The comlexity of this universe is a thing to behold. The author even created a fictitious newspaper with articles, classifieds and ads set in this future world. They add quite a bit of depth to this futuristic detective story. The focus on one of the detectives' marriage is also pivotal in showing the two conflicting sides of pro and anti-surrogates. The ending is a bit too fast and quite unexpected, given the advantage of the good guys, but it doesn't take away from a really good story.Technolo...

I figured since I worked on the upcoming movie, I should read The Surrogates to get a real sense of the story beyond the snippets here and there that I pieced together. I was pleasantly surprised. The book isn't overly complex, which is good. Instead of bogging down in the science, Venditti lets you get to know Detective Harvey Greer and gives you a feel for what society has become by looking through his eyes. The storytelling is crisp and compelling, and I liked the inter-chapter sections - jou...

The movie was better.The illustration style made it hard to visualize what was going on and the story was just okay. Granted, this was probably more of a unique book when it was published versus when I read it.

I never did connect this book with the forgettable Bruce Willis movie of the same name. Same story, maybe put together better here. The art never quite connected for me.

I loved this book. The writing is top notch and the art, though a bit too scribbly for my taste, worked well with the "sci-fi noir" feel of the story. I think Venditti did a good job of making his social point without becoming preachy, perhaps partly because you get the feeling that he'd like to operate a surrogate as much as most of his characters do.Reading this off the back of Moore's Black Dossier, I can't help but praise Venditti's intelligent use of the "ancilliary documents" technique tha...

My interest in this title was sparked by a trailer for the upcoming movie version. I think a lot of people discovered it about the time I did, since it took a couple months for a copy to make its way to me after I reserved it at the library.Surrogates is a deceptively simple book. There are no confusing plot twists, no complex language, no overwhemlingly large cast of characters. However, it is a tightly-woven story filled with enough cultural analysis to keep your brain working long after you'v...

This was a surprisingly great sci-fi read. In the year 2054, a majority of Americans utilize artificial “surrogates” for most of their day to day affairs. These surrogates, or life-sized robots that can be controlled remotely, are used for work, pleasure, and everything in between while their operators control them from a hookup back home, safely insulated from the many hazards (both physical and emotional) present in the real world. When someone starts killing surrogates on the streets of Atlan...

Everything I've read recently has been mutated/adopted by another medium (mostly movies, but Wicked is a musical and icanhascheeseburger is a website...and yes, I 'read' icanhascheeseburger the book).Thought the Bruce Willis flick looked kinda interesting, so I thought the graphic novel would inspire me enough to finally add the movie to my queue. It has, but it's number 478 or something. There were a couple of cool extra stuff between chapters (brochure from company selling surrogate robot-bodi...

I liked the main character and his relationship with his wife, otherwise, I felt the story was too simple and predictable. Actually, I was bored. And the art needed something. For an idea that I would normally eat up, I feel disappointed.

I decided to buy and read "The Surrogates" because, of course, the movie was coming out soon and it had Bruce Willis in it, and I've lately been drawn into the graphic novel universe. So I said, why not? I've read a few other graphic novels and the concepts presented in this one were interesting.First off, the graphic novel is significantly different from the movie, so you should probably read it even if you have already seen the movie. It starts off with the same initial setup--some surries get...

It's a very weird thing to me that the movie adaptation is so underrated. At the time, when I watched it in a movie theater, I had no idea it was an adaptation. Maybe fans of the comic were disapointed. That I can understand. The two works are very different. The movie has a different tone and visually creates a very different atmosphere. When I watched the series "Caprica", in my mind "Surrogates" (the movie) had been its influence. There is a bright, artificial world, that contrasts with a rou...

The collected miniseries raises some interesting questions about the price of technological progress and of social appearances. Venditti knows when it's necessary to pull back the dialogue and let Weldele's art speak for him. For a story that relies on no captions, the dialogue works well to establish the background and push the plot forward.Weldele uses an interesting mix of computer-generated effects and art to supplement his scratchy drawings. But art style seems too dark for the story, as if...

For those unfamiliar with the story (it was adapted into a movie starring Bruce Willis in 2009), The Surrogates is a dystopian science fiction thriller that asks just how human we can remain when we replace our bodies with machines. The Surrogates opens in 2054, a time in which virtual reality and cybernetics have combined in the invention of the surrogates (or “surries” as they’re colloquially known). Originally created to add the elderly and those with debilitating physical handicaps, surrogat...

I'm not a fan of graphic novels. However, if the artwork is good and the story is interesting I'll give it try. The drawing was excellent and the coloring was very similar to the 30 Days of Nights graphic novels which I thoroughly enjoyed. And the story, of course, warning us against the dangers of becoming disconnected from the world...it could have been heavy-handed but it wasn't. The ending was a bit abrupt and, unfortunately, I figured out early on who the "killer" was. Still, I highly recom...

3.5 stars

I've thoroughly enjoyed this series. The concept of owning a surrogate and living vicariously through it in your career, relationships, and daily life is equally fascinating as it is horrifying. I loved how much Venditti thought through the implications of this technology and what kind of an impact vicarious living could have on culture, politics, and religion. I was lucky enough to read the collected volumes which included some extremely creative advertising from Virtual Life Inc. It was so bel...

I just didn't want to finish the book. Cause that's all folks. Man, I haven't read a graphic novel this well written in a while. I was a dedicated comic collector as a kid and most of them were nicely done and worth a quick read.But this drama is not only written extremely well, but it flows effortlessly with the sparse duotone drawings. They don't get in the way, but accentuate the multiple story lines--even with the sublte change in color from scene to scene. Seeing this as a movie would be ex...

Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele, The Surrogates (Top Shelf, 2006)It is by now a Hollywood cliché, not to mention a Hollywood truism, that the book is better than the movie. And that is certainly the case where The Surrogates is concerned. That said, in some ironic way, reading Robert Venditti's original source material gave me a slightly greater respect for Jonathan Mostow's bloated, listless adaptation. I can see why he made the changes he made, and some of them I actually agree with. (The tw...

Well done mystery/sf thriller with interesting world building. I'm not sure about some of the speculation as to the effect surrogates would have on the populace, but most of it is moderately plausible at least. The pacing is dead on, incorporating the crime investigation, the detective's personal life and background on the use of surrogates in just the right amounts at just the right times.I would be very interested to learn what happens after the end of this story: however, I suspect the author...

Something about the art didn't catch me, but it was distinctive and fluid. Something about the concept didn't catch me either--I just couldn't buy into it, and it wrapped up so implausibly neatly. Still, an enjoyable read. I'll be interested to see how they do the movie version.