Solid State

by Jonathan Coulton, Matt Fraction, Albert Monteys (Illustrator)

From musician, singer-songwriter, and internet superstar JONATHAN COULTON comes the graphic novel accompaniment to his new concept album, SOLID STATE. Two guys, connected by a name and hundreds of years, somehow stand at the end of man's beginning, and the beginning of man's end. But...it's funny? Also kind of a nightmare. But mostly funny? A funny science FACTion nightmare about the end of everything, but how that's all kind of okay. Teaming up with MATT FRACTION, the writer of SEX CRIMINALS, CASANOVA, and ODY-C; and the award-winning Spanish artist of Universe! ALBERT MONTEYS, COULTON's SOLID STATE is a tech mashup where 2001: A Space Odyssey meets Office Space and getting all we ever wanted might just be a terrible idea.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Music, Dystopia

129 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2017

About the author

Jonathan Coulton is an American singer-songwriter, known for his songs about geek culture and his use of the Internet to draw fans.

Reviews

[Kim Lockhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved every panel of this comic which satirizes many things: the invasiveness of data mining and the surveillance state, the absurdity of rigidly enforced conformity, the dangers of both AI and megalomaniacal overreach, and the suppression of individuality and imagination. It's clever, funny, and well-done. It is also a team effort with many contributors. 

This sings to my spirit, which every day tells me that I don't have to be like everyone else. I mean, cheese and beans, this was fun!

[CS · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bullet Review:

Timely to read this with Net Neutrality gone - who knows how much longer before my ISP decides that Goodreads is too inflammatory for me to have access anymore? (No, I'm not sold that getting rid of Net Neutrality is a good thing, thankyouverymuch.)

Anyway, my coworker found this because he's sent me multiple songs by Coulton - crazy connection, I know! Whodda thunk a singer from the interwebs (maybe not in a few months, when Verizon and Comcast decide to stop access to YouTube or just all those videos of cat fails!) could write a comic?

But to be honest, I think Coulton is a better author than some long-time comic authors - zing, watch this review now get taken down, because I attacked Big Corporations!

Maybe this takes everything to the extreme, but that's science fiction. Science fiction is all about pushing the boundaries and exploring what would happen in a world where the government controlled your access to information. (See? Isn't this book timely or what?) It's meant to point out flaws in society today, to make people strive to avoid the perilous future or at least learn from its mistakes. It's why 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and Brave New World still get read today.

I know this has been a review peppered with Net Neutrality commiseration, but really it comes from my aversion to censorship. I don't trust a corporation with my freedom of speech. I'm not saying I trust the government either, but I expect my government to protect my freedom of speech by limiting what Big Money can do. When government overturns things that ensure that I - and my brothers and sisters - have a voice, I'm not happy.

[Ed Erwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was a bit hard to follow. Seemed to be cramming too many ideas into too short a space. Might make more sense if I listened to the music this was based on. Anyhow it was enjoyable and there were some funny parts. The art by Albert Monteys was very nice.

Maybe the moral of the story is that you should always read the terms and conditions, and be careful about what you upload to social media. Someday some giant corporation (like goodreads!) will take over the world and the fact that I rated this book only 3 stars will be used against me. Oh well, I had a good life so far.

[Zedsdead · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the saddest I've ever been to low-rate a book. I love JoCo and I like Fraction, but Solid State is just a mess.

It starts off in some distant future, with a horde of workers doing...I don't know, something...while wearing identical spacesuits that they clearly don't need. They call each other "buddy" and speak in upvote and downvote emojis. Bureaucracy prevents a man with a hole in his helmet from getting a replacement, and he is forced to eat by sucking pills through the hole, so I guess the helmets can never come off? He speaks to the moon and she speaks back, and there's a robot, and a skull in a cage keeps appearing to no purpose, and I have no idea what's going on.

In the middle of the book we're suddenly granted a setting-jump and a temporarily coherent reprieve. Bob is a programmer at "Booji" (a stand-in for Google and Facebook) who fights with his boss about his company's personal-data collection policies, taking a strident stand for privacy.

Bob: People don't understand how invasive it is! We hide under a dumb logo and a stupid name and a silly--

Booji Executive: This was the deal, Bob! Living in the community of the future means citizens have but a privileged privacy. That data is ours. Legally and in perpetuity. Having it--access to it--that's how we do what we do. It's gonna be worth more than Booji itself one day.

