The Secret of the Wednesday’s Haul

Fiddly?

Did one of the characters in this book really say “fiddly?”

Did Mike Carey really write “fiddly” in a script?

When Faker was solicited, I couldn’t figure out what made is a Vertigo book. The solicits said something about college kids trying to discover who they really were or hiding who they were from the rest of the world. That description could fit just about any number of independent books but where was the magic or the guns that I thought were contractually obligated for a Vertigo book? Mike Carey and Jock have been known to do Vertigo books featuring one or the other of those elements. But college kids on the path to self-discovery? That can’t be from the Vertigo that I’ve known and loved for years.

The opening pages quickly settle into a Vertigo groove as Jessie, a young college girl, seduces and blackmails one of her professors. Imagine a TV show like The O.C. or Felicity but in the morally ambiguous world of 100 Bullets and you may get a bit of an idea what this series is like. Carey focuses on five college housemates; Jessie, Marky, Sack, Yvonne and Nick. Jessie, who we’ve met, blackmails her professors. Yvonne hacks programs (oddly in her underwear,) Sack doesn’t do that much, Marky quickly moves from girl to girl and boy to boy and Nick… well, Nick seems to be the center and glue of this group. He doesn’t show up until late in the book thanks to a Minnesota snow storm but he has an oddly calming and steadying effect on the group.

Calling them housemates seems too cold but it’s hard to tell if this group are really friends; they’re together because they don’t seem to work well apart. They’re together because that’s just the way it is and there’s no reason to question it. The only halfway healthy relationships any of them have appears just to be with each other. Outside of the group, we see them using other people more than relating to them. Even at a beginning-of-the-semester college party, the group eventually head off on their own to do shots of flaming drinks and talk.

During that late-night drinking session, Fakers begins to veer into Vertigo territory, first with a reference to “liquid crystal info storage (shades of Grant Morrison or Douglas Rushkoff.) Later during class registration, the computers don’t have any reference to Nick even though he’s taken classes at the university before. Even one of his professors from just the previous semester can’t remember who Nick is. What’s going on here has to wait until next issue because other events intrude and take precedence over the conclusion of the story.

Getting through the first half of the issue is a bit of a chore. Almost immediately you know that none of the characters are very likable or charming yet there’s a certain attraction to them, to their tightly woven friendship. Carey manages to make unappealing characters appealing. Jessie is morally reprehensible as quickly established in the first five pages but when she’s part of the group, that changes somehow and she becomes strangely friendly.

Jock’s artwork and Lee Loughridge’s colors create the world around them. After enjoying Jock’s artwork on the action-packed The Losers, his artwork fits in nicely here as his storytelling abilities shows through. Loughridge gives each scene it’s own color palette; the opening is yellow, the second scene is bluish-green, but the colors remain muted until the very last page where a bright crimson red highlights the dangerous cliffhanger.

“Everyone has something to hide” the cover tells us. The cast of Faker are hiding something big and you have to wonder if even they realize what it is.

Faker #1
Part 1 of 6
Written by: Mike Carey
Art by: Jock
Lettered by: Clem Robins
Colored by: Lee Loughridge

Technorati Tags: Faker, Vertigo Comics, Mike Carey, Jock

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