Art & Colour by: Valentin Ramon
Editor: David Hedgecock
Published by: IDW Publishing
Issue 3 of D4VE – the sci-fi comedy featuring a Robot civilization resident on planet Earth, faced with an Alien invasion of sorts. The feel for D4VE is definitely squared towards the melodrama of everyday robot life, of emotional situations given a cybernetic spin. The culture clash plays out okay, it isn’t earth shattering and mostly mild in nature, but it works with the pace of the story. The comedy is intertwined nicely with the plot, the level is somewhat juvenile though that marries up to the material quite naturally. In terms of the script by Ryan Ferrier, it is pretty competent stuff. The ebb and flow of the book, while pulled a little by the inter-relationship melodrama, develops nicely. As the different aspects of the book come together, of D4VE’s differing worlds colliding, we get a flavour of everyday banality with a robot face. It is quite an enjoyable read.
The artwork from Valentin Ramon is quietly effective without being spectacular. You get a generic feel from some of the characters – which could be an ironic interpretation of a robot society – however, it is more likely that the artist, given the material, didn’t develop enough variety when it came to character design for the project. In terms of the aliens, there are some nice aspects, though, again, these are a little generic. The panel set up and architecture seem well done, well, the composition of the layouts works nicely.
As for the series as a whole, there are enough good things in this book, when taken as a light piece of comic entertainment, to keep you checking the story out. The writing is good enough and the art, while not amazing, is handled sufficiently well, to not detract from the story too much. If the creative team can develop the plot further, while maintaining the natural development of the story, the book could be one to watch. The humor is a very important aspect to the story, without it the book would be too dry and lack the energy it needs. With any luck the following issues will see more in the way of action to push the pace of the book. Mix kinetic story telling with a rich vein of fitting humour and everything works that much easier.
