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The Memory Collectors #1-3
Memory Collectors
Three jaded fetish models are unexpectedly thrown into a violent world and made to confront a horrible and unperceived truth: Hidden among us are entities that feed on the very thing we hold most sacred - our memories! No longer content with their lives as hunted cattle, they become the hunters.
120 pages, Hardcover
First published May 27, 2014
4 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Menton3
52 books5 followersMenton J. Matthews III (born January 3, 1976 in Mississippi) is an American artist, currently living in Chicago. He is known mostly as Menton3, but also Sunday Munich, Avis, and Saltillo. He is a painter, illustrator, comic book artist and multi-instrumentalist who can play a number of diverse instruments like: cello, viola, violin, guitar, drums, piano, and bass, as well as a slew of electronics.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 12, 2017
A mind-blowing concept of what creatures, death or nephilims could want. A humans memories.
A very dark supernatural "memory" that will never leave your brain.
A very dark supernatural "memory" that will never leave your brain.
February 2, 2016
This review applies to all three of The Memory Collectors by Menton3: gothic art, fetish models, vague Gothic art, fetish models, vague nebulous parasites hiding among us, and lots of questionable dialogue in paragraph form. The jaded fetish models were interesting as a concept, but it's an under-explored concept even in this book. The art is somewhat stunting but very still. The textures on the art and rendering is sometimes stunting, but this is done at the expense of narrative. The narrative being given partly in traditional comic form, and partly in page or two page text blocks. The character aren't developed enough to be consistent and their emotional turns and actions seem predicated on whatever will move them to the next concept. There are lots of people who seem impressed by this, and there is a lot here that could have worked, but mostly it remains more style than substance.
August 12, 2014
More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/
I'm going to come right out and say it: this book gave me a huge headache. Fromthe outline, I expected it to go one of two ways: an over the top Tarantino-esque B movie free for all or an overstylized, overwritten, oh-so-serious exercise in style over substance. Sadly, this clearly fell into the latter category.
The overly complicated yet ultimately meaningless plot had something to do with three fetish models going after demonic memory collectors. Of course, it wasn't that straightforward - we had to deal with all the metaphysical hoo doo, meanderings, and splotchy shadowy watercolor drawings. Admittedly, about half way through I just started to skim; this was clearly one of those exercises of peeling an onion and ending up with nothing but tears when finding an empty center after all the effort.
The journey of reading might have been worth it if the story hadn't been presented in such a jumble. Minimalistic, full page, formless shadowy water color drawings are then paired with densely written novel type pages. Then interspersed with those were random normal line-comic drawings. I would enjoy a page of the artwork and then have to come to an abrupt stop and read several pages of text. Then back to the stylized watercolor art pages. Then suddenly a comic book. It was jarring and really killed the flow of the concepts and story. Other books have mixed mediums well (e.g., Nowhere Men, also released this year), superbly mixed a cohesive story, grand ideas, and various non-comic additions into a very satisfying read. But that was because there was a unifying style throughout. With Memory Collectors, there is no uniformity. Voices are dreamy, concepts nebulous, and then we're reading a modern, gritty, urban horror story. Girls are smart and thoughtful and then suddenly rush in and act stupidly. It is like looking through a schizophrenic mind and it isn't pretty.
Not helping the read in any way is a very poorly formatted advanced readers copy with a huge copyright obscuring text and artwork. If the story wasn't enough to give you a headache, the presentation sure was.
I love a high concept graphic novel as much as the next girl. I don't even mind main characters clearly meant to stimulate the, uh, minds of prepubescent boys. But the story should have depth, cohesion, and a unifying theme. And mixing the media should involve creating additions, not abruptions, to/of the main story.
This is probably one of my biggest disappointments this year. I've rated it three stars because there is some cool art in there. But no more than that because I didn't turn my brain off fast enough to prevent the pain of the presentation and naff storyline.
Reviewed from an ARC.
June 9, 2014
Three fetish models get tired of sitting by on the sidelines once they realize that there are being on this Earth that are a present and very real danger. These creatures feed on humans' memories, and the girls start the fight to take back and protect what's rightfully ours.
I have to say that I really loved the artwork for this book. It was dark and creepy, but also really detailed. I also really liked the way each of the three models were drawn, they look good while kicking some ass. The panel arrangement/plot formatting was easy to follow, and I didn't struggle with where to read next.
