I'm split on this one. I come from a family of graphic novel enthusiasts. I personally haven't read very many but my all time favorite is Saga by Brian K Vaughan. I'm split because this kind of felt like a meandering, drawn out, one long conversation as the premise of the book. On the other hand, I understand that a lot of societal issues were brought up that feel symbolic to our current world. I was entertained regardless, and it feels very much like the writing style of Brian K Vaughan that I'm used to. Some, not all, of the graphic scenes felt like they were put in just for the sake of being put in. But I was also not offended or shocked by the use of them.
I think overall I liked the story. I was entertained, and that is the point of books, specifically fiction books and graphic novels. So overall I liked it and I'm very happy I got to read an arc of this.

Thank you so much to the publisher and to the author for allowing me to read an arc of this.

Ever since I read Paper Girls a few years ago, I've been drawn to Brian K. Vaughn's work. This graphic novel draws you in immediately with a shocking act of violence. Val, one of our main spectators, is violently murdered and turns into a ghost. Only she learns that ghosts don't really do much except watch. They can't interact with the living in any way. Val is a bit of a voyeur so this kind of suits her. Hundreds of years pass and on one fateful night she meets a fellow spectator Sam. Sam appears to be a gun toting western cowboy.

Throughout their night together they witness several acts of astonishing violence and love. Violence just for violence's sake to see how many people a single person can kill. Love through sex and kink to cope with these acts of violence. Val and Sam are sort of like narrators talking about violence and sex throughout the story. I loved their interactions and how they talked about their lives and deaths. This story was a little hard to read because it does hold an uncomfortable mirror up to our own society and how accepting of violence we can be. There are also little nuggets of information that easily suggest this could be the first in a connected series of stories, though I really think Spectators could easily stand on it's own.

Like most of Vaughn's work I thought this had some really great meaning beyond the violence and sex. I also loved the stylistic choice to have the real world be in black and white where the spectators are the only thing in color. It made it easier to separate the two and also provided a stark dichotomy.

I think if you like comics that make you think and are a fan of Vaughn's other works this would be a great book for you.

Thanks to NetGalley and Image Comics for the advanced copy, all opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and Image Comics for the eARC of this graphic novel.

I’m not a huge follower of graphic novels. I’ve read a few and mostly enjoyed them. The premise of this sounded intriguing. And it was. Lots of bigger issues - gun violence, social media culture, war, loneliness. The conversation between the two main characters was occasionally stilted but helped guide through the changing world.

The illustrations and art choices were excellent with the shift between color and black and white. There is a point where one character comments on the difference between societal views on violence vs sex in pop culture. Both are explicit here, but somehow the violence struck me more viscerally.

This is SUPER violent and contains explicit sexual content of many kinds. If gun violence is trigger for you, avoid this. But I found it a good commentary on “living”.

Th

Mature content and art , 18+

I firstly start that I didn’t expect this graphic novel to turn out the way it did. Firstly the cover suggested to me more of a horror element which though part of the novel are graphically gory, this was not a horror.

The story follows Val in her ghostly life after death among the other souls that choose to stay, and continue on as spectators. On seeking a viewing pleasure she meets Sam and they begin a journey together to find a true organic “throupling’. Seeking sexual encounters, or other violence and aggression the world falls into disarray and the end of the world draws imminent, pushing more living into further lust and violence such as the #Leaderboard terrorist group.

This graphic novel felt short but fulfilled and I really enjoyed the art style and the story of Val and Sam. It leaves me wondering what will become of them, and what is on the other side for them, and us.

I usually love Brian K Vaughan but this one was a miss for me. The gratuitous nudity and sex just seemed to be there for shock and no other reason.

This was good! Spectators doesn't break any new ground or offer super new insights into voyeurism and alienation (specifically in the digital age), but it is a well-conceived comic book that presents its concepts in an interesting way. I really dig the spectral spectator-idea (funnily enough, a term paper I wrote on It Follows was titled "Specters & Spectators" lol), the characters are pretty fun and the plot's flow is as smooth as butter, making for a very enjoyable reading experience. I'm a big Brian K. Vaughan fan and he hasn't yet missed for me.

