44: Demo Volume 2, by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan (2011 trade paperback)

In my entry for books 36-37, I declared my love for Brian Wood, and I mentioned his "short stories of identity-seeking teen and twentysomethings."  This is that very series, although I now regret that description and all that it fails to capture. Indeed, the stories of Demo are not at all ordinary, as this description makes them seem, and the series is unusual in itself in that it does not follow a storyline or have repeating characters.  Instead, each issue of the series is a stand-alone story, connected by a common thread of human frailty and accomplishment--complimented by the starkness of Cloonan's art.   

The stories Wood tells are not often pretty, and Publishers Weekly (Marsh 2011) aptly describes the characters as "young mutants who are clearly not superheroes." One story's protagonist breathes underwater, another's OCD drives her to live her life on post-it notes, and a third features a cannibal. The lives that these seemingly extraordinary people live are strangely normal, almost as if their unattractive/unusual traits are manifestations of common societal fears and shortcomings.  The overall affect is disturbing yet compelling, depressing yet hopeful.  Wood has a way of allowing us to explore the bizarre in a comfortable setting so that we almost question the society the characters (and we) live in rather than their actions.  It's compelling, strange stuff.