| Title | : | Unfollow, Vol. 1: 140 Characters |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1401262740 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781401262747 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 144 |
| Publication | : | First published May 24, 2016 |
Collects UNFOLLOW #1-6.
Unfollow, Vol. 1: 140 Characters Reviews
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Hmm, not sure what to make of this one. Is it supposed to be a social media critique? Serious drama? Some kind of twisted comedy? A supernatural version of Battle Royale? A parody of itself? All of the above, maybe, but I'm afraid things did not add up to all that much for me. The characters seemed needlessly outrageous, the storytelling uneven, the tone all over the place, the premise not exactly fresh. I don't know, maybe I just didn't get it...
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Willy Wonka meets Battle Royale via Twitter. 140 people across the world are selected to go to a reclusive social media magnate's private island. Here they find out he is dying and they will all receive an equal share of his billions. The twist is that if any of the 140 dies, their share will be reallocated among the rest. Groups begin to form between those that are peaceful while others want the whole fortune for themselves. I found the art quite good and fit the story well. The only thing I didn't really care for is that the main character, David, kept seeing these jungle cats. Nothing else about the book is mystical so unless he finds out he has a brain tumor, that part is kind of dumb.
Received an advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. -
Larry Ferrell is the dying billionaire inventor of Chirper (fictional Twitter) and, in true Willy Wonka fashion, decides to give away his fortune to 140 random people (because there’s 140 characters in a tweet, I mean, “chirp”). These selected few receive a “140” app on their phones instantly entitling them to roughly $130 million each and a ride to Ferrell’s private island in the Bahamas to celebrate in style. However, if one of the 140 dies, their share is distributed equally amongst the survivors and, theoretically, the last man standing would receive billions. Let the murder games begin!
Rob Williams and Mike Dowling have hit upon an awesome story with Unfollow, taking the premise of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and repurposing it in a much darker way for the digital age. Perhaps aptly given the importance of 140 characters, this first volume is focused almost exclusively on the cast.
Our protagonist is a young man from a rough neighbourhood who sees the money as an escape for him and his sister to a better life but who also sees talking leopards and a man with a panther head! There’s also a spoilt brat intent on giving away her wealth, an ex-military turned mountain man who believes he is God’s chosen one to preach his message with bullets, and a famous Japanese novelist who cut his own legs off!
The most interesting character was the villainous Rubinstein, the eccentric billionaire’s right hand man, who wears a terrifying mask and spends a lot of the book shooting people. If there’s a complaint about this first volume it’s that the story takes a backseat while Williams sets up these disparate characters but, they’re such a colourful and compelling bunch, you’re never bored.
Mike Dowling’s art is fine but didn’t seem like anything special to me. The character designs for Akira the Japanese novelist and Rubinstein’s mask (the creepy hair!) were very cool though. I was really pleased to see RM Guera draw the last issue - Deacon, the mountain man’s origin story - as he’s a great artist and one of my favourites, especially as it’s a brilliant issue too.
Even though I’ve got no idea where this series is headed, what the leopard hallucinations mean, who the panther-headed man is, whether the idea is that everyone decides to kill one another or whether Rubinstein does it instead - and who the hell is Rubinstein anyway and what’s the deal with his mask!? - I’m absolutely interested to keep reading and find out. Kudos to Rob Williams and Mike Dowling on creating what could be the best Vertigo ongoing since Scalped - I’m definitely going to follow Unfollow! -
(2.5)cool concept but not super exciting. Billionaire has lots of money so he picks 140 people to give it away too. however there is a twist to the deal and i wont spoil it, but its pretty cool. The writing is ok, the storytelling is a bit sub par for me, its pretty straightforward. The whole thing sound like a teen movie but tries to be adult. I also didn't really like any of the characters except that bat shit crazy guy in the mask, Rubinstein (he is the most exciting character for me) mainly because his mask seems like it has a mind of its own. the art is fine, its very detailed and well done. I will pick up vol.2 and see if it gets better.
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Bullet Review:
Probably more of a 3.5 stars, but as I haven't had many 4 stars lately, I'm being generous.
I honestly have a soft spot for these kinds of stories - sick, I know. But it's fascinating to see what people will do for money. -
What in the hell did I just read? Correction: What in the hell did I just breeze through in a matter of five minutes, all the while having a constant running commentary in my head of "What the hell? Am I missing something? Where is the text?"
Honest to God, I do not know if there was something wrong with my e-ARC edition or if there are legitimately no words in this thing. Either way, I had ZERO clue of what was going on. I'm sure there is some deeper message in here about technology and it's probably killing us all, blah blah blah. The whole thing read as some baby boomer's critique on modern technology (irony! I read the entire thing on my Kindle!).