What can I say, it's a solid one-shot and I don't think you'd be disappointed by it!

This book is so hard to rate! It's a wild ride through a weirdly sexy end of the world. It's creative, raw, brutal but also gorgeous. The art is amazing, it is indeed for warned reader as it is violent but also sex is depicted in all its angles. I particularly appreciated how genders and sexual orientations had representations and felt natural.

This is a WILD book. There is a ton of gratuitous nudity and violence throughout the whole book. But as you read more and more, you’ll find that those are really just distractions from the main themes of the book.

I feel like I could/should write a scholarly paper on this book, which is a pro and a con. It talks about themes of gender roles, sexuality, pop culture, history, politics, etc etc. It really hits on a ton of points, some more subtly than others. Sometimes it was a bit too on the nose or in your face, but generally it was fun to read. The book is essentially a conversation between 2 very different people on the surface, and the dialogue is very well written. I think that’s why I flew through this book so fast. The plot/story of the world kind of just goes on in the background a lot of times, which was interesting.

The artwork was really great too. Looked to me like a combination of watercolour and coloured pencil. I liked the stylistic choices throughout, from the colouring (or lack thereof) to the framing/shot size to the facial expressions.

Thanks to NetGalley and Image Comics for this ARC!

A modern-day woman, killed in a brutal movie theater massacre inspired by real-life shootings, finds herself in the afterlife. There, she encounters a gun-slinging man from the past, and together they witness the horrors that unfold across the world’s future—violence, chaos, and unrestrained sexuality. The story is raw, explicit, and uncompromisingly violent. While it toys with the idea of incels as potential killers, I reject that framing, since history shows far more dangerous extremes coming from radical leftist movements.

Val gets killed in a mass shooting in a movie theater. She becomes a voyeuristic ghost on the lookout for her next show, when she meets Sam a ghost from a different era. As it seems the world may be coming to an end they set off together in search of a threesome.

While I liked the art style, the story wasn’t my favorite. It just felt very surface level when dealing some heavy themes. It was a bit slow for a good portion and then the end was rushed and felt incomplete. I enjoyed some of the back and forth between the two main characters though. Overall Spectators was just ok, not bad but not great.

Content warning: lots of horrific violence and also sex.

Thank you to NetGalley and Image comics for the E-Arc.

Spectators is a graphic novel that follows the main character into the afterlife, where she is somewhere in the inbetween, able to watch but not participate. I don't want to say too much because watching the story unfold is part of the impact. The art, which depicts sex and violence rather graphically on page, makes you feel like the voyeur. It had me questioning if the sex made me more uncomfortable than the violence, then what does that say about me? Or society? I hope that was one of the intentions because isn't that something to reflect on in itself? This is a book that I will be thinking about for a long time. The whole thing is NSFW, maybe not even safe for home, depending on who is around.

I am grateful for the opportunity to read an ARC copy of this book. My review is posted on goodreads and will be copied to Amazon upon publishing.

This is definitely for mature audiences. This was a unique take on what happens to us after we die. Two ghosts reflect on sex and violence and what it means to experience pain and pleasure from a safe distance. Val and Sam are from two different time periods and watch Armageddon unfold. This work does a great job of differentiating the spiritual plane and physical world with the use of black and white vs color. The quest that Val and Sam partake on is unique and you will finish work this in one sitting. This thought provoking work stays with you as you reflect on society, violence and sex.

Hah. I just really love BKV. I read a bit of this as it was released online, and just didn't keep up. Blew through the whole thing in one sitting. Had me yelling at Val and Sam to just kiss already, so I loved the end. I wish I would've kept up with it as released because I think this is a story I will enjoy sitting with and thinking about. Can't wait to read through it again. So good.