The plot itself was pretty good too. It's creepy to me that something can feed on memories. Could you imagine? *shudders* I certainly don't want to even imagine it. I like that three bored models get the chance to do something worthwhile and go on an adventure to shake things up.
One thing that I didn't like, and this is only in regards to the format I was given, is the huge watermarks on the middle of the page. I understand this is to thwart pirates and screenshots and what not, but it made some of the artwork hard to see, and got really annoying, really fast.
This was my first introduction to this set of characters, but I'd definitely come back for more. Fans of urban fantasy and horror, I'm looking at you. Thanks to Netgalley and IDW Publishing for my copy in exchange for my honest review. This review can also be found on my blog, Bitches n Prose.
I have to say that I really loved the artwork for this book. It was dark and creepy, but also really detailed. I also really liked the way each of the three models were drawn, they look good while kicking some ass. The panel arrangement/plot formatting was easy to follow, and I didn't struggle with where to read next.
The plot itself was pretty good too. It's creepy to me that something can feed on memories. Could you imagine? *shudders* I certainly don't want to even imagine it. I like that three bored models get the chance to do something worthwhile and go on an adventure to shake things up.
One thing that I didn't like, and this is only in regards to the format I was given, is the huge watermarks on the middle of the page. I understand this is to thwart pirates and screenshots and what not, but it made some of the artwork hard to see, and got really annoying, really fast.
This was my first introduction to this set of characters, but I'd definitely come back for more. Fans of urban fantasy and horror, I'm looking at you. Thanks to Netgalley and IDW Publishing for my copy in exchange for my honest review. This review can also be found on my blog, Bitches n Prose.
April 21, 2019
The only redeeming factor was the art. And only sometimes.
January 25, 2022
The favorite in my collection. Read this my first time ever in Chicago when I met Menton initially. Many dear memories with this one. The artwork is wonderful and the story is awesome.
March 9, 2017
I bought this book after finding it in the sales, the christmas before last, I think I was actually looking for presents. I had never heard of it before but it looked good, was very striking.
Have only just got round to reading it, yes I admit there isnt much of a story here, three fetish models are attacked and then trained to fight an evil force. Could do with more substance but the artwork is amazing.
Have only just got round to reading it, yes I admit there isnt much of a story here, three fetish models are attacked and then trained to fight an evil force. Could do with more substance but the artwork is amazing.
January 1, 2015
ARC provided by IDW Publishing through Netgalley
First of all, I need to address this: IDW, I am sure Netgalley offers the option of DRM protecting your files. This already happened with vol. 2 of X-Files Season 10, but at least the quality of the file was high enough that even with this on top of it:
Annoying though it may have been, you could still tell what was being said.
But this?!
Girl, I wish I could let my eyes relax!
You cannot lower the image quality and paste this atrocity on top. This pdf was only 88 pages long and my eyes are burning so much I'm considering taking a melon baller to the fucking things!
Look at this:
I'm pretty sure I could pass the final exam for a degree on cryptography after reading this volume.
I am begging you, please find a better solution to protect your files!
But onto what really matters, the graphic novel itself.
Edith and Magdalena are fetish models - they do latex fashion shows in fetish clubs.
When the story begins they're not exactly best friends - but one thing unites them: a creepy man in the club unsettles them both so much they decide to have him thrown out.
Creepy dude gone, they have a show to do. ...Except, walking on the catwalk, feeling more and more drained and insecure with each step taken, Edith sees the man they'd had thrown out. He didn't look the same, he wore a different face. But it was him.
Shaken, she agrees to walk to a hotel with all the other models. And then blank.
Later she wakes up covered in blood, only she and Magdalena are alive, and the mysterious Beatrice who'd slaughtered their attacker - a Memory Collector: a soulless creature who fed on emotionally charged memories - offers to train them.
This is how Edith and Magdalena end up becoming hunters.
The artwork is, quite honestly, out of this world amazing.
The actual Memory Collectors were something that belonged in an art gallery, seriously mind blowing. The whole atmosphere: light, colours. I don't even have the words to do justice to how absolutely perfect the artwork was. The Glamour Memory Collector was worthy of H. R. Giger, and the whole juxtaposition of the sexualised female form with graphic violence and the unsettling cycling from dreamy to nightmarish backgrounds, was reminiscent of Serpieri.
