CCTVYLLE Issues 0-3, Reviewed

We’ve all done it, that leftover vintage Christmas cheese binge that transports your dreams to crazy imaginative places right? Well, I don’t know what Gianluca Bonomo had before bed but his dream has spawned a vision of a beautifully disturbing dystopia in the multimedia spanning, collective produced world of CCTVYLLE.

CCTV is everywhere, the bigger the population the bigger the surveillance. We all recognise the feeling of eyes on us, that eerie physical consequence of being watched. Yet when technology provides the eyes that watch, it often doesn't register in the same way. Concerns have been raised since its inception and the comparison to Orwell's dystopia have always been rife but slowly, the noise and the protests have slipped to the wayside. In fact, many people now relish it. Take your phone for instance, so many of us will capture and broadcast all manner of aspects of personal life. With YouTube and social media, people have spawned careers out of this behaviour. When we think we’re in control we’ll share anything. Obviously, there is some benefit to this technology - CCTV can protect, can deter, can keep in check and when in the hands of an individual can often capture that may otherwise continue to go unchecked. Cameras tend not to lie but often the user is of more concern. It’s a wishy-washy world at best, but I’m sure we all agree, over-saturated state-sponsored surveillance feels intrusive at best when you stop to think about it.

Gianluca Bonomo, thanks to a fascinating dream, has found a very interesting angle to explore this issue using a collective of multidisciplinary artists to fabricate something transcendent of the comic at its heart. This is something that from a technical aspect is thoroughly unique and maddingly interesting. It’s a comic interwoven with animation, photography and fine art in sculpture, print and poetry, that’s wondrous to behold and dive into. Here we’ll be concentrating on the comic itself as I believe this is the entry point for this nightmare world.

So, let’s start with the art. Salvatore Porcaro kicks things off with Vittorio Garofoli and Giuseppe Franzella taking the second half of the series over. The drawing here is an art of immense talent. This is a hyper-realistic edged style. Almost every panel is its own beautiful piece that is staggeringly rich in detail. The cityscapes are of architectural technical presentation creating a London captured in unrelenting beauty, it can’t be expressed enough how adept the studies presented appear. Issue three for me has the most sublime examples showing the first difference between the series artists. Vittorio Garofoli and Giuseppe Franzella just capture that richer detail in the cityscape art that is just engrossing. The high drama of the action is elevated by just how maddeningly rich those set pieces are presented. They really shout time served studies.

The human cast found within these pages of art deliver this same skill with careful and delicate detail. Salvatore Porcaro's characters give off a very animated vibe which I found at times almost feels like a digital animation coming to life with Vittorio and Giuseppe as with their cityscapes showing a finer edge of detail giving a different kind of emotion to those characters. These characters in total scream life and emotion in a world scarily familiar. Then there are the bird designs which are as inspired as they are frightening all feathers and tech meshing in terrifying form. For me, Salvatore’s "CCTVirds" are the most haunting with the extra edge of detail given. Gianluca Bonomo’s colours are something else here throughout. It’s such carefully measured work that elevates already lofty brilliance to something so technically adept, it’s bothersome in its brilliance. The doctor of brilliance behind the curtain of this site Mr Williams said it best "it’s one that's up there with some of my favourite art outside of mainstream comics" and I couldn’t agree more. My personal favourite panels are any involving cityscapes or those CCTVirds, especially when combined. There's also the unexpected delight of issue three's opera house scene with one panel presented with oil painting like delivery that I found difficult to not overly dwell on. An impossible to ignore panel.

Right, let’s get into that story. As mentioned before the concept came from one of Gianluca Bonomo's dreams, more specifically, and to paraphrase from the prequel introduction, he saw a tree, inhabited by hybrids, real bird wings and clawed feet but with a CCTV camera for a head. Scary vision or premonition of dystopian big brother state only time will tell. But it’s powerful enough in image and concept to see it expanded. It's an extension of the times we live in, focusing on the infringements inherent in CCTV while exploring a world asking if CCTV was this obvious and invasive would you still let it fly, and there's your outline premise.

The plot then, with script handled by Diego Blanda, centres around Sean, a permanently hooded young rogue raging against the machine that is CCTVYLLE. He’s a man of questionable recruitment techniques but clearly some sort of plan and intent for the eradication of the CCTVirds and he’s been doing this a while. His “team” consists of Claire a talented graffiti artist with a gifted friend, she's enamoured by Sean and the cause and is willing to help any way she can, leaving the gifted friend Damien the most skittish of the trio who possess some level of precognitive dream ability that is reliant on interpretation. Claire has belief in both these men even when they lack it themselves with Damien having the most internal struggles. Our main villain is Commander Reese, the man in charge and overall control of the whole hybrid system. Although despite his own judgement he must deal with the government if he wants to keep his system in place but he definitely has his own agenda and end game. Another key player is Owlduch the badass woman with her own CCTVird and a relationship with Sean that reaches into his past, as well as family ties to another serious character. These are the characters of Cctvylle.

Sean is gathering a rebellion he has the rage and the enthusiasm but can he find the key to bringing the oppressive regime down? What has happened to Sean to make him this way? Will Damien be able to interpret his dreams to turn them into a powerful tool? Who is Owlduch and what is she invested in? Does Family always come first? Can this team work together? What is Commander Reese up to? Seriously what sort of shenanigans is this? Also just how powerful is Nessun Dorma? Yes, the opera song most popularized by Pavorottie. The second time I did play the song during the key moment and can honestly recommend the same to anyone enjoying and experiencing the series. It’s a fascinating story of raging against the machine of an oppressive surveillance state, full of conspiracy, mystery and surprises around every corner with moments of dramatic action that is constantly entertaining, all wrapped up in a stunning showcase of art. With four issues available all those questions and many more will be answered and built upon. With issue three bringing us to the penultimate moment for this epic story making this a great opportunity to get involved.

For fans of rebellion in the face of oppression, intriguing dreams, deep mystery storytelling, hybrid animals of flight, hoodies, Pavorotti, multidisciplinary art, fine art and collective driven projects I would direct you to www.cctvylle.com to open the door to this beautifully presented dystopian world.

Review: 5/5