Welcome to the table,
I spend a great deal of my time working in social media marketing. When you have worked in the field as long as I have, you get so many “tips and tricks,” “get rich quick,” and “easy steps you can take to make yourself an overnight super influencer” notifications that you could smash that like button all day every day.
You would still not click enough times to match the number of ways people will tell you that you can do “just one little thing” and go viral. Most of the time that “one little thing” is to hire the person emailing you as an influencer to help you push your brand and maximize your reach.
Under The Influence feels borrowed from my inbox in ways that are a little too accurate to be accidental.
The story goes, a teenager, Paul Kozac, has accidentally created an internet cult called The Hot Dog Party. When a prank-for-views goes horribly wrong and someone dies on stream, the F.B.I. sends in an undercover agent who’s Insta-ready to investigate and infiltrate the ranks of this growing cult of personality.
Everything has the look and feel of TikTok to Insta Stories to Twitter doom scroll rotation in a way that makes the comic feel ripped from the phone screen and splashed onto the page. The art is frenetic and fun with great shape language and the color pallet that elevates the whole work, it’s seriously standout in all the best ways.
Written by Eliot Rahal, with artist Stefano Simeone and letterer Frank Cvetkovic, the team hits all the angles producing a comic that feels timely and self-aware.
What I really like about Under the Influence #1 is that it feels real. It’s stylized and flashy, but it honestly feels like something that could be happening anywhere that people with an internet connection are doing things for views. The most recent congressional conversation with Shou Zi Chew has added this layer of governmental oversight and interest over an app where kids do choreographed dances and people argue over which One Piece character is hotter.
I don’t often get to use the term timely when it comes to reviewing a comic but Under the Influence feels current in a way that is unexpected and fascinating and I for one can’t wait to see what happens next.
Until next time, like, share, and subscribe.
Welcome to the table, I spend a great deal of my time working in social media marketing. When you haveCOMICONRead More