It was all so unbelievably gorgeous, I felt like most of it should be framed and on display.
At times the narrative was at odds with the artwork, and it detracted a bit from the story. You'd have some unbelievably creepy things happening, and then some mundane remarks to go with it. For the story, Edith needed to be less simplistic, and some of the things she said just didn't ring true, they weren't a woman's voice. Mind you, more often than not it was on point.
I would definitely recommend it for the artwork alone, but the story is also engaging, creepy, and incredibly original.
August 13, 2016
4-4.5/5
A breve la IDW pubblicherà in un unico volume le tre graphic novel della serie The Memory Collectors, scritta e illustrata da Menton3 (Menton J. Matthews III).
La storia inizia allorché Edith (voce narrante) e Magdalena, due “fetish models”, sono attaccate da delle creature demoniache e salvate da un’altra donna, la misteriosa Beatrice.
Quest’ultima spiega che tali creature sovrannaturali sono una sorta di vampiri che drenano gli esseri umani di tutti i loro ricordi, sogni e speranze, in modo tale da cibarsi e poter sopravvivere.
Edith e Magdalena scelgono di unirsi alla causa di Beatrice, che insegna loro a combattere, nel dare la ciaccia e uccidere queste creature, non tanto per salvare l’umanità, ma per il piacere di massacrare questi demoni.
Il dialogo è ridotto al minimo, le ragazze parlano pochissimo tra loro e ancor meno con i demoni.
La maggior parte della storia viene narrata da Edith attraverso alcune pagine espositive simili a un monologo interiore.
Benché queste poche pagine siano di grande efficacia e riescano a lasciar trasparire tematiche come quelle della scelta, del ricordo, della decadenza della società e dell’umanità, sarebbe stato interessante conoscere di più le protagoniste, la loro storia, da dove vengono i demoni.
L’assoluto punto di forza è la componente illustrativa, che ho trovato impareggiabilmente affascinante, mozzafiato.
Le illustrazioni hanno fortissimi chiaroscuri, spesso sono minimaliste nell’uso di rapide pennellate di colore, creando affascinanti atmosfere surreali, ma anche con un tocco di realismo, talora oserei dire fotografico, per far risaltare una desolata, inquietante realtà interiore ed esteriore.
La componente figurativa è indissolubilmente legata ad ogni parola, ad ogni emozione che ci vuol essere trasmessa in quel preciso momento, e questo compensa parzialmente la parte narrativa troppo scarna.
Le nostre eroine sono affascinanti, non solo nell’apparenza, nei loro avvolgenti abiti fetish, ma nella loro spietata determinazione ad agire.
L'azione è diretta e semplice nella sua esecuzione, con pennellate rapide e ben definite, grazie a un uso attendo del bianco e del nero che amalgama i dettagli, ma dà ancor più il senso del moto e della velocità del combattimento, focalizzando l’attenzione del lettore su movimenti e pose precise.
Altre tavole sono rappresentazioni ipnotiche, icone emotive da contemplare rapiti dal loro fascino, da tocchi di colore che dirigono l’attenzione su particolari mirati.
Basti pensare a una scena sotto la pioggia, pioggia che sembra emergere dal fondo per rimbalzare sui personaggi, sciogliersi sui corpi.
Questo è un fumetto è una sorta di esperienza globale, una cache vivida di informazioni sensoriali che si dispiega fotogramma per fotogramma, uno spettacolo narrativo unico.
***Thanks to Netgalley and to the publisher for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
A breve la IDW pubblicherà in un unico volume le tre graphic novel della serie The Memory Collectors, scritta e illustrata da Menton3 (Menton J. Matthews III).
La storia inizia allorché Edith (voce narrante) e Magdalena, due “fetish models”, sono attaccate da delle creature demoniache e salvate da un’altra donna, la misteriosa Beatrice.
Quest’ultima spiega che tali creature sovrannaturali sono una sorta di vampiri che drenano gli esseri umani di tutti i loro ricordi, sogni e speranze, in modo tale da cibarsi e poter sopravvivere.
Edith e Magdalena scelgono di unirsi alla causa di Beatrice, che insegna loro a combattere, nel dare la ciaccia e uccidere queste creature, non tanto per salvare l’umanità, ma per il piacere di massacrare questi demoni.
Il dialogo è ridotto al minimo, le ragazze parlano pochissimo tra loro e ancor meno con i demoni.