Coulton/Fraction proceeds to give us a glimpse of what could be in store for those of us who innocently allow the Googles and Facebooks to sequence our social and commercial DNA. It's scary.

Suddenly it's back to Weird Future Time, and the moon is missing and a robot breaks through a wall and someone dies of old age or maybe it's radiation poisoning The End. Sigh.

Disappointed downvote emoji.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

review - https://youtu.be/ytul0j2I7OM

[Eric Mesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty confusing, but then again it's a concept comic for a concept album. Considering that, it's pretty awesome. I have enjoyed all the Matt Fraction I've read and this is no exception. He's as perfect a team mate to Coulton as Greg Pak was for Code Monkey Save World if not better. The story is both wonderful and depressing as I can almost see it happening right now. I think the book works well on its own and best together with the music album it's based on. Also, Monteys art is great. I'd read Universe #1 over on Panel Syndicate and enjoyed his work there. The art really makes a great impact on the story.

[Jonah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wonder what JoCo would say about the internet today if he felt this way in 2017. Strongest point is the artstyle, love how the colors pop and really love the designs of the various buddybots. My only real gripe is I wanted more, wanted to see more of this like and dislike culture and their work.

[Geppis Baltimore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a unique sci-fi story set in the future. Everyone is called "buddy" and are very concerned with how society perceives them, because they don't want to get "down voted"

[Goran Lowie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a confusing but intriguing and (in the end) enjoyable read. The album it accompanies is by far my favorite thing JoCo's ever done, and this is a nice add-on.

[Alfonso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cuesta un poco entrar y entender la historia, aunque leyendo como se gesto es hasta entendible, pero es una historia interesante y el dibujo de Monteys es, como siempre, magnifico para mi gusto.

[Álex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Onírico, para lo bueno y lo incomprensible, pero muy bonito. Monteys está que se sale, by the way.

[Adam Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Matt Fraction and Jonathan Coulton's Solid State is a familiar feeling sci-fi adventure. Dystopianish future. Slang has become language. People are isolated and are slaves to their jobs. There are robots. Something goes wrong.

I was really interested in the beginning of this graphic novel. I was curious where the story was going, and Albert Monteys's art is fantastic. This would have been a two star review, but his art is flawless, engaging, and the perfect pairing for what this story wants to be.

Unfortunately, just as I was starting to lose interest in the initial characters/scenario, we jump to a different time, with a similar story which will undoubtedly be related to the beginning of the book. I just couldn't invest myself with reading any more.

I love most of Coulton's music, and I'm a big fan of Fraction's work, so I was disappointed to not be into this. If you are a mega-Coulton fan, or you really like sci-fi tropery, this book might be for you. The story isn't challenging, so much as repetitive, and, again, the art is fantastic. Even though I didn't enjoy it, I'm glad I picked it up, so I know to look for more Albert Monteys art.

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I snapped this up with a preorder for the accompanying album last spring. I love Matt Fraction's work on Sex Criminals, and have been a big JoCo fan for almost a decade now, so this was a no brainer.

This... didn't work out for me. It tells a story of a utopian-seeming dystopian future where people are more concerned with fitting in and getting likes than they are being individuals and chasing hopes and dreams. It flashes back to different points in a past life (?) showing how we reached this dystopia through some rogue coding and corporate mergers and some petty actions on the part of a CEO. I found the story structure interesting but the characters and overall plotting to not grab me at all. Maybe I need to be in a different frame of mind? I thought this would be something I'd grab onto, like the music or Fraction's other writing, but it didn't gel for me.

[Ignacio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es curioso cómo la misma materia prima que en Universo me suena fresca, ácida, inteligente, con un punto mayor de abstracción me parece forzada y tirando a pretenciosa. Soberbios el formato y la puesta en página.

[Borja · Rating 2 out of 5]

Desde un punto de vista artístico está genial, pero eso es todo.

[Paul Spence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Turning an album into a graphic novel is a daunting task, even an album by an artist as who is as much a storyteller as a songwriter as Jonathan Coulton. But Matt Fraction and Albert Monteys have not only created a graphic novel that fully represents the album, but stands on its own as a complete story. It feels right that the graphic novel flows like an album, not a straightforward series of events.

