Demo (comics)

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Cover of Demo #2

Demo is a twelve-issue limited series of comic books by writer Brian Wood and artist Becky Cloonan, published 2003-2004 by AiT/Planet Lar.

Each issue is an isolated story, but they all revolve around the lives of young people. Originally, the series was intended to focus on young people with supernatural powers -- which many of the issues indeed do -- but as the year progressed, the stories increasingly focused on people, relationships, and emotions, with the "supernatural" angle quietly deemphasized.

1 Overview
2 Issues
3 Collections
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Overview

Demo was very well-received. The series was not only embraced by the indie comics world, but also found some crossover success with superhero readers. Wizard, a steadfastly superhero-oriented comics magazine, named Demo its 2004 "Indie of the Year." The series was also nominated for two Eisner Awards in 2005, for Best Limited Series and Best Single Issue (for #7, "One Shot, Don't Miss").

Initially, Wood and publisher Larry Young emphasized the single-issue aspect of Demo, suggesting that the series would probably not be collected into a trade paperback. AiT/Planet Lar, generally seen as a publisher of graphic novels, held up Demo as proof that it had not abandoned the monthly-pamphlet format. However, the series was collected in 2005^[1], minus the extra materials originally presented with the single issues.

After Demo, illustrator Becky Cloonan went on to draw Dracula for Puffin Books and American Virgin for DC/Vertigo, and well as to write and draw her own East Coast Rising Volume 1 for Tokyopop. Brian Wood went on to create and write Supermarket for IDW Publishing, The Tourist for Image Comics, DMZ and Northlanders for DC/Vertigo, as well as revisit the publishing format he invented for Demo with Local, a 12-issue limited series published by Oni Press.

In September 2007, it was announced that the publishing rights to Demo had reverted back to the creators, and in November the DC imprint Vertigo was named as the publisher. They will reprint the original series as a 328 page trade paperback in May 2008, and then start publishing a new six-issue limited series, entitled Demo Volume 2 at the end of the year.^[2]

[edit] Issues

#1: NYC
#2: Emmy
#3: Bad Blood
#4: Stand Strong
#5: Girl You Want
#6: What You Wish For
#7: One Shot, Don't Miss
#8: Mixtape
#9: Breaking Up
#10: Damaged
#11: Midnight to Six
#12: Mon Dernier Jour Avec Toi (My Last Day with You)

[edit] Collections

The series has been collected into trade paperbacks twice:

Demo: The Collection (328 pages, AiT/Planet Lar, December 2005, ISBN 1-932051-42-2)
Demo: Volume 1 (328 pages, Vertigo, July 2008, ISBN 1401216218)

The scripts have also been collected and published in their own volume: