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The Compleat Terminal City Advance TPB Review

 

Terminal CityIt is tempting to say that Terminal City is one part this with a hint of that, or a cross between something and something completely different. The problem is that this is too easy a comparison to make. I am as big a fan of this device as the next guy, but this book is dependent on all of its inspirations and still completely original.

Terminal City is pitch perfect retro-futurist. The entire city has been pulled from the fever dreams of a 1920s engineer. There are zeppelins, towering monorails, hover cars, and sentient robots. Everything about the book fits this weird imagined era. The problem is that Terminal City is set about ten years after the heyday. Construction has stopped, and the tourism did, too. There is a seediness to the setting that permeates everything.

The characters have seen better days, as well. Former daredevil Cosmo Quinn has resorted to cleaning the windows of the buildings he used to scale for fame and glory. His former business partner Charity is a bartender at the Herculean Arms, the largest hotel in town. In fact, the only people who seem to be doing well are the gangsters, like Li’l Big Lil.

This brings me to my favorite part of this book: the puns. The glorious, subtle, blatant, and occasionally obtuse puns. There are puns everywhere, from the gigantic statue in the center of town called the Colossus of Roads, to the gentlemen’s club, La Bar Belle. The puns extend far out of town to the Bar Nun Ranch and Convent. I won’t mention my personal favorite pun, because finding them is at least half the fun. This book is the funniest, most surprising thing I have read in a long time.

Even if the setting and characters weren’t interesting and fun as heck, if the puns and silly references weren’t cleverer than almost anything I have seen, the story would carry the book. There is a huge element of noir in a smart, twisting story or several. I would have been happy if I just got to experience the narrative. I just wouldn’t love it like I do. Honestly, this is my new favorite comic, and I can’t wait to read it again.

Five terribly awesome puns out of four.

 

Ben Rhodes, Fanbase Press Senior Contributor

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Favorite Book:  Cryptonomicon Favorite Movie:  Young Frankenstein Favorite Absolutely Everything:  Monty Python

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