Faker

by Mike Carey, Jock

After getting drunk at a college party, four housemates wake to find that no one else remembers their friend Nick.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Horror, Science Fiction, Fiction, Comic Book, Adult

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Mike Carey was born in Liverpool in 1959. He worked as a teacher for fifteen years, before starting to write comics. When he started to receive regular commissions from DC Comics, he gave up the day job.

Since then, he has worked for both DC and Marvel Comics, writing storylines for some of the world's most iconic characters, including X-MEN, FANTASTIC FOUR, LUCIFER and HELLBLAZER. His original screenplay FROST FLOWERS is currently being filmed. Mike has also adapted Neil Gaiman's acclaimed NEVERWHERE into comics.

Somehow, Mike finds time amongst all of this to live with his wife and children in North London. You can read his blog at www.mikecarey.net.

Reviews

[Stewart Tame · Rating 3 out of 5]

A group of freshmen return to college in Northern Minnesota from winter break. Sack, Jess, Marky, and Yvonne have little in common other than that they share a house together. They go to an epic party, puke their guts out, and wake up with unexplained holes in their memories. And then their roommate Nick shows up, but he seems to have the opposite problem: his memory is fine, but no one outside of the five of them seems to remember that he exists …

Without giving too much away, let's just say that experimental drugs are involved.

While there are some interesting ideas here, the whole business feels a tad squalid. When we first meet Jess, for instance, she's in the process of seducing a professor solely for the purpose of extorting money from him by threatening to reveal the act to his wife. You could argue that part of the reason everyone is in the fix that they're in is because of their amorality, but there are moments when the only reason you're rooting for them is because the antagonists are even worse. In the end, I was glad this was a single volume story, because I don't really care where these characters go from here. Hopefully, lessons have been learned, and everyone is the better for it. But I don't really want to stick around long enough to find out ...

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

The blurb on the back made this sound a lot more interesting than it actually was. Sadly, what could have been a really disturbing, mysterious book was ruined by being terribly obvious. At the very least, delay your big revelation about what happened to erase these kids' memories by having their big drinking binge happen somewhere other than the mysterious secret chemistry lab. And if you're going to write a book about a small group of friends, you should try to pretend to give a damn about more than two of them. Instead, we get main character girl, other guy who must be interesting because he's sexually promiscuous, jock (because every group of friends has a jock), and other girl who can fill the hacker niche.

Simply by creating interesting characters, rather than types, and throwing in at least a few red herrings, this could have been a lot more engaging.

[Devon Munn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.4 stars

The art is the best part about the book, I'm not really in love with Jock (his art is good but I'm not too much of a fan) but it fits perfectly here as well as adding atmosphere to it as well. The rest was just decent in my opinion

[Sarah]

Meh. This one felt really phoned in. The characters really only got distinct and interesting in the last 30 pages -- and by then you didn't care about the angel serum plot device that was driving this whole story. The women in this story were particularly one dimensional (a slut and a lesbian, how original. Not) and while I came to like Jess by the end, I could take or leave anybody else. The actual plot was just not interesting and the tone was tired (oversexed college student thing has been done to death). The ending didn't make a lot of sense honestly, except that evil is sorta punished a guess and some people that you didn't really care about died. Ho hum. The only good thing about it was that the art was solid. Not exceptional, but solid. Maybe if you are a huge Mike Carey fan then you will find something to like here, but for the rest of us, I say give it a pass.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was interestingly existential. These horrible, screwed up people who all live together suddenly co-hallucinate into existence a fifth roommate, apparently made physically of their vomit. All due to an unintentional intake of a secret government bio-weapon. They get taken away. Some of them die. All of them question the value of their lives and themselves and what is the definition of a person, really, anyway? It was weird and interesting - two things I tend to like a lot :)

[Anou Sabetian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was a tad bit predictable, but still good and worth the read. :)

[47Time · Rating 2 out of 5]

Selfish Jessie just climbed off a university teacher she's going to blackmail for grades and cash. Feminism be damned. She's part of a group of kewl kids including bisexual Marky, suicidal Sack, nobody Yvonne and their kinda leader, the more level-headed Nick. All a bunch of promiscuous druggies and drunkards, really. It's college, so this isn't technically a teen drama, but it sure feels like it.

Nick slowly realizes he is disappearing from people's memories until he feels like he is physically melting away. Kate, an otherwise innocent girl who had a fling with Mark, poisoned them while they were drugged. She used a substance developed by the government who becomes involved in the welcome side-effects surrounding Nick's non-human origins.

