POUNDED
Brian Wood and Steve Rolston
Oni Press
Payback's a bitch.
Pounded is a supreme exercise in schadenfreude. "Heavy" Parker is a poseur, a punk-rock wannabe - from bloody Vancouver, no less! - who, seemingly, has it all. He's rich (without having to work for it), good looking, has a fantastic apartment, and hot-and-cold running nookie. He runs around town, singing with his band and getting into scrapes, and shagging his way through half of Canada, without fear of the consequences.
In short, he's a jammy bastard.
Pounded is the story of Heavy's Big Mistake. Reluctant to face the emotional hassle of committing to, or breaking up with, his girlfriend Missy, Heavy simply allows her to go on thinking that he gives a shit about her. When Missy discovers that Heavy isn't the great guy she wants him to be, she swears Revenge. Heavy comes to realise that he's picked the wrong girl to do the dirty on, and pays an extremely heavy (ahem) price.
And thank christ for that. Maybe I'm just a bitter and twisted old man ("maybe?!"), but I took great pleasure in seeing Heavy get his just desserts. Wood and Rolston do an excellent job of making you hate him. Even so, I ended up feeling sorry for the poor schmuck, and almost found myself cheering at the last scene.
Maybe I'm not so bitter after all.
Wood's script is tight and his characters solid. There are an awful lot of bullshit merchants in Pounded: people who are so into being part of "the scene" that they don't realise that punk rock passed them by. About twenty years ago. In a different country.
Funny how you don't see people who are really committed to the 13th century madrigal scene, innit?
Anyway. I find people like that, the really earnest ones for whom the music really means something to them, extremely annoying. And extremely comical. Wood's script is funny as hell, too.
Steve Rolston, who also drew the award winning, and quite su-bloody-perb, Queen and Country, puts in overtime here, to produce some quite spectacular art. Rolston draws a wicked Vancouver (his hometown), and his character designs are great. Missy, especially, is smartly done: transforming from a fairly ordinary teenager into a real Punk Rawk Chick - tattoos, piercings and all - in an attempt to out-punk Heavy.
Rolston's smooth, clean lines and superb design sense make this book really easy on the eyes. And it's packed with detail, too - crowds of moshing clubbers, roomfuls of half-cut horny partygoers, and more - none of which detracts from the important elements in each panel.
All in all, Pounded is great comics: it's funny, beautifully drawn work from two master creators. It's appeal should be universal, from the guy like me, who enjoys seeing guys like Heavy take a fall, to the girl who's been dumped on by guys like Heavy, but still secretly holds a candle for them.
Pounded is like lemon in the eye of the Nu-Metal generation.
Blink, and you'll miss it.
(NOTE: You can also buy the Official Pounded Soundtrack, through your local comic shop or online retailer. Acts on the album include Bouncing Souls, The Teen Idols, Big In Japan, Mr T Experience, Mid Carson July, and King Monkey.)
Review text (C) Matthew Craig
Originally published in the pop culture magazine Robot Fist