I'm slowly working my way through the stack, and I started with a series that I started 2 years ago, and have now completed... Because it was cancelled. The series is a Vertigo title that lasted 12 issues, which sucks because it had a lot of potential, clearly not many readers though.The series follows a group of twenty-somethings living in London, who have a knack for solving occult crimes. Moz is the playboy son of a football (soccer) legend, his ex-fiancée Abi, an ex-con who goes by "Perv" and morgue assistant by day; porn star by night pyromaniac, Leah King. They all have a love/hate relationship with each other, and you kind of want to hate Moz straight away, but you get over it as you see he's trying his best not to be a dick any more. The title comes from Moz's love of classic vinyl and the fact that they operate out of an abandoned London Underground station. The series is very English. The creator, Si Spencer, used to be a writer on EastEnders, so you know you're going to get some cheesy English drama, (dead fathers and long lost siblings, for example).
The group are constantly avoiding the police, because what they do isn't always legal. It is however weird. Creepy dreams, dead women, voodoo magic, nazis, and precognition are all just some of the bizarre things the group come into contact with in the whole series, and it's unsure how the series would have gone if it was allowed to continue.
The problem with Vertigo comics is that a lot of the time, 1 issue isn't enough to get people hooked, because usually a whole story takes 3, 4 or 5 issues to come into completion. It's kind of like if you only
got to watch a 60 minute TV show in 10 minute blocks. It's not like the issues are bad, it's just people don't buy them because it's a lot of money to spend on something you're not sure you even want. So as entertaining as this series is, you won't be getting a finished product. The stories more or less wrap up, but it just seems hurried and uneven. Obviously once the creators found out they were cancelled they had to wrap it all up for a quick fix, (don't worry though, there's nothing as bad as Heroes season 2. Think more Dollhouse season 2... Good, but not the best). You care for the characters, but it doesn't really matter when they go, because, honestly, you didn't really know them anyway.The art in the book is pretty good; sex and violence is in full form, and each character really has a full range of emotion that isn't hard to see at all. It's got a distinct Vertigo style to it, but what stands out the most is the London locations. The artist, Simon Gane has made sure that the locations in the book are the locations in London. They all look fantastic, and are occompanied by a small piece of info about the location that ties in with the stories. Each one of the locations brings something to the mystery and overall the London backdrop becomes just as important to the story as the characters.
Overall The Vinyl Underground is a cool urban mystery comic, it's just a shame it didn't get the chance to go on. When it comes to mysteries, you need to be able to finish up your stories properly, otherwise it loses it's appeal. Unfortunately this series falls apart in the last few issues, which is exactly when they try to bring it all together.
