It’s a perfect 5/5 to Closer by Kieron Gillen and Steve Lieber. Check out our review!
Let me admit something to you at the top of this review: I don’t know jack shit about music. Do I like music? Sure, who doesn’t? Do I know artist’s work intimately? Do I know music history? Could I tell you the top song on the top 50 right now? Fuck no to all the above. So why do I start this review to a comic with a diatribe about being a musical philistine? It’s because Closer, written by Kieron Gillen with art by Steve Lieber, is an ode to a song I’ve never heard of before: “Close To You” by the Carpenters.
I went into the comic not knowing this song, and even typed up an initial draft of this review before listening to it. But I thought better of it and gave a song a listen. And thank god I did. This isn’t a music review so I won’t talk about the song beyond this fact: It unlocks something about this comic. So if you are picking up Closer then I’d highly recommend giving it a listen.
Closer follows Marigold Dunwoody as she enters into a sketchy experiment where she is required to sit in a room with fifty pigeons for an hour, a relatively simple ask for a paycheck. However nothing is ever as it seems. The story quickly escalates to world ending stakes with Marigold at the center of the erupting chaos.
The best way to describe the actual comic is as a text soundtracked by the song. It uses the iconography of the song to service a story that’s not derivative of the original piece but that makes the song work for it. That is to say that the song is a foundation that this story is built upon, not the other way around. This isn’t a music video subservient to the song, this is a work unto itself. To go deeper into the narrative would be to approach the realm of spoilers. But let’s just say that this little 32 page one-shot sketches out a startlingly well realized relationship and crafts a perfect narrative for the length.
On the art front, Steve Lieber, colored by Tamra Bonvillain, rises to the occasion with expressive characters and moments of subtle bombast. There is a type of manic escalation at one point in the comic that the art conveys to great effect. In particular there is a page that signals the start of the second act that really wow’s. I don’t want to understate how much the art sells the narrative. The pages of escalation are so impactful and exciting as you read it.
In the closing, Closer is a compact but effective one shot that pairs really nicely with the song it owes so much to. Just remember, listen to “Close To You” by the Carpenters before picking it up this Wednesday!
Rating: 5/5
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