Pigs, Volume One: Hello Cruel World

Pigs #1

by Nate Cosby, Ben McCool, Breno Tamura

In 1962, a KGB sleeper cell was placed in Cuba. Half a century later, the cell's children are assigned to overthrow the American government. But why...and why now?

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Espionage

112 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2012

Reviews

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

**Buddy read with the Shallow Comic Readers, theme this week: Indies!***



Around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviets landed a group of agricultural scientists in Cuba, but they never left. Queue forward to today, and the children of these scientists, now trained assassins sent to the US to awaken a sleeper cell and do...something.

Not a terrible idea, but not well executed here. The artwork is a shambles, and the coloring doesn't help. It's hard to tell who is who, and the absence of an idea about what the mission is about makes this not so much a mystery as a lesson in patience.

No dramatic tension, cardboard characters, and a rather grisly scene which makes me begin to think that all of these creator-owned concepts are nothing but fantasies by ten year old sadists.

Francisco Francavilla (Afterlife with Archie) does some of the covers and they are great like all of his work. But can't really recommend this to anyone. It's only four issues, a quick read, but not really worth it.

[47Time · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 50-year-old sleeper cell in Cuba is activated and gets to the US president. Irisa is being interrogated about it, but she refuses to reveal anything relevant. The story switches between present day where the Americans are trying to recover their president and the past when the current operatives were still kids being trained by their parents.

The Russians sent a group of supposed agriculture specialists in Cuba during the 60's. They were in reality skilled spies who have been since awaiting orders. As the decades passed they trained their sons and daughters to carry out their mission for the KGB. One of them is Felix, now married to a US citizen with whom he has a daughter. He is reluctant to join the other four members of the cell, but is forced to do so.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting premise with an ok execution. What if you were raised to be a double agent for your country? What if all you knew what to hate a common enemy? Would you follow blindly or would there ever come a day where you would think for yourself? Liked enough that I would pick up another volume.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugly art, half-interesting story.

[Scruffy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pigs starts with a simple premise, In 1962 a KGB sleeper cell is placed in Cuba. Years later the children of these agents are activated with orders to bring down the US government. From here a complex and deeply layered story begins. The story is told in a non-linear fashion, jumping between three time periods - Now, Soon and Earlier. This is a very effective way to structure the plot, as more details are revealed in each time period our view of these characters and their motivations is constantly changing. I like being kept off balance in this way, there were a few moments that were genuinely surprising.

The most relate-able of the characters is Felix. When we meet him he is a happily married family man living in Miami. When the other members of the group arrive to tell him he has been activated he is drawn back into a war he wants nothing to do with. In the earlier time period we see Felix's childhood and training. At this point he appears to be the most violent and dedicated member of the group raising the question, what happened in the time in-between that changed him so much? Felix is a complicated character who has clearly done a lot of nasty things in his life but in the middle of a group of terrorists he is actually someone that we can root for and I think that that is very important to the success of the book. At this point we don't know a lot about the other characters, just a few brief details that leave me very interested to learn more.

Breno Tamura has quite a rough art style which really suits the subject matter of this comic. With the story covering multiple time periods it would be very easy for the reader to get lost or confused. This never happens though as Tamura's fluid storytelling guides us through clearly with no confusion. At times the writing is quite sparse, relying heavily on the artwork to tell the story and again Tamura handles this very well. I should also mention that this series has a very striking set of covers by Jock, Francesco Francavilla, Amanda Conner and Becky Cloonan. You really couldn't ask for a better set of cover artists.

There are only four issues in this collection and by the end I really wanted more, but I like that Image is getting the first volume out quickly and cheaply. This is a really great first volume in a series, it had me immediately engaged and asking lots of questions. There is plenty of story potential here and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

For more of my reviews please visit http://www.scruffyfiction.co.uk

[William Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Image Comics has evolved into the Goliath of the creator-owned industry. With Dark Horse floundering and publishing nothing more than Conan and Star Wars comics, Image has been snatching up all of the innovative writers they can find. For the most part, they're doing a hell of a job.

Sadly, I can't give 'Pigs' high praise. I can give it a slap on the back and tell it it did a good job, but that's about all. Nate Cosby and Ben McCool have an intriguing premise, but I feel like I have seen this same exact book before. And I have. Its 'The Losers' by Andy Diggle. The assembled team, the exact pacing, the plotting, the mayhem and the international intrigue. They've even got an artist that tries his damnedest to mimic Jock. Its sad, really, because the book is well-written and scripted, it's just that it's a clone of a book from 10 years ago in everything except a slight change of premise.

Writing Grade: C
Art Grade: C-

Breno Tamura's art is in the same vein as so many other 'noir' comic books these days- purposefully sloppy (or maybe not so purposefully) without hard lines or tight inks. Washed out colors and a lack of contrast work against it. I'm getting very bored of this style as the current trend.

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed studying about the Cuban missile crisis so obviously this graphic novel appeared interesting to me. I liked how the novel flicks between the different time periods and is quite mysterious, omitting information so that you are asking questions. It got really good towards the end so now I really want to read the next one. The only limitation with this graphic novel is that none of the characters have really grown on me but perhaps that will come when I read the other volumes.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

If the final page of the first issue doesn't grab you, just put the book down.

This reminds me a lot of The Losers and I think the creators see that too as Andy Diggle provides te introduction and Jock drew the covers.

[Hillingdon Libraries]

Find this book at Hillingdon Libraries

[Kevin Thurman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Once again, this is good, but not great. I really think the premise is interesting, but the writing leaves a lot to be desired.

[Pturingan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting so far. But really just too short for me to form a proper opinion. I'll continue reading it if I remember to buy the next volume when it comes out.

[P. · Rating 1 out of 5]

if you like the use of swearing to make your characters seem real hardass, then this book is for you!

but seriously, I wouldn't doubt it if there were a cell of KGB child-operatives still active.