Graphic Novel ‘Paul Is Dead’ Is Beautiful, Trippy and Heartfelt
I love me a good Alternate Universe comic and Image Comic’s new graphic novel Paul is Dead – When the Beatles Lost McCartney is an alternate universe comic that reads almost like a conspiracy theory and I loved it.
In the interest of full disclosure the review copy was a PDF and there were a few formatting challenges as a side effect of this. I still loved it.
Written by Paolo Baron (credited as “Lyrics”) the story of this piece is fairly simple. Picture if you will: Paul McCartney died in a car wreck in 1967. The band now has to deal with the death of their friend and bandmate, the management has to figure out how The Beatles will continue and the Government is worried that the death of the heartthrob Beatle will lead to mass panic. What to do, hmm?
The story is tight and really centers around John and his grief. The other Beatles as well as members of the Beatles’ team are present throughout the story as well. The grief on display is real and raw. The translation is frank, direct and reads very easily.
The art style (or “Music,” as it’s credited) by Ernesto Carbonetti is a sketchy, wavering apparition drenched in gorgeous color and stark in black and white. The black and white makes the action contained therein feel more clandestine. The bright colors in the remaining Beatles’ grief seems almost garish; much like the world often does when a loved one dies.
The composition of the panels vary constantly and can create a claustrophobic environment or a wide open (strawberry?) field depending on the feeling needed.
If you get excited about classic rock, alternate history, or weird conspiracy theories this comic is for you. If you’re interested in a trippy love letter to the visual style of the 1967 Beatles then this is definitely a good book to read. You can hang up almost any panel from this book as art.
This comic is a fairly quick read, coming in at about 100 pages of comics and 20 additional pages of behind the scenes sketches. It’s an easy afternoon read but I found myself flipping through (swiping through?) just to look at them again.
