Headless Over Heels – An Anthology
Based on the Suburban Vermin Album
Written & Adapted by: Maja T. Rogic
Based on lyrics written by: Amanda Gamino & Jason Vermin
Illustrated by: Apeng, Gwendy Gale, Andrew Thomas, Dan Kelley, Lerke Lik, Jessica Catarino, Danilo Recevic, Shawn Fone, Molly Doering, Brandon Mills, & Christopher Townsend
Reviewed by: Derrick Crow
Summary: Based off of the album of the same name, this anthology attempts to transcend your experience with the album and pull you deeper into the stories presented in each song. Told through the eyes of a different artist each time, every song from Headless over Heels is featured here.
Review: There's something incredibly interesting about comics that are based off of albums, or stories in general that are based off of music albums. In that generally the writers of the comics will want to use the lyrics from the albums as dialogue in ways no human would actually say. They just want to add to the experience of the story while also going “Look, see, that's totally a reference to this song!”
It becomes a delicate and often messy way to incorporate an atmospheric experience into something tangible the reader can take in. In other words, often times it doesn't work. There are exceptions though, and I feel Headless Over Heels is one of those. Now, this isn't a perfect comic, and the way it goes about incorporating the lyrics is quite clunky at best, having them read off like a poem that changes scene every time a new song is represented.
However, and I'm not sure if this was the intent of all the creators behind this, but as you experience the songs through this tangible matter a sort of story forms that abstractly ties together all the words and all the different imagery. What I took away from this story is that there is a man who was head(less) over heels in love with a woman who broke him down so much that he was never able to recover his life until it spiraled down uncontrollably. The story doesn't end in his death though, and ends more on a subtle happy note from where the story began and the way the lyrics tie together these different facets of this man's life since he left the arms of this haunting woman is really impressive.
Because their lyrics though, the overall narrative seems to be filled with filler a lot of the time that don't really help move the story along, but they're part of the songs so they must be added in. This is why I say the story of the man is abstractly there, of course the changing scenery helps out with that as well.
Let's talk about that scenery, shall we? Each song is represented by a different artist, creating a cavalcade of competing styles for your attention and not a single one of them blend together seemlessly. And unfortunately there is no title to each changing story to tell you when the next song is starting, instead it's just a sudden change and every time it took me out of the story.
The art is alright. Much like the band's style, which seems to be a bit grungy, so is the art choosing to go with messy styles all around. Given this is to tie into the album I think this works just fine, as a reader none of these artist's styles fit a pleasing aesthetic for me but I'm sure someone out there will like them.
Overall, I feel Headless Over Heels is actually a solid read as well as a solid listen if you decide to pick up the album as well. If you just pay attention to how the different sections unfold, there is a story in there and it's a pretty darn good one. It's sadly just hidden slightly behind the age-old way of thinking that dialogue for album based comics MUST contain the lyrics word for word, or else it doesn't fit. I disagree with that logic, but Suburban Vermin pulled it out in the end. And that's all you can really want anyone to do in cross-media exploration.
Final Score: 3 Vermin Ex-Girlfriends out of 5
Editor's Note: Head here to find out how you can grab yourself a copy of the album and the comic!
Based on the Suburban Vermin Album
Written & Adapted by: Maja T. Rogic
Based on lyrics written by: Amanda Gamino & Jason Vermin
Illustrated by: Apeng, Gwendy Gale, Andrew Thomas, Dan Kelley, Lerke Lik, Jessica Catarino, Danilo Recevic, Shawn Fone, Molly Doering, Brandon Mills, & Christopher Townsend
Reviewed by: Derrick Crow
Summary: Based off of the album of the same name, this anthology attempts to transcend your experience with the album and pull you deeper into the stories presented in each song. Told through the eyes of a different artist each time, every song from Headless over Heels is featured here.
Review: There's something incredibly interesting about comics that are based off of albums, or stories in general that are based off of music albums. In that generally the writers of the comics will want to use the lyrics from the albums as dialogue in ways no human would actually say. They just want to add to the experience of the story while also going “Look, see, that's totally a reference to this song!”
It becomes a delicate and often messy way to incorporate an atmospheric experience into something tangible the reader can take in. In other words, often times it doesn't work. There are exceptions though, and I feel Headless Over Heels is one of those. Now, this isn't a perfect comic, and the way it goes about incorporating the lyrics is quite clunky at best, having them read off like a poem that changes scene every time a new song is represented.
However, and I'm not sure if this was the intent of all the creators behind this, but as you experience the songs through this tangible matter a sort of story forms that abstractly ties together all the words and all the different imagery. What I took away from this story is that there is a man who was head(less) over heels in love with a woman who broke him down so much that he was never able to recover his life until it spiraled down uncontrollably. The story doesn't end in his death though, and ends more on a subtle happy note from where the story began and the way the lyrics tie together these different facets of this man's life since he left the arms of this haunting woman is really impressive.
Because their lyrics though, the overall narrative seems to be filled with filler a lot of the time that don't really help move the story along, but they're part of the songs so they must be added in. This is why I say the story of the man is abstractly there, of course the changing scenery helps out with that as well.
Let's talk about that scenery, shall we? Each song is represented by a different artist, creating a cavalcade of competing styles for your attention and not a single one of them blend together seemlessly. And unfortunately there is no title to each changing story to tell you when the next song is starting, instead it's just a sudden change and every time it took me out of the story.
The art is alright. Much like the band's style, which seems to be a bit grungy, so is the art choosing to go with messy styles all around. Given this is to tie into the album I think this works just fine, as a reader none of these artist's styles fit a pleasing aesthetic for me but I'm sure someone out there will like them.
Overall, I feel Headless Over Heels is actually a solid read as well as a solid listen if you decide to pick up the album as well. If you just pay attention to how the different sections unfold, there is a story in there and it's a pretty darn good one. It's sadly just hidden slightly behind the age-old way of thinking that dialogue for album based comics MUST contain the lyrics word for word, or else it doesn't fit. I disagree with that logic, but Suburban Vermin pulled it out in the end. And that's all you can really want anyone to do in cross-media exploration.
Final Score: 3 Vermin Ex-Girlfriends out of 5
Editor's Note: Head here to find out how you can grab yourself a copy of the album and the comic!