The government imprisons them and starts running tests primarily on Nick who is apparently not human. Everything revolves around a substance called Angel's Kiss capable of recording data. Nick is the materialization of the group's thoughts, a secondary effect that the developers of the substance never expected, but now embrace as a means of weaponization.

The scientists get the green light from general Waterford to dissect Nick, but are interrupted by Jessie's escape. She gets shot and falls into a vat of Angel's Kiss, but later resurfaces completely healed. And I have to ask: where are the guards in this place? They're letting a bunch of school kids kick them around like amateurs. The gratuitous sex scene has Jessie heal Nick with the Angel's Kiss she swallowed while in the vat. Intercourse must be the best way to transmit the fluid from her stomach or something. I didn't go to med school.

Then the group basically walks away. Such unprofessional guards! It's disgraceful! Only Jessie and Sack are left alive at the end. Nick gets shot and dissolves in a lake, so he ends up in the town's water supply. The government can do little to prevent this, except quarantine the town and wait it out.

[Kinsey_m · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept, although it became obvious quite soon what was going on. Five college flatmates, one mystery, although the biggest mystery to me is what is keeping this group of "friends" together (other than splitting the rent). While Nick (the most mysterious among the flatmates) is super nice, it's difficult to see where this niceness is reflected on his flatmates, two of whom are particularly obnoxious. The story would have benefited from a more gradual intro in which the characters are more fleshed out.

[Ill D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its completely normal to love a book. Its just as normal to hate a book. However, I think it's quite abnormal to not hate a book that has little to show for it despite innumerable flaws.

This is the (not-so-sorry) state of Mike Carey's Faker. It's not bad. It's not horrible. Some shiny gems shine through a not-so-well-put-together story.

Teenage hormones are tossed in with a fictional designer drug (Angel's Kiss) and the story (kind of?) takes off. Lies follow betrayal. And betrayal follows pain and suffering. Then a shadowy organziation steps in and the hackneyed (beaten to death?) escape themes (in like every single comic book ever) repeat themselves over and over.

Yet, for all its failures (and there are many) I just can't hate this book and I'm not sure why. Nothing is particularly stunning but, the gems that are there are pretty.

- Solid panel work (Not unlike that Shitty Baltimore series!)
- Mostly good dialogue
- Probably the best well written strong female lead I've ever seen in a comic

Would I give it a recommendation? I would actually. It's a one-ff and needs to be judged as such.

Flaws and all: A single thumb up.

[Ryan Werner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jock's art is all right--his cover work for other series is better--but the story is pretty tossed-off. Mike Carey's been everywhere and written everything, so this was maybe just a fun little project for him, a quick little six-issue horror story.

Just like every other horror story, we get typecasting (The Whore! The Good One! The Dyke!) and a very forced "lack of team effort" from the group the story follows. It's like if that movie Cabin Fever had sci-fi elements and was mixed together with Black Hole if Black Hole was actually really, really shitty.

It picks up a little toward the end, but both Mike Carey and Jock have better work to their name, as do some Jr. High students.

[Anthony · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. I like Mike Carey. Mostly for the work that he did on Hellblazer, My Faith in Frankie, and his Lucifer comic book. I didn't care for this book. It pivoted around some imaginary psychotropic drug that pushed the limits of my suspension of disbelief.

Amazing. A comic about the devil and his half-faceless girlfriend is okay to me. A magical drug and college students, not so much.

[Poonam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mike Carey who has written for X-men, Fantastic Four, Lucifer and Hellblazer has 6-book series under a series called 'Fakers'. This is pure horror genre, 5 college kids are exposed to deadly, experimental hallucinogens...combined with their history, past trauma, they have to come to terms with reality first to get out of horror that faces them. Okayish.

[Chris - Quarter Press Editor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one definitely has some interesting ideas about who we are and the stories we use to create our identities. I'm not sure I really "bought" the conclusion, but interesting ideas were to be had regardless.

['kris Pung · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure what to make of this one.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Faker is a trippy mystery by Mike Carey and Jock. Who is real? What is real? What is going on? All these questions get asked and answered and its satisfying. The story had me thinking one thing and then it evolves into something else. The artwork by Jock is really good and fit the story extremely well. Overall, an underrated book that's worth a read.