La maggior parte della storia viene narrata da Edith attraverso alcune pagine espositive simili a un monologo interiore.
Benché queste poche pagine siano di grande efficacia e riescano a lasciar trasparire tematiche come quelle della scelta, del ricordo, della decadenza della società e dell’umanità, sarebbe stato interessante conoscere di più le protagoniste, la loro storia, da dove vengono i demoni.
L’assoluto punto di forza è la componente illustrativa, che ho trovato impareggiabilmente affascinante, mozzafiato.
Le illustrazioni hanno fortissimi chiaroscuri, spesso sono minimaliste nell’uso di rapide pennellate di colore, creando affascinanti atmosfere surreali, ma anche con un tocco di realismo, talora oserei dire fotografico, per far risaltare una desolata, inquietante realtà interiore ed esteriore.
La componente figurativa è indissolubilmente legata ad ogni parola, ad ogni emozione che ci vuol essere trasmessa in quel preciso momento, e questo compensa parzialmente la parte narrativa troppo scarna.
Le nostre eroine sono affascinanti, non solo nell’apparenza, nei loro avvolgenti abiti fetish, ma nella loro spietata determinazione ad agire.
L'azione è diretta e semplice nella sua esecuzione, con pennellate rapide e ben definite, grazie a un uso attendo del bianco e del nero che amalgama i dettagli, ma dà ancor più il senso del moto e della velocità del combattimento, focalizzando l’attenzione del lettore su movimenti e pose precise.
Altre tavole sono rappresentazioni ipnotiche, icone emotive da contemplare rapiti dal loro fascino, da tocchi di colore che dirigono l’attenzione su particolari mirati.
Basti pensare a una scena sotto la pioggia, pioggia che sembra emergere dal fondo per rimbalzare sui personaggi, sciogliersi sui corpi.
Questo è un fumetto è una sorta di esperienza globale, una cache vivida di informazioni sensoriali che si dispiega fotogramma per fotogramma, uno spettacolo narrativo unico.
***Thanks to Netgalley and to the publisher for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
July 22, 2016
Deeply Cool and Seriously Weird
Edith, (our narrator and guide), and Magdalena are introduced to us as models of fetish clothing, (latex, leather, etc.). They and other models are attacked by a creature of some sort and only those two, saved by the mystery woman Beatrice, survive. They are told they were attacked by soulless vampiric monsters that feed on human memories, and that they are to be taken and trained as assassins of such creatures. Edith and Magdalena devote themselves to this calling, not to save humanity but for the sheer joy of killing the demons. Edith and Magdalena adopt as their "hero costumes" the fetish gear they were wearing when first attacked. How's that for an origin tale? The balance of the story follows their adventures. (There is artwork and a few short pieces from others that are used almost like chapter breaks. They are interesting and rewarding, but the bulk of the book is devoted to Edith and the monster hunters.)
The narrative style is almost hypnotic. It is rather formal in an old-fashioned, gothic sense. (The narrative is occasionally marred by a lapse into modern colloquial language but only in a passingly distracting way). At one point the narrator warns that her tale "will seem strange to you, even silly at times,..." and that's a fair warning. Sometimes books like this drift into high falutin' mumbo-jumbo and psycho-babble, but this one doesn't, or at least not too much. And it does have some interesting things to say about memories and how they humanize us.
The drawing is particularly compelling, and seems to be a combination of impressionistic and photo-realistic styles that creates a hyper real image within a vague and dreamy landscape. (Sometimes it's a little reminiscent of the city scenes and landscapes in the silent German film "Metropolis", and sometimes it feels a bit like the H. R. Giger look of the movie "Alien".) The author/illustrator of this book, menton3, has a long history of illustrating for other publications, and for many of those it has been his work that has been the highlight of the book, (see, for example, "Monocyte"). If you check out menton3's website most of the artwork on display is oil on canvas, linen or cardstock, and I imagine that and some digital manipulation is what is on display here.
So, the upshot is that you get a very cool vibe, interesting heroines, and knock your socks off art. Not bad at all.
Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.