In the future, people work all day building walls with the help of robots, taking supplements to prolong their life, but they don’t dream, don’t have wants, and simply upvote and downvote in place of emotions. But when worker Bob is struck on the head by a skeletal head in a helmet, his entire existence changes, showing how this future came to be, caused by another Bob in the past. The two Bobs’ stories connecting through dreams and visions adds to the concept, making it never entirely certain what is really happening and to which character.

While this isn’t exactly a new idea–a dystopian future caused by an evil corporation–the storytelling, writing, and art elevate it to something fresh and incredibly enjoyable. Fraction’s strengths are dialogue and relationships, and his real standout here is Future!Bob and his Robobuddy. The development of their bond all the way to the very end of the story made a great throughline.

It’s Albert Monteys’ art that really makes this story pop and brings out the humor and pathos of Fraction’s writing. His cartoonish style makes the characters almost instantly relatable and loveable.

Adding the visual language of emojis and the ubiquitous “buddy” into the dialogue was a smart way to create a society governed through social media.

My one complaint is that there are gaps in the story, mostly with Past!Bob. His girlfriend makes a point of leaving him after he releases the code, but then she’s back and they have a whole life together. Also, Booji did something to possibly destroy the Earth, or maybe it was something else and Booji is the last place standing, but we don’t know what or how. All in all, Future!Bob’s story felt more fully fleshed out than Past!Bob.

And while I overall loved the visual styling, the perfectly square pages giving it an interesting constraint to the pages, the way the panels were laid out was occasionally a little confusing. Panels that were meant to go together wasn’t always immediately evident.

Solid State is a book that begs for multiple readings, especially with the cyclical nature of the story, and I caught a lot more details on my second and even third reading. It was an incredibly engaging experience, and a one that I’ll be revisiting again.

[José Pascual · Rating 5 out of 5]

El proceso creativo de una obra maestra es caprichoso. Como suele suceder con toda obra trascendental, a menudo su gérmen aparece de manera casual, en un segundo de inspiración que termina dando lugar a una historia de las grandes. Jonathan Coulton, cantautor norteamericano cuyos temas suelen versar sobre las nuevas tecnologías e internet, empezó a escribir su álbum de 2017 Solid State como una sucinta crítica a la red de redes. Cuando tuvo varios temas compuestos, se dio cuenta de que tenía algo compacto entre manos, un conjunto conceptual susceptible de manifestarse en otros medios diferentes a la música. Siendo un fan confeso de Sex Criminals, Coulton no dudó en ponerse en contacto con el guionista Matt Fraction y ofrecerle su idea, aún algo vaga, para crear una novela gráfica. El otro vértice para la construcción del cómic llegó con la incorporación al proyecto del español Albert Monteys, autor muy en boga por su maravilloso ¡Universo!, obra con la que «Solid State» comparte espíritu.

Adentrándose de lleno en el terreno de la ciencia ficción, Solid State, el cómic, nos ofrece una historia que comienza con tintes clásicos (el despertar de un personaje, utilizado aquí como recurrente transición entre escenas) para tocar diferentes teclas durante su desarrollo. La trama plantea un futuro distópico con dos líneas temporales bien diferenciadas, una muy cercana a nuestros días y la otra bastante alejada en el tiempo. Empezando en ese lejano futuro, el equipo creativo nos presenta una humanidad encerrada entre muros pero aparentemente feliz, aplacada por unas píldoras que provocan una total falta de curiosidad, de sueños y de emociones. En tal sociedad encontramos a Bob, un trabajador que encuentra unos restos humanos que le llevarán a cuestionarse la naturaleza de su realidad.

Reseña completa: https://heraldodegalactus.com/2019/02...

[Mark Schlatter · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this is the companion graphic novel to Jonathan Coulton's science fiction concept album Solid State (which I've listened to once), but to really do this review justice, I should listen to it again, and read the lyrics, and reread the graphic novel, and that's not going to happen, so here are some quick points....

1) The art by Albert Monteys is stellar. You've got a bit of bigfoot cartooning mixed with excellent giant robots mixed with compelling depictions of the near future. (I love the dodecahedral helmets everyone wears.) At the same time, Monteys' formal structure is off the charts --- it's rare that I see such attention paid to effective panel transitions and full page splashes. Seen just from the design aspects, this is an amazing work.

2) Coulton and Fraction (with help of Monteys) deliver one of the most atmospheric works I've read in awhile. Yes, it's science fiction and a discussion of AI and a depiction of a privacy apocalypse (think of it as a precursor to The Private Eye), but because of Fraction's willingness to use sparse and often confusing language, the effect is more emotional than informational. I read the work and feel like I'm drifting between exposition and metaphor.

