Review: 'SVK'

By Mark Frankland

Quick show of hands of hands—who has heard of SVK?

Just me then? *Sigh* Oh well. I shall tell you what SVK is anyway. It is something that I personally have never come across for two reasons: one, it is very hard to get a hold of. Probably down to the rather elongated process one had to go through to actually obtain a copy (i.e. you had to join a special mailing list—the only link that I could find was from the writer’s personal website: WarrenEllis.com). Then you had to wait for the email some two months down the line to appear in your inbox. After this, instantly purchase it lest other very unemployed people (such as myself some three weeks ago) get it before you do. Reports of fighting dragons and untying the Gordian Knot with one’s teeth were also reported, although all I had to do was punch out an Orc with one leg, so your results may vary. Secondly, it’s written in UV ink. Right, WTF?

I should probably clarify at this point that it isn’t all written in UV ink. just the thought bubbles of the characters which you uncover by using a UV light that comes packaged with the comic. And I gotta say, despite its problems, I can’t stop thinking about SVK.

So to the actual review part of this review:

The big question here is, is SVK a good comic or is it just a gimmick? Well it’s a good comic with an awesome hook that easily justifies the price.  The story centers on a former British secret service operative (Thomas Woodwind), now gone private and hired by an old associate to track down the mysterious SVK. Along the way he encounters what the SVK is, its potential,  and what the governments going to do with it. The underlying message here is how far will they go to keep us safe? And suffice to say they will go pretty damn far. The main character is typical of Warren Ellis, a former man of the system turned rouge who now attempts to destroy the system he once worked for. This is far into the world of black and grey morality, so if that’s not your thing then neither is this book. If you like Warren Ellis writing then you will like this book. If you don’t, then you will hate this book. This has his style ALL over it, from the scary over reaching governments of the right now, the weird possible future tech that may already be in development, and angry bald men fighting the system. This book is so hard to review because it is such a ‘your mileage may vary’ kind of book. For me, as a massive Warren Ellis fanboy, I liked it A LOT. The main character is cool, the world is believable, the ideas thrown around is everything that the little tech geek inside of me gets sweaty over, and the last page reveal, for me, ties the whole thing together pretty well.

But to make this review less of a complete waste of your time I will talk about the things that aren’t as strongly divisive as Warren Ellis can be. So first things first, the art by D’Israeli is generally really good. The simplistic lines portray a very wide spectrum of emotions clearly and with depth, the black and white with bits of grey/blue is very cool, and the shots of London look great and give the feel of actually being in a city.  And now to the glow in the dark elephant in the room: the UV stuff. Generally its cool. It combines one of the unique narrative devices of a comic, namely the thought bubble, with the story in a way that I have never seen and it ties it in with the gimmick that the book somewhat prides itself on without being intrusive or unnecessary. If anything, my only problem with the use of the UV is entirely practical. It kind of damaged the pacing of the book when you had to quickly flash the light on the page to see if there was anything extra to read/see and then get to the actual reading of the comic. It got tiresome at times. Let alone how one is supposed to read this in any other way then with one hand turning page, one hand holding the book, and another somehow holding the UV light. Maybe Ellis is trying to increase sociability in nerds by forcing them to read together?

To conclude my one big reservation about this book is not what it is but what it reminds me of. And luckily for Ellis that’s another one of his books: Global Frequency. It’s a very similar read where people who sit somewhere in the grey part of the moral spectrum fight undeniable bad guys with cool tech. Just without a UV.

But like I said, I like this book. And if you like Warren Ellis you might want to track it down also. And even if you don’t like it, you still have a nifty gadget to blind your friends with.

Next time I promise to review something you might have heard of. Or maybe just Aetheric Mechanics. I am I little weird.