Truth Serum

    (Slave Labor, 2002)
™ and © Slave Labor Graphics

Big surprises come in subtle packages. Jonathan Adams has concocted a dry and sardonically gifted piece of work in this collected edition of his Truth Serum.

In Manchester, no one can hear you leap tall buildings in a single bound. It’s a suburbia rife with grotesque super-heroes and super-villains, and, despite their distinct public roles, the good guys and the bad guys are often hard to tell apart, once Adams has presented them in their hilariously mundane existence. They are all equally (and metaphorically) ugly. For this costumed community, adventures are merely stepping stones to or from each character’s malaise of choice.

Perhaps the coolest aspect of all this is the detailed structure. There’s not as much complexity as the DC or Marvel universes, but there’s so much going on in all this super-blah normality that I kept wanting to see more of the characters and their world, which is—in its entirety—Manchester.

Adams’ art provides another stellar selling point. This is a perfectionist at work. I don’t know how much time he spent drawing each panel, but the perfection of the art seems almost obsessive-compulsive. (That’s a compliment.)

Even though there was no sidekick named The Condiment (such is life), this is wonderful entertainment. Anyone who enjoys super-heroes and super-villains (and especially the psychology behind those archetypes) should read Truth Serum.

— Ray Sidman
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  • 1
    #1
    Jan 2002
    Cover: $2.95
    W: Jon Adams  ·  A: Jon Adams
    Smaller than comic-book size
    2 copies from $1.95
  • 3
    #3
    May 2002
    Cover: $2.95
    W: Jon Adams  ·  A: Jon Adams
    Smaller than comic-book size
    2 copies from $1.95
  • Bk 1
    Book #1
    Cover: $18.00
    W: Jon Adams  ·  A: Jon Adams
    ca. 2005
    1 copy for $24.99