Public Domain 2

June 9, 2011 4:51 PM

Brian Wood is a comic book writer, best known for his subversive DMZ, which explores the city of New York in the aftermath of a second American civil war. He is now offering a 132-page artbook entitled "Public Domain 2" in its entirety as a free download on his site.
posted by chmmr (14 comments total)

Brian Wood's work is fantastic. DMZ has gotten a little weaker lately, but I would say that Northlanders is, if anything, superior. "The Plague Widow" is especially good.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:11 PM on June 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Sadly Northlanders has been cancelled due to poor graphic novel sales, though they are letting it get up to issue #50.

DMZ is coming to an end soon, too, though TBH it's felty like it's been coming tyo an end for well over a year now, and TBH would have been better off if it had gone out when it was still feeling fresh and new instead of letting it trail off.
posted by Artw at 5:19 PM on June 9, 2011

I loved his Channel Zero, and really enjoyed the first Public Domain. I also follow his Flickr account for bits of art and inspiration, though I must admit I feel a little like I'm intruding when the photos of his family show up in my feed reader.
posted by thedaniel at 5:27 PM on June 9, 2011

Brian has some cool stuff coming on the horizon according to him, so don't despair Brian Wood fans!
posted by Ron Thanagar at 5:53 PM on June 9, 2011

EVERYTHING IN COMICS IS GLOOM!

/calms down

Sorry.

It does all seem a bit grim now though.
posted by Artw at 5:55 PM on June 9, 2011

EVERYTHING IN COMICS IS GLOOM ON THE INTERNET!

Things are pretty fine in the shops, at least in our neck of the woods!
posted by Ron Thanagar at 6:03 PM on June 9, 2011

So a few years back, I'm at Brian Wood's table a comic convention (MoCCA, specifically.) My friend, a journalist and huge DMZ fan, runs to get some cash to buy a poster from Brian Wood to get it autographed. So, I decide to hang out by his booth and I'm checking out his comics and mention that I really liked Channel Zero. "Oh, is that all you've read?" asks Brian Wood, in a rather contemptuous tone. No suggestions or pitches or anything. Just a lack of eye contact and implication that I am totally out of the loop.

...and now I don't read anything of his at all because he was a dick to me at a con.
posted by griphus at 6:11 PM on June 9, 2011

The time I saw him at a con I chatted to him for ages and he was pretty pleasant. Course, that's when I'd first started on DMZ and was pretty gushing about it. And it was at Emerald Citty Comicon, which at the time had a bit of a smaller, more informal feel to it.

The person who has been most a dick to me at a comics convention was Garth Ennis. He basically acted like he couldn't be bothered and treated me like normal people - me! I'm mates with mates of his, the bastard.
posted by Artw at 6:53 PM on June 9, 2011

Oh, I like DMZ (but haven't kept up with it, or any other comics, so am glad for the super cool public service announcement for this artbook!) but Demo is the one that steals my heart away.
posted by byanyothername at 7:26 PM on June 9, 2011

griphus, the first five or so trades of DMZ are really, really good comics, particularly if you like semi-realistic dystopian urban terror stories. I understand how you feel but you're denying yourself some great stuff because of that one episode. Let it go, forgive him and let him pay you back for the slight with some great, gritty, smart political war comics.

(Anyone else having trouble getting the Public Domain pdf to load fully?)
posted by mediareport at 8:05 PM on June 9, 2011

Sorry it might just be me, but what, exactly, was subversive about DMZ? (Yes, I'm pronouncing it DeeEmZee in my mind.)
posted by sneebler at 8:44 PM on June 9, 2011

Well, not to put too fine a point on it, he basically takes the occupation of Iraq and puts it slap bang in New York city.
posted by Artw at 9:22 PM on June 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

I had no trouble getting it to load fully, but then that was before I posted this. Thinking that a sudden mob all downloading a ~100Mb file might cause a bit of server trouble, I gave Wood a heads-up on Twitter that I was going to make this post. I asked him how he felt about the PDF being made available on bittorrent. His reply was that "you ask that question as if I'm not powerless to stop it from happening!" I'm not sure whether or not to take that as tacit approval.
posted by chmmr at 9:51 PM on June 9, 2011

I got the first six or seven DMZ trades for cheap at a comics store's going out of business sale, and I just can't make myself read them. I think I've read the first volume three times, trying to build some momentum for reading the rest, but it just doesn't grab me. I dunno. Maybe the right mood will strike and I'll see the light.

Northlanders, though, is fantastic.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:23 PM on June 9, 2011