front page  ·  comicbook reviews  ·  interviews  ·  comics  ·  merchandise  ·  contact us  ·  newsfeed: rss xml

So says Carter Lennox, a man stuck in a dead end job who writes fiction to make himself feel alive. Set in a world that would be quite compatible with the futuristic visions of Orwell or Huxley, where everything is morally sanitized by the mega-corporation Ethicorp, and the simple act of reading a book is considered archaic. But Carter’s escapism is dashed short when he witnesses the assassination of a man about to engage in amoral conduct by one of Ethicorp’s secret killers, known as “Triggers.” Lennox attempts to contact a reporter hot on the trail of Ethicorp’s true intentions and then things begin to fall apart, or depending on the viewpoint, come together.

The narrative is mostly Carter’s bleak internalizations regarding his world. This definitely sets a good entrance for the unfamiliar reader to experience this darkly futuristic, privacy-barren cityscape. The writing is fresh, with a voice of its own. One can almost hear the dialogue being spoken. John Watkiss’s art is, at the same time, hardboiled and comfortable. The thick black lines often taper off into soft tones giving the characters style and dimension. Jeremy Cox’s coloring superbly complements Watkiss’s line work.

Trigger is, unapologetically, a scathing social commentary. As Carter tours us through this not-so-strange environment, a chill may set in somewhere at the base of our collective skull. A chill that feels surprisingly similar to a thought. If anything, Trigger, which is smartly written and beautifully illustrated, is thought provoking. Not only is the content of Trigger far from regurgitated, the wrapper is pretty fresh as well.