There are parts about the premise of this book that intrigue me—the afterlife component, the discussions of its duration, what’s after, experiences gained from living in stasis from a time picked out of your control as the world marches forward—definitely there’s a lot of potential for interesting discussions, and I did enjoy the conversations between our modern voyeur and the cowboy she stumbled upon accidentally. The graphicness of the violence and the sexual content however weren’t particularly enthusing. It felt gratuitous and while I can appreciate the art as well as the diversity and acceptance of all types of people and relationships, I just felt like I wanted more of a plot, more of a story. The whole watching watchers as they watch dynamic wasn’t quite enough to hook me. As much as I enjoyed the MCs developing relationship over the course of the book….majority of it just wasn’t for me and didn’t land. I’m giving it three stars for the art and the main characters.

This was a really interesting premise by BKV, and the art is absolutely gorgeous. Not sure how I feel about the fourth wall breaking at the end of this, or the ending, but it was a good ride.

Thank you NetGalley and Image comics for allowing me to read this for free for an honest review.

First of all wow 😮 I love Brian K Vaughan comics this one is definitely different.

Shock value straight from the start, the influencer that murders folk absolutely mental.

Story line although graphic and sometimes very kinky is rather sweet and sad .

The erotic nature of the comic is almost in the background of the two main characters who just want to feel something anything .

Forced to spectate and not participate must be hard .

The style of the illustration is very unique, so much detail in the acts the end of the world and people are too busy fucking .


Loved it 🥰

I clicked on this mostly because I adore SAGA. I wasn't sure what I was getting into, but I knew it was going to be interesting. From the very beginning, we are bombarded with both violence and sexual content, the two framed together separately, next to each other, and sometimes within the same frame. The commentary becomes pretty clear by the end, even a bit heavy handed (the Terminator-story), but nonetheless necessary. I think the incel-ness of the #Leaderboard-movement could have been explored further, and how the violence they celebrate comes from a complete lack of personal sexuality with other humans. All in all, this was part tititllating, part depressing, part sad but true.

Val is murdered in a mass shooting at a movie theatre. Now a phantom, she is living her voyeur dreams as she can watch whoever, wherever, whenever she wants. She meets another ghost as the world begins to possibly descend into the end of humanity and the two of them team up to find a threesome to watch before the end.

This was... interesting. Dystopian, paranormal, sex, violence; lots of mature content in this one. It has an interesting commentary about violence and sex, but it felt like there was something missing narratively so it didn't hit the mark for me fully. It mostly was just two characters talking to each other while watching humans (usually having sex), so it was a little slow/seemed to drag at parts. The main relationship felt a bit unsatisfying at the end and I wish they went a different direction with it. I enjoyed it well enough, but probably wouldn't read it again, and I would recommend BKV's others over this one.

I rated it 3.25/5 rounded down to 3 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and Image Comics for the e-arc!

A really interesting short graphic novel, I appreciated both world and characters building. Their setting made me think that this would have been a great episode of TV shows such as Black Mirror or Love, Death & Robots: a dystopian and extreme Manhattan is observed and commented by the souls of the dead, waiting for the possible end of the world as they know it. Nudity and sex scenes are a bit too graphic for my taste, and I would recommend it to a mature audience only. All in all, a really nice reading that left me with a lot to think about.

I went into this one, only knowing it was going to touch on sex, and violence. But BOY was it SO much more than that.
The art was, hand down, impeccable. The storyline was actually really good! I see a lot of reviews saying that it just felt like hentai. But when I read it, it felt like two people getting to know each other, extremely intimately. Yes the imagery and what they talked about could be a bit taboo, but when it comes down to it, it's the grittiest, most raw parts of us.
I'm having trouble putting how this book made me feel into words, it really was impactful.

Our main character gets bored in the movie theatre, ditched by her date she starts browsing a porn site, only to be killed by a mass shooter. She meet many people, and has many "viewing" experiences along the way, alone. She meets a handsome "space cowboy" who she ends up really connecting with. As the living world around them falls apart, their experiences and souls become intertwined.

Beautiful imagery, wonderful story.