Remember that britpop-themed graphic novel, Phonogram, which was briefly discussed here a few months ago? Well, the trade paperback is out now, and I just finished reading it.
It's certainly interesting, but I haven't decided if I like it or not. I'm curious if anyone else on the board has read it yet. There are a lot of big ideas in it, but none of them are fully realized. It's all very metaphorical about the value and importance of pop music and how bands impact the lives of their fans. I'd say it's all terribly pretentious if it weren't so tongue-in-cheek.
The plot isn't really that important, but it's sort of an Anne Rice Vampire rip-off, except that the vampires have been replaced by hipster music geeks. And instead of drinking blood, they draw life energy from music.
Anyway, I won't go into it right now. It's worth discussing though, if anyone else read it.
I've read it (well, not the trade paperback but the individual comics). I found the whole series quite interesting - particularly all of the musical references and notes on them.
I'll probably end up buying the paperback too if only for the cover artwork. The individual issues had similar artwork to the paperback - each was based on a different Britpop-y album cover.
And yes, the plot was nothing special and it seemed to be simply a means to reference the music. Pretty good stuff though from the point of view of someone who was into that scene at the time.
