Heavy Vinyl, Vol. 1: Riot on the Radio by Carly UsdinMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Most things are just alright. Books, movies, days. It's the nature of the universe that everything just settles into a bell curve. With that in mind, I try to temper all my expectations. I don't expect everything to knock it out of the park. Just as long as they get on base. This book? Yeah, it's just okay.
It's nearly perfect okayness mostly steams from the writing. I understood what was happening at all times, the commas and periods were all in the right places, and the characters weren't entirely two dimensional. But doing everything right doesn't mean you did well. Nothing was excessively creative, the plot was a little thin, and the writing wasn't as engaging as I would have hoped. There's pieces of coolness in this book, but most of it comes off as dry.
The art. Well the art is actually really good. Not and-the-award-goes-to good, but it exceeds its serviceable needs. Characters are well designed and drawn. Backdrops and settings don't feel lazy or uninteresting. Emotional impact and panel transitions are all properly communicated. Given the so-so writing, the quality of the art actually stands out.
There is one thing that really bugs me though. No record store looks this nice or does this well business wise. I mostly say this because New Jersey's Vintage Vinyl, the best record store east of the Rocky Mountains just announced it is shutting down. A reminder that record stores struggle daily to stay in business and are mostly used by their cash strapped owners as storage. It's a cool fantasy, but I've seen D&D games with more realistic settings.
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