.

After skimming off some for personal use, S delivers the heavy liquid to his client - a reclusive multimillionaire art collector who wants a sculpture made out of it. S's next assignment is to find the right artist to create the masterpiece - and it just so happens that the reclusive young talent the collector has in mind is also S's ex.

And so S begins a journey that's as much about coming to terms with his own life as it is fulfilling his contract. What starts as a traditional hardboiled SF noir piece quickly shifts into more emotional and human territory, as Pope addresses S's past, why he's alone and his relationship with the drug that's taken over his life.

Chased by mob 'clowns' and a cybernetically enhanced government agent, the action shifts from New York to Paris, allowing Pope to further flesh out the remarkable fictional world he's created. His New York is no dystopian, post-apocalyptic hellhole, but rather the same New York we know and love today - a little bit older perhaps, but none the wiser. Pope pays minute attention to detail in his depiction of the future - architecture, fashion, music and of course, technology. The inhabitants of Pope's world surf the Internet on their contact lenses and travel from New York to Paris in an hour on STS passenger spaceplanes. It's a brilliantly realised SF setting that immediately brings to mind fully formed film worlds like Blade Runner's Los Angeles.

A curious mix of American and Japanese styles, Pope's art is striking and wholly unique-looking; there's a vibrant, exotic quality to it - a sleazy glamour that gives the pages a hip, urban feel. Heavy Liquid looks as though it'd be more at home tucked in between your record collection rather than your comic book shelf. Pope has a fantastic eye for the scene setting wide panel shot as well, which lends his work a very cinematic look. His minimal use of colour (black, white, red and blue) has the effect of making every scene look neon-lit and seedy; there's clearly a strong noir influence present in the visuals, and every panel drips atmosphere.

Heavy Liquid isn't perfect - Pope's dialogue is occasionally flat and forced, and the slow pacing of the book means that the story drags a bit around the middle, but you persevere to the end - entranced by the lush, futuristic vistas and constant flow of ideas (and the ending alone, I might add, is worth the price of admission).

A post-cyberpunk thriller that can hold its head up high next to any number of high-tech Hollywood blockbusters, Heavy Liquid is a remarkable achievement that's attracted a great deal of interest from outside the traditional comic book fan base (Heavy Liquid was the only Graphic novel from either of the big two to make Time's Top 10 GN list last year). Anyone who finds themselves thinking that there aren't enough good SF comics around at the moment needs to go and pick themselves up a copy right now.