[London Heady · Rating 2 out of 5]

Predictable, which is theoretically fine. Most things are predictable. But it's also just altogether not that interesting. Fragments of interesting characters make for just enough to make you want more, but there just isn't anything there. The last two issues really drop the ball as well. I was not a fan of the finale at all. It's not horrible, but it certainly wasn't a good read.

[Titas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think the writer is even more confused than us.

[Félix · Rating 2 out of 5]

El arte es placentero de ver, la historia es un desastre, que puede agradar o molestar, dependiendo del lector.

[Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story is great and interesting enough. The art style takes a little getting used to

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting ideas

[chrstn · Rating 1 out of 5]

For a character-driven graphic novel that attempts to bring up discourse about personality vs. facade, it certainly lacks character development. Every single character is annoying.

[matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it still suffers from the broad characterization typical of most graphic novels, I liked "Faker" because it did a pretty good job developing its intriguing premise (which I won't discuss here, since it takes the reader a while to figure out exactly what that premise is). I often get annoyed at attempts to inject topical science into comics, as it is generally poorly and inorganically integrated with the story line. Even worse is when a really interesting idea is raised and then quickly dispensed with on the way to more typical story mechanics-- due to concerns about oriignality, it just puts the interesting idea off-limits for exploration by more capable artists. So while "Faker" isn't exactly "The Elegant Universe", and not even quite Charlie Kaufman, it was refreshing and engaging.

[William Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes Mike Carey does everything right. He doesn't do it often, but in Faker, he moves us away from his Hellblazer work and gives us something that feels like The Rules of Attraction meets Gun, With Occasional Music. I can understand some of the ambivalence toward this book, but I didn't feel any of that. Not for the writing. Not for the art. I liked it, even though none of the characters were likable.

Let me say this about Jock's artwork as a generalization about his work overall- it is stylistically perfect. He knows how to panel, he knows how to give his images weight without making them feel heavy or bogged down, he knows how to compose a page. Casting shadows where they need to be and using stark contrast to give his work life instead of hatching or too-clean lines (let's thank Mike Mignola and Frank Miller for teaching a new generation of artists this trick).

Grade: B

[Roybot · Rating 2 out of 5]

As others have noted, Faker *sounds* really interesting when you read the back cover. Unfortunately, what should have been a thrilling and mysterious read was uneven and ultimately unsatisfying. The Big Twist is too obviously telegraphed and I found myself not really caring what happened to most of the characters. It felt a little bit like the story was trying very hard to be edgy at the expense of charactorization.

There are moments where you can see how cool this could have been, but, ultimately, the most interesting part of the book is the description on the back.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bunch of college kids get drunk and have horrible hang overs the next day. So far, not astounding. But when you throw in a jealous one night stand who happens to dump a super-secret formula into their drinks, Carey comes up with a whole new twist to the phrase, "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer." Or really, "don't piss where you sleep."

Government conspiracies, a group mind, high speed chases, regret, and a dubious definition of what it means to be a friend follow after one drunken night.

Moral of the story: above all else, do not get drunk in a science lab!

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were ups and downs to this. I was really interested in the concept, but some of the plot felt more like a jumble than anything that had been properly prepared for the reader. I can't claim to be satisfied with the ending either (though things had clearly changed, it didn't give me a sense of ending). Some of the characters were also caricatures of people. But I was completely fascinated, I wanted to learn what was going to, and that balanced things out a bit.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to finish this at first. It just starts so suddenly and the lead characters are bad people. But I'm glad I kept reading because everything changed: the characters realized that they were selfish and didn't like it, and then the mystery and intrigue set in. It kept getting better and better until unfortunately it ended.

[D. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like it. The premise was fantastic, but there was just too much to fit into too few pages. Turned into a novel or full-length film, there would have been more time. Time to get to know a bit more about these kids and the ways they bounce off each other. As it was, it fell flat, two-dimensional and I didn't really care.

[Trisha · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was cringing the entire time I was reading this graphic novel. There is a reason I don't hang out with people who drink like these people and are scandalous like the main character. This is not my cup of tea. If I ever see Mike Carey's name on a graphic novel, I'll be moving past it quicker than you can say barf.

[Scribe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just burned through this, and got to say I liked it. It's a bit crazy, some bits don't make sense, and it rattles along at almost too fast a pace, but it manages to hang together in a 'raw' way - the central idea is interesting enough to keep you going. Almost gave it a 4, it's on the edge. Went with a 3 because it's not hugely groundbreaking.