3) As a result, I finished the book fairly unsure of what was going on. I didn't really care that much mind you, but I was left with the sense that had I perused the album more, I would have exited with more understanding.

Highly recommended for fans of science fiction graphic novels who like some ambiguity, even if you don't listen to Jonathan Coulton.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dystopian tale in 2½ parts. Created to accompany JoCo's latest album. tl:dr; Bit of a curate's egg.

The first part a robot & drugged-prole populated dystopia, the second part is how we got from their from here, and I think I'll leave the ½ part for a spoiler tag later. It finishes with an appendix that explains on a track by track basis how album implies a story line, which got expanded into this comic. While I enjoyed this behind the scenes glimpse, it sadly doesn't change my opinion about the album https://cdave.dreamwidth.org/119231.html

The art style really doesn't suit the theme. It's too bright and cartoony, which I guess is how the future world is supposed to be, but it's actually much bleaker. The layouts and character design are top notch though.

The weirdness in the future parts like the moon disappearing, and those damn destroy switches, clashes oddly with the mundanity in the near-present day parts.

But that last ½ part is a sentient AI in a satellite, which I am a sucker for, that's read all the comments on the internet, and decided to bugger off into deep space for a bit. Which was nice.

[Kasie Cavanagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

☕☕☕☕ 4 Cups of Coffee

“We have gone 10,700 days since our last accident. Good job, buddies.”

“The brain and the mind are two discrete entities.”

This graphic novel was captivating and very cerebral. You slowly get the sense of how humanity failed and what came after. Humans have become Bobs, or “buddies,” repeating routines and literally drawing the path to the moon day after day.

The Bunnies are robots that assist the human Bobs, and the whole world feels strangely calm but deeply unsettling at the same time.

One of my favorite elements was the 1950s-style slang for swearing. It adds a quirky tone to a story that is otherwise pretty dark.

Bob begins to question things. Instead of building walls and repeating the same patterns, he stops. He stops talking. He stops taking his supplements. He begins dreaming again and even falls in love with the moon.

That’s when the real questions begin. AI controls everything, but it still offers humanity a choice. Stay and live under their system, or take your chances elsewhere.

The artwork and format are fantastic and really support the eerie atmosphere of the story.

My takeaway: AI is us. And if that’s true, we might be ruthless, greedy bastards.

[M.E. Kinkade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird, beautiful, and good. I haven't yet heard the album for which this was written, and maybe that's a mistake, but Matt Fraction was co-author and I had to gobble it up.
First, the easy part: the art is good. It brings depth that a novelization just couldn't match. I like the lines and the use of color and the general absurdity, particularly with feelings communicated with thumbs-up and thumbs-downs.
The story--more complicated. In fact I think I'll have to read it again to really grok it, but it is essentially about reality and time and privacy versus privilege. It is a flag in the ground for the net neutrality wars, a banner that sometimes there is just a too far. And yet even that acknowledges there are consequences.
It's a bit non-linear--I think--but it's a comic/book that will both please you and make you rock back and think.
It's also charming, for me, to learn that one of my favorite nerd musicians (Coulton) is a fan of one of my favorite comic writers (Fraction). But of course he is. I saw throwbacks in this, too, to some of Coulton's earlier hits, like Code Monkey. The man has his themes...and it works.

[Minifig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid State es un cómic que complementa el álbum homónimo de Jonathan Coulton.

Tal y como cuenta el mismo Coulton en un texto al final del cómic, la idea surgió mientras estaba trabajando en el álbum, Solid State. En ese momento, y según cuenta el autor del álbum, le dio la sensación de que las canciones estaban conectadas, así que las reorganizo y escribió otras complementarias para narrar una historia común que se desarrolla en dos instantes distintos.

Más adelante llegaría a la conclusión de que el álbum por si mismo quedaba cojo, por lo que se le ocurrió completarlo con un cómic, idea con la que acudió a Matt Fraction como guionista y Albert Monteys como dibujante, resultando de esta colaboración a tres bandas el cómic objeto de esta reseña.

El cómic comienza en el futuro remoto, mostrando una sociedad distópica clásica en la que el individuo resulta alienado por una maquinaria burocrática inoperante.