Now, I can't say for certain if that was the end goal, but there was nothing that pulled me in, the art wasn't spectacular, and I was left more confused than when I started. The only reason I gave it one out of five stars on Goodreads was because I literally can't rate things any lower. Definitely give this one a pass.
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A dying Twitter billionaire wills his entire fortune to 140 "randomly" chosen citizens of the world. (140 characters, get it??) Should any of the 140 die an untimely death, their 120+ million immediately gets redistributed among the survivors. The expected result being Series 7: The Contenders.
Among the winners introduced in volume 1:
--A poor urban youth for whom the money would be transformative. He just wants to care for his nerdy rebellious sister.
--A Duck Dynasty kook who carries an arsenal and constantly converses with God. He believes God wants him to be a Punisher style superhero.
--A disaffected rich girl who despises her own wealth.
--An idealistic Iranian journalist who has seen horrors and can't take much more.
--A hulking Nigerian oil worker who may be a serial killer.
--A Japanese double-amputee hermit author. He wrote the book that inspired the Unfollow tournament.
Problems:
--Isn't this basically an illegal tontine? Wouldn't the government drop the hammer on this instantaneously?
--These people are starting out with well over a hundred million dollars. Setting aside a couple certified nutters, where's the incentive for these people to risk life and liberty murdering others who have the same extensive resources they do?
--I almost quit the book after this wooden, passive line dropped: "Greetings. My excitement is considerable."
--What's with the talking ghost leopard? And the leopard-man? And the living mask? Is this a violent social critique or some kind of dark magic fantasy?
But the dialogue improved and I've taken the hook, which was shiny and sharp. There's time to address my other concerns. This title has a lot of potential. -
There's a blurb on the cover from IGN proclaiming this book as, " ... part [The] Social Network, part Battle Royale ..." It's much more the latter than the former, but I can see where they're coming from.
So Mark Zuckerberg ... excuse me, Larry Ferrell is dying of cancer. He's the multibillionaire creator of the world's most popular online social network, which definitely isn't Facebook in this definitely honestly fictional story. There's quite a lot of that in this book, such as the Japanese author who Definitely Isn't Yukio Mishima, and so on. Anyway, Ferrell has chosen 140 users of his program at random. They all get flown out to his private island where he reveals that, upon his death, which is immanent, his entire fortune will be split evenly among them. It will be paid in regular installments over a period of time. Should any of them die, their share will be evenly split amongst the rest. In other words, the more of them who die, the richer the rest become. What could possibly go wrong? The only difference between this and a classic tontine is that the beneficiaries are chosen at random, and the payouts begin immediately.
Anyway, this sort of tale lives or dies on the strength of its characters. Williams doesn't disappoint in the range and diversity of his cast. Obviously the entire 140 don't get introductions in this book. The vast majority of them are likely cannon fodder anyway. This is a terrific premise for an ongoing series, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all develops in later volumes. -
Individual issue reviews:
#1 |
#2 |
#3 |
#4 |
#5 |
#6
Total review score: 3.33 -
A bizarre but captivating comic of the modern day.
The premise? 140 people are given billions of dollars, and everytime someone dies, everyone else gets more money. It's a Facebook Lord of the Flies. On its own, that would probably result in an intriguing story, especially given Williams' solid work creating several well-characterized protagonists and a well-paced plot.
But then things get weird. There's masks that are faces, dragons that walk, and talking giant cats wandering around. It's really hard to know what to make all of this, especially given the more realistic main story.
But I'm certainly planning to continue on ... -
Very nice. Kind of like the new 100 Bullets. I want more!
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Petty complaint: There’s an obvious Twitter-but-they-can’t-say-it’s-Twitter and it’s obvious that the writers don’t actually know much about Twitter because everyone has ludicrously low follower counts. There’s no way the rich, famous heiress character would only have 32,000 followers.
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Not the most original plot here. It’s bascially Battle Royale with a bunch of crazy burning man attendies. Hoping volume 2 will make a little more sense.
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Bleak, frightening, exciting, strange... I am definitely intrigued by where this series will go next.
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The write-up "The Social Network meets Battle Royale" is what drew me in and is extremely accurate. I'm excited to keep meeting new characters and learn more about the back stories of the current characters. Not sure what is going on with the panther that keeps showing up (and talking) but that should come in time too. The guy in the mask legit scares me. And Akira is...strange.
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Misanthropic. Dystopian. Violent. Intriguing.
A promising, at times compelling story that failed to pay off in every major way.
SERIES NOT RECOMMENDED.
Volume 1 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars
Volume 2 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars
Volume 3 ⭐⭐ 2 Stars -
Fuuuuck this was really good from start to finish, and now I'm dying to read the next volume but have to wait months at least.
