Spectators
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Niko Henrichon
Letterer: Fonografiks
Publisher: Exploding Giraffe
Roughly two years ago, writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Niko Henrichon launched their Exploding Giraffe newsletter via Substack, so named for a famous scene from the duo’s previous critically-acclaimed collaboration, The Pride of Baghdad. They were joining a decent number of comic creators that had been lured to the platform, presumably with a nice chunk of funding, and they used the newsletter network well, doing out steady Monday updates that created a rewarding community for readers. More importantly (for the purposes of this post), they also released new pages each week from a full graphic novel called Spectators.
I think it’s important to note the way this book was first published, as it felt to me like it had a significant impact on the story. For background, Spectators is a very NSFW comic (there’s enough group sex scenes in this book that I can’t remember exactly how many group sex scenes were in this book), with a story that takes place at the intersection of sex and death. The plot at its most basic level is that our protagonist is a woman killed in a mass shooting, and her ghost hovers and observes humanity for decades, ultimately finding a simpatico soul in the ghost of a cowboy. Together, they set out in search of a passionate threesome, racing the clock because it seems like the apocalypse is at hand.
There’s a few ways that I think the publication method impacted the book. First, I think hurting out a few pages weekly really shows in Spectators’ Pacing I followed the weekly release, but for the purposes of this post, I also read the book in two long sittings. I found it as a whole to be compulsively readable. There’s a page-turning cliffhanger, revelation or burst of intrigue basically every few pages. I was moving through the story so briskly, that it was hard for me to find a good stopping point halfway, which I mean as a compliment.
Second, Henrichon was really able to embrace the epic two-page spread in Spectatorsin a way he might not have been able to in a 22-page periodical release format. I didn’t count them, but there are quite a few (very good) two-page spreads in this story. So many that I think it might have felt a little distracting if this story was being told in single issues, but reading as a whole, those spreads really breathe. They also serve to enhance the major moments in the story, be they giant reveals, epic sci-fi set pieces, or conversations set atop particularly interesting backdrops.
Henrichon also really shines here with the fantastic sci-fi design work. Spectators is a near-future sci-fi comic, where the cityscapes, clothing, and new technology are fantastic, yet still recognizable. It’s concept of ghosts from throughout history watching humanity also lends itself to some interesting juxtapositions, like shoeshine boys floating past epic space battles, for one example. And color is used well to denote the lines between the ghost and living worlds.
I also enjoyed Vaughan’s scripting quite a bit. Perhaps the strongest element of the scripting here are the micro stories that weave seamlessly throughout Spectators. Within this 300-page book, our heroes drift in and out of watching the living. We see parts of dates, a bit of sex here, a little more sex there, and everyone reacting in their own (usually sexual) ways to what seems like the end of the human race. In this way, it’s a book that reads quickly but is dense with ideas.
And all throughout it is a chilling and dark plot around the #leaderboard game, giving this book more heft and edge than it would have if it was purely about ghosts watching sex. In this world, a cult of mass murderers has galvanized around a drive to see who can kill the most people. They are devoid of any ideology apart from wanting to see how many people they can make die. It’s a violent extrapolation of the callousness and deeply unfunny heart of real world meme culture.
If I have a note, it’s that I found the cowboy character to be a little bit flatter than the lead protagonist. The lead protagonist gets the bulk of the emotion in this one, as one would expect. One of my favorite scenes in the entire book is a flashback to her watching Terminator with his dad as a child. At one point, he covers her eyes during a sex scene…before allowing her to watch the extreme violence that follows. It’s a relatable scene (I vividly remember my parents making my brothers and I leave the room for a sex scene in True Liesbefore calling us back to similar violence), and it also speaks to the core contemplations of the book, the ones around the intersection of sex and death and eroticism. I thought it was quite well done.
The cowboy character, however, is a bit less thoroughly explored. It’s not a major issue, but his backstory definitely suffers a bit by comparison to how relatable the other lead’s is. I suppose it’s inevitable, given she is of our time and he’s a historical figure.
Overall though, I absolutely loved Spectators. I was skeptical of newsletters as a viable format for comics at first, and that skepticism seems to have been mostly warranted, given the speed at which creators moved off the platform after the first, Substack-funded year of their deals ended. But Spectators was a notable exception. With SpectatorsVaughan and Henrichon really thought through what sort of story would be perfect for this format, and delivered a memorable story along with a rewarding reading experience.
If you missed the newsletter reading experience here, Vaughan noted in the last post that the book is also headed for a physical release in the second half of 2025. I highly recommend checking it out.
Check out the concluded Exploding Giraffe newsletter
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