Polarity

It’s so hard to launch a smaller comic in this industry, one without spandex and a big-two publisher. In fact, it’s hard to even launch a new comic with spandex and a big-two publisher, so it’s always exciting as a reviewer to check out a new seemingly random book and find a gem. “Polarity” #1 by Max Bemis and Jorge Coelho from BOOM! Studios is one of those gems. Fine artist Tim is only successful after a devastating bi-polar episode that left him in a mental institute and with some “seriously inspired” work done while he was unraveling. Now on meds he’s having trouble coping with the banality of the world — everything from vapid social climbing hipsters to the lack of “intensity” in his work while on meds. So Tim decides to experiment with his disorder, which is when things of course become horrifyingly interesting all around. Bemis’s writing is smart and surprisingly funny when it needs to be and utterly disturbing when that’s more fitting. He handles the bi-polar aspect of the min