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Suprisingly entertaining, looking forward to read the next vol
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A good, but not amazing opening volume to one of Vertigo's newer ongoing series. Written by
Rob Williams and illustrated by
Michael Dowling, Unfollow is the story of a billionaire social media mogul who decides to do a little experiment on some of his platform's users. In order to find out if humanity is basically good or evil, he spreads his wealth out over "140 characters," meaning people in the world. Yes, it is an eye-roll worthy pun, I happen to enjoy a good pun from time to time, your mileage may vary. From that point on, the fewer people there are in the group, the larger percentage of the inheritance each member gets. I'm sure you get the idea here. Violence begins. Mysteries start to be revealed. And so on.
There is a lot to like in the ridiculous situations Williams puts his characters into throughout the first volume. There are enjoyable, absurd characters around every corner (which I find to be a hallmark of a good Vertigo book), their dialogue sizzles along nicely, and this trade makes me want to know where their arcs are going. However, the book sometimes feels like people make decisions more because the plot demands it than because it felt true to their character, and once that genie is out of the bottle, it is hard to regain immersion in a story. Hopefully this is an issue that clears up once Williams gets the feel of these characters and their motivations completely under his control.
I do enjoy the rugged feel of Dowling's art throughout. I think it strikes the right tone and the close-ups on faces give a great amount of detail without getting in the story's way. A lot of the set pieces remind me of Jon Davis-Hunt's work in Clean Room.
If you've got a full docket of comics, this is one is ultimately missable, but if you've got some money burning a hole in your pocket and the time to spare, you could definitely do worse than picking up the first volume of Unfollow. -
An engaging but disturbing first entry in the Unfollow graphic novel series. The premise, with 140 people inheriting countless billions of dollars amongst themselves, with bigger cuts to each every time one of the other heirs dies. Of course mayhem ensues, and highlighting such dark and cruel and selfish sides of humanity is bad enough, but the book is really graphic (no pun intended) about the ways in which those dark sides are enacted, whether it's the casual cruelty of the beautiful heiress or or the immature cruelty of a party boy from the hood or the evil practiced by much many of the other characters. I feel sorry for the Middle Eastern female reporter--she really has a shitty hand dealt to her. and, oddly enough, I did like the gun-toting, God-hearing crazy veteran from the wilderness. He's my favorite character, and I keep rooting for him to be one who makes it through. Others I might feel sorry for, but I don't care about yet, and given the nature of the series, I think it's best I don't get attached to anyone anyway.
While I will give the story credit as clever and insightful, if cynical, and very engaging, I will add this caveat--if you are at all inclined to nightmares, DON"T READ THIS BEFORE BED! I made that mistake and couldn't sleep for hours. It's too disturbing, and I was so afraid nightmares would follow. This story is that kind of a story, for better or for worse. I do recommend it, but for those with a strong constitution and nerves. -
It looks like this isn't a story arc, since it leaves many things wide open, so I expect the series to be one long story. This volume introduces the setting and characters and I must say it got me hooked. The potential for a lot of killing is obvious here.
Larry Ferrel is the creator of Headspace, a highly popular social media site. He is dying of cancer, so he chooses 140 registered members on his site to donate his $18 billion fortune to. An unforseen event ends up with one of them dead before Larry's first speech, so there are already 139 people left to split the fortune. All of them are brought to Larry's island until the rich man dies.
You have several characters introduced: David, a young man who left sister behind; Rubinstein, Larry's right hand man who wears a mask; Ravan, chosen by Rubinstein to film the events on the island; Akira, a rich cross-dressing Japanese artist who gathers some of the others as followers; Courtney, a young woman of fluctuating morals; a silent guy with a skin condition who is a killer; Eric Warner 'Deacon' Riggins, a court-martialed army veteran with a screw loose and firm belief that God is guiding him.
Larry dies soon after the second murder and Rubinstein sends the group home with the first payment in their pockets. Trouble follows the members home. -
This is a bit like the early days of Lost - you've got a number of unique characters being pulled together for a strange reason, and a number of not-quite-realistic things happening to some of them. In this case, 140 characters are invited to share the wealth of an eccentric tech founder, with the proviso that the fewer there are, the more each gets. So of course the deaths start. This volume is pretty light on deaths, as it focuses instead on introducing the central characters, who are more important than the plot at this point, and make for an eccentric crew. A former veteran who regularly converses with god, a rebellious 20-something heiress who lives in social media, an Iranian journalist, an Asian author who wrote a book chronicling similar events, and our lead, Dave, a black man from St. Louis whose devotion to his sister leads him into trouble, and who is seeing big cats. Coupled with the strangeness of the situation and those carrying out the game (including a man who may or may not be wearing a massive mask), we've got the makings for an interesting concept. Now that the big players are on the board, it will be interesting to see how things play out. The art is well done and deftly colored, capturing urban decay and tropical islands with equal ease. I'm definitely intrigued in the concept and the characters; it has the makings of something impressive.
