Being relatively new to indie comics, I had never heard of Blue Water Comics until I was given Paparazzi. Skeptical at first because of the questionable art, I quickly fell in love as the story developed and continued. In Paparazzi, the people of Los Angeles want to read about their local superheros and the Editor in Chief of Today is more than willing to slander the caped heroes. The story follows a couple a different characters, telling the story from different points of view.
The parallels between Paparazzi and modern day are hilariously close, Dynamo Marriott being a parody of Perez Hilton and trust me, there are more. The comic tells of the plight of Blue Water’s universe of superhumans struggling with the negative press and the invasion of their privacy.
Told well through multiple characters, the story stays strong and only wavers a little bit with the mention of androids and clones. Even in the unfamiliar superheroes, one can find a favorite before the end of the book. My personal favorite was Blood Note, an unlikely hero with a righteous mane of black hair that flows into his sideburns and ends with his heavy metal mustache. The black leather jacket and battle-ax guitar complete the package; his power seems to be the ability to squeal out destructive melodies with his voice and guitar. Blood Note gets little air-time, but the panels that he is in are filled with amazing sayings like, “Let’s Rock and Roll, then.”
The art in Paparazzi is good for being an indie comic and where it lacks realism, it makes up for it using caricature-like styles.
In all, there was practically nothing I didn’t love about this comic. I’d recommend it to others and now that Blue Water Comics are on my radar, I hope that they continue to live up to the expectations that Paparazzi has set.
