Blog-It Llama!

By Nick - July 6, 2009

Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if the machines took over and killed us all? What would be left? After reading NYC Mech: 24Seven, it seems like things wouldn’t actually be all that different.

There’s very little information on the comic book series NYC Mech. It isn’t on Wikipedia and it’s flash website hasn’t been updated since 2007. The original series doesn’t bother explaining why New York is inhabited by nothing but robots, but the stories being told don’t even seem to have any evidence that humans were ever a part of the history of these machines. It’s kind of like the creators wanted to tell an urban drama but also wanted to draw lots of cool robot people, so they just mashed the two together and ended up with this. To me, it seemed like the whole purpose of this concept was to tell a story very grounded in reality while making the art heavily stylized.

NYC Mech: 24Seven is an anthology that is an aside from the original series. There are a few stories that actually address the fact that this is a society filled with mechanical people (and a few robot pigeons) but mostly the stories just happen to be about robots. They just as easily could have been about people. The reason this series stands out from the rest of NYC Mech is the variety of people that worked on this.

The stories are not part of a larger continuity like a average comic book. They’re in the backdrop of this strange world created by Ivan Brandon. The stories are typically eight pages long, but some of the book’s thirty-five stories are only two pages while others are ten. What makes this really stand out are the number of powerhouse artists that have worked on it: Ben Templesmith, Alex Maleev, and Phil Hester just to name a few. The stories are interesting most of the time and some really stick with me still, but the art is what makes this stand out. This book is beautiful. Every artists clearly had fun drawing all of these robot people because you can feel it in the images. I bought this book just flipping through the pages. I knew I had to have it.

A fair warning about the stories: they’re wildly varied. All of the art is nice in some way or another, but some stories lack coherency while others are a breeze to follow. Some have way too much dialogue while others are almost silent. I find my self skipping over certain stories, pretty much only looking at the art before moving on. It’s kind of inevitable to feel kind of ADD with a product like this. There are just too many cooks in this kitchen to like every dish being served. Or at least feel obligated to only try a bite.

I found this thing while digging through a bargain bin at a comic book convention. It’s actually a very random discovery on my end. It’s really obscure and I’m glad I stumbled upon it. It seems like a product that was someone’s pride and joy but I don’t think it ever really took off the way they wanted it to. If you consider yourself a comic book aficionado, this is worth picking up . If you like looking at pretty images, this is worth picking up . If you don’t like artsy comic books, then maybe this isn’t for you.

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