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This might not be the best time to have read this. Too many reminders of reality. But that's part of the point, I suppose. I'm going to read into any book I pick up for a good long time. And while this isn't an observation of Unfollow, I think this election, much like 9/11 is going to be defined in stark terms of before and after in terms of entertainment. Everything that came out before will feel tainted by false optimism. Even this.
Anyway, I enjoyed Unfollow but I'm a fan of some of it's inspirational material, like Battle Royale or Lord of the Flies. Akira in this book is perfect. He was the most realized character and I had to remind myself that I could not read his book or see his nude Hamlet. I can't wait for some page space dedicated to his life. Deacon is also quite compelling, especially as he finds David. I would like to know more about Courtney and Ravan. David was boring to me, but if he's the every-bro character that we're supposed to root for, he's going to be. I hope that isn't the case.
I'm ready for vol. 2. -
I borrowed this from the library not knowing anything about it. And it felt really incomprehensible.
So much seemed to be happening at the same time and I found it hard to connect the dots between the characters and the events. But most importantly, I really didn't care. About anyone or anything.
There is no criticism or insight about humans or the internet that I have found interesting or engaging. There are some direct parallels with Twitter (the app is called Chirp in the comic), and how people are always online.
I really think they should've picked one theme to go with (giant Akira religious org vs killing people to win billions) instead of creating this weird story featuring Japanese people in the beginning and then leading with a tech billionaire and his neglected fiancee.
Mostly, I had a difficult time understanding why people were doing any of the things they were doing.
Since it's a comic I feel like I have to mention the art; it was alright, more on the realistic side that I think is common with the genre. I wasn't blown away but it isnt distracting! -
When the reclusive inventor of social media dies, he wills his nearly $18B fortune to 140 people selected at random across the world. But then he hits them with a twist: whenever one of them dies, the fortune is evenly redistributed among the survivors. So begins a macabre experiment in humanity: Will these people, who are all aready incredibly wealthy, kill each other for more? Yes. And that is not a spoiler.
This is the first of a three-volume story and this is easily the strongest installment. Solid set-up and pacing,and terrific pairing with the artwork as well. Going on this volume, it's all promise and potential, and you're dying to know where it goes. Things don't work quite so well in Volumes 2 and 3, however, and that's a shame. But 140 Characters is a hell of a book on its own. -
I’m still trying to decide how this made me feel. In fact, I’ll be thinking it over for a while. I suppose what’s most important is that it did make me feel! It started off as very confusing, bits and pieces making sense, but I pushed through because I wanted to see where it was going.
It’s definitely “adult” with drug use, nudity, and swears. The artwork was interesting, if not a little gory at times. There’s always a concern with a huge cast of characters where they all start to look alike; that’s not the case with this graphic novel, though. I really enjoyed the wide variety of characters, and had no trouble keeping them straight.
I wasn’t sure I was going to continue with volume two, but I have decided that there’s a lot of potential. -
A ideia não chega a ser original. 140 pessoas são escolhidas aleatoriamente para herdar a fortuna do bilionário criador de uma rede social, e cada vez que alguém morrer a fatia da herança aumenta. Cara, isso é muito Black Mirror! Está pronto o cenário para mostrar a vileza do ser humano, pontuada por histórias de remissão, intrigas políticas, amores e tal. É claro que ao longo da trama personagens queridos vão morrer, haverá traições e reviravoltas. Tudo bem previsível, mas esse primeiro número é interessante o suficiente para eu querer ver o que acontece depois.
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I’m not really sure what to make of this. A dying tech bazillionaire leaves his fortune to 140 random(?) people to see if they’d murder each other to ultimately get it all. For one, I’m haunted by not understanding what happened/who died to have the counter go from 140 to 139; that’s not really clear. Also, the amount that everyone does get is so insanely high — $132.517 million dollars — that I can’t fathom the need for any of the characters to go all Battle Royale on anyone else. There’s also a murderer in a “mask” running around...? Hmm. I don’t know.
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Decent take on the battle royale concept. Opening volume was solid with nice art and the dialogue mostly works. Its got a cracking pace and the action and violence fit the tone.
However the characters tend to act to type far too often while the comic tries to make the plot as current and 'real world' as possible. Its jarring and will get tedious unless they sort it out asap. Also they most definitely need to start explaining the spirit animals.
I will be checking at least another volume of this though. Has a bunch of themes and concepts it can run with.