[+] Reseña completa de "Solid State" en Alt+64 wiki: http://alt64.org/wiki/index.php?title...

[Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jonathan Coulton, most well known for writing the end credit songs for the best puzzle platformer duology to date (high bar, I know) made a scifi concept album almost a decade about how the modern internet kind of sucks. And to build on that concept, he asked Matt Fraction and Albert Monteys to turn it into a graphic novel. What they came up with is... something for sure ! Maybe it's just the art creating a continuity in my brain, but this almost feels like it could've been part of his ¡Universo! series. It's very much the same vein of slightly absurd, satirical comedy scifi. But while you can easily go high concept on short stories, keeping it straight for some 130 pages is whole nother story. Maybe I need to give the album a listen to fully grasp this, but timeline felt a little out of whack.

As far as the commentary goes, it isn't quite revolutionary (careful handing over your data to corporations and all that) but I can't say we've learned from our mistakes either so maybe it's still worth shouting from the rooftops who knows

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Baffling and hilarious. For the most part set in a dystopian society where a bunch of “buddies” toil on walls, for what & against what our protagonist wonders. This moves into deeper territory by way of absurdist laughs & a sudden reveal of the subtext of all this. Now we are in a very modern world trying to negotiate the difference between privacy & security, the difference between guilt and shame. Guilt is feeling bad for what you do, but shame is feeling bad for what you ARE. Monteys art and composition are exceptional and many a page is a thing of beauty even absent the delicate storytelling going on. One of the year’s best.

[Sarahjane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book at my local comic shop and had no idea it was a concept graphic novel paired with an album by Jonathan Coulton. I'd never heard of the artist before and to be honest, the music didn't make much sense for a sci fi graphic novel in my opinion. I was expecting something more electronic and space-y. The album I ended up listening to isn't really my style. The graphic novel itself was fairly interesting and unique, albeit a little preachy. The pacing and timelines were a little confusing as well, though the art was clean and easy to follow. All in all, this was a fairly decent graphic novel, but I just wasn't a huge fan.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was hard to follow. There at least two separate timelines in this narrative. The narrative jumps around and the author does little to include cues when shifts occur. My comic book group had a lively discussion regarding one of the themes in this book: the notion of digital privacy. The conversation devolved to how things used to be in the old days. I think whatever relationship we have with digital spaces is wholly determined by the individual to some extent. However, I don’t think the narrative itself does a great job at getting to that point. The style and square shape is unique, but the story is a no-go for me.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love all three of the creators involved in this (Coulton, Fraction, and Monteys), and Coulton's concept album "Solid State" is my favorite of his collection. I really, REALLY wanted to love this graphic novel, but it's so haphazard and stilted that I was never able to really connect with the storyline. I loved noticing the bits that were obviously taken from song lyrics, but wished there was a lot more story to this story. That being said, the overall tone was as obvious as the one from the concept album: technology is going to ruin all of us, forever. But at least someone's dad will still get drunk at a party and dance once in a while.

[Trevin Sandlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confusingly moving; movingly confusing. Kind of a mess.
I love the idea of this. Reading the notes in the back, I think Coulton's plot works better than what Fraction did here. Not that Fraction's story is bad (and the art is amazeballs), but I feel like I got a much better sense of what was going on in the song descriptions Coulton provides at the end and the story they tell than whatever Fraction put on the page. I'm a Matt Fraction fan...I just don't know that this is his best work.
The ending is confusing, much of the story likewise. I get what is trying to be said here, but this is a case where the book just didn't match the album.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jonathan Coulton had a new album which turned out to be a concept album. Passing his ideas behind to the songs to Matt Fraction, a story was melded together. Albert Monteys set it down in artful pages into a solid state.

This may have deserved 5 stars, but I feel like neither the album nor the graphic novel make complete sense without each other or the endnotes. Or... maybe I'm just not sophisticated enough to get it; it wouldn't be the first time. Either way, this is a masterful collaboration.

[Paul Allard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another one that's a bit unfathomable – science-fiction comic collection

Maybe it's me but this comic collection is a bit hard to follow. A fair amount of patience is needed and perseverance although it is nicely-produced and quite interesting. It's about how our data is collected, owned and used – in the distant future.

Not sure about this as you may have gathered. I like my plots to be a bit more straight-forward and easier to follow – maybe I'm a bit thick for this one. Might be worth a shot for devoted comic readers.