Edith, (our narrator and guide), and Magdalena are introduced to us as models of fetish clothing, (latex, leather, etc.). They and other models are attacked by a creature of some sort and only those two, saved by the mystery woman Beatrice, survive. They are told they were attacked by soulless vampiric monsters that feed on human memories, and that they are to be taken and trained as assassins of such creatures. Edith and Magdalena devote themselves to this calling, not to save humanity but for the sheer joy of killing the demons. Edith and Magdalena adopt as their "hero costumes" the fetish gear they were wearing when first attacked. How's that for an origin tale? The balance of the story follows their adventures. (There is artwork and a few short pieces from others that are used almost like chapter breaks. They are interesting and rewarding, but the bulk of the book is devoted to Edith and the monster hunters.)
The narrative style is almost hypnotic. It is rather formal in an old-fashioned, gothic sense. (The narrative is occasionally marred by a lapse into modern colloquial language but only in a passingly distracting way). At one point the narrator warns that her tale "will seem strange to you, even silly at times,..." and that's a fair warning. Sometimes books like this drift into high falutin' mumbo-jumbo and psycho-babble, but this one doesn't, or at least not too much. And it does have some interesting things to say about memories and how they humanize us.
The drawing is particularly compelling, and seems to be a combination of impressionistic and photo-realistic styles that creates a hyper real image within a vague and dreamy landscape. (Sometimes it's a little reminiscent of the city scenes and landscapes in the silent German film "Metropolis", and sometimes it feels a bit like the H. R. Giger look of the movie "Alien".) The author/illustrator of this book, menton3, has a long history of illustrating for other publications, and for many of those it has been his work that has been the highlight of the book, (see, for example, "Monocyte"). If you check out menton3's website most of the artwork on display is oil on canvas, linen or cardstock, and I imagine that and some digital manipulation is what is on display here.
So, the upshot is that you get a very cool vibe, interesting heroines, and knock your socks off art. Not bad at all.
Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.
June 15, 2014
'Memory Collectors' is a graphic novel with an intriguing concept and gorgeous art that works better as a concept than a fully explained idea. It's strange and weird and I wanted to like it more than I ultimately did.
Edith and Magdalena are fetish models that are saved by a woman named Beatrice and then find themselves fighting a type of evil that lives off memories. The monsters are sort of vampiric in nature. The women train and are very good at what they do. There are also some intermittent stories by other artists which can be a little jarring since the styles are different and the stories seem initially disconnected, but they are good stories and the art is good. The monsters are quite creepy and Edith and company are quite adept at dispatching them, even in crazy high heels.
The art for the main story is really good. The story is sparse, but manageable, but then there are the prose pages. I think graphic novels can work with more exposition, but in this case, the wordier parts try to give more detail, but just aren't as interesting, proving this is all style over substance, which is unfortunate. It works great as a sparse graphic novel, and I would have been happy with less details, but it ultimately ends up sinking itself with exposition.
I was given a review copy of this graphic novel by Diamond Book Distributors and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
Edith and Magdalena are fetish models that are saved by a woman named Beatrice and then find themselves fighting a type of evil that lives off memories. The monsters are sort of vampiric in nature. The women train and are very good at what they do. There are also some intermittent stories by other artists which can be a little jarring since the styles are different and the stories seem initially disconnected, but they are good stories and the art is good. The monsters are quite creepy and Edith and company are quite adept at dispatching them, even in crazy high heels.
The art for the main story is really good. The story is sparse, but manageable, but then there are the prose pages. I think graphic novels can work with more exposition, but in this case, the wordier parts try to give more detail, but just aren't as interesting, proving this is all style over substance, which is unfortunate. It works great as a sparse graphic novel, and I would have been happy with less details, but it ultimately ends up sinking itself with exposition.
I was given a review copy of this graphic novel by Diamond Book Distributors and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.
May 25, 2014
An interesting graphic novel that I would like to see more of in the future.
For a full review, please go to http://www.examiner.com/review/memory... and follow me on Twitter @josenher
For a full review, please go to http://www.examiner.com/review/memory... and follow me on Twitter @josenher
holding
April 26, 2014The resolution on this ARC is so low, I can barely make it out. And the giant watermark makes it difficult to read the text. Come on, IDW.
July 30, 2016
3.5/5
Recensione su: http://wp.me/p3X6aw-mE
Review at: http://wp.me/p3X6aw-mE
Recensione su: http://wp.me/p3X6aw-mE
Review at: http://wp.me/p3X6aw-mE
July 17, 2014
Beautiful art, interesting concept and story, but TERRIBLE writing. It also made me want to paint again.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews