What would you do if you had the ability to create anything? How important is information? How powerful? How dangerous? Oh, and what about those pesky copyright laws? All of these questions and more are explored in Greg Pak and R.B. Silva’s Vision Machine. The third and final issue drops on Comixology today for free, and the rest of the series is there too. For free. If you haven’t figured it out by now, Vision Machine is a pretty unique project.
Pak was hired by the Ford Foundation to create a graphic novel exploring the ideas and controversies that are going to pop up in the next 50 years or so concerning communications and creativity. Vision Machine is a completely free series that can either be accessed through Comixology or by downloading it as a PDF from their website. You also can download the Vision Machine TPB directly from Guerrilla Geek by clicking on the link at the end of this article!
The Vision Machine experiment doesn’t stop there. The series is registered under a special copyright that allows anyone to distribute, remix, or build upon the work as long as it is registered under the same copyright. It must be done non-commercially and credit should be given to Pak Man Productions.
Let’s be honest. That is pretty darn cool. Even with an intriguing mission statement and premise, Vision Machine would be a failure without an interesting story or art. Luckily, it’s got both in spades. Anyone who’s read Pak’s work from Marvel knows that his scripting tends to be airtight, and that’s definitely the case here. He brings the same quick, snappy dialogue to Buddy, Dave, and Jane as he does to Hercules and Amadeus Cho. It’s got a nice Whedon ring to every line.
Vision Machine starts 50 years in the future and follows three struggling film students who see the announcement of Sprout Industries newest communications device, the iEye. Instead of a tablet computer or something along those lines, the iEye is a pair of goggles that records everything you see. It allows you to edit the video instantaneously with nothing more than a thought. Then, you can distribute it to a network and make money from the ad revenue. Like most technology, it sounds perfect at first, but things get out of hand. The economy and government must learn to cope with this revolutionary technology, as 
do the people who use it every moment of every day. Not to mention the steady but growing rebellion of those who are OOTON (Off of The Official Network). The iEye and its effects on society conjures a Philip K. Dick vibe to the whole story, albeit not quite as dark.
Pak does a fantastic job building Buddy, Jane, and Dave into interesting characters. They start as simple idealists thankful for the chance to film the movies of their dreams, and get swept up in the craze of the iEye in different but believable ways. Each of their stories shows how people are affected by and use technology. While most of the focus is on Buddy, readers get some stimulating insights from Dave, and plenty of appealing pathos from Jane. Greg Pak should be commended for writing some really engaging characters. I haven’t even mentioned his handling of the quasi-antagonist Liz Evers. Her developmental arc is one of the more riveting parts of the book.
As much as I enjoyed the story, I was mostly drawn to reading Vision Machine because I knew R.B. Silva provided the pencils for it. Anyone who hasn’t been exposed to Silva’s work either needs to download Vision Machine right now or grab a recent issue of Action Comics and read the Jimmy Olsen back-ups he’s been working on. This guy is a rock star. He’s an up and comer that I’m hoping sticks around for a good long while. Silva’s faces are expressive. His body language is good enough where it’s just as important as what’s going on in the word balloons. There’s some great character designs in the back of the third issue by Takeshi Miyazawa (Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Runaways), but Silva took enough liberties with the loose designs to make them his own. Silva’s art is incredibly vital for the world of Vision Machine feeling like a real, breathing place. Alexandre Palomaro inks the first issue while DYM takes over issues 2 and 3. The inking and Java Tartaglia’s colors make this book very, very pretty.
Pak and co. have created Vision Machine with the intent for it to grow organically into different things, and that it may be learned from. Thanks to Creative Commons, this title can be taught in classes without a fee. There are even teachers aides purportedly coming to the Vision Machine website in the near future. It’s an exciting prospect to see someone in comics trying something new, especially when you can’t go a day without some fanboy lambasting some publisher or writer with “Been there, done that.” Vision Machine is a testament to the power of digital comics, and should be looked to in the next few years as establishing a frame work for the distribution of creator-owned material.
Pak has a fervent little fan base that he rightly deserves after re-working Marvel’s Incredible Hulk line. I’m hoping that a project like Vision Machine gains him a few more followers. I’m also hoping that he keeps churning out creator owned work. More of this, please.
Anyone who has any interest in comics, especially creator-owned ventures, needs to download Vision Machine and give it a read. It’s more than just an interesting experiment. It is an in depth look at the future of communication and creativity with a great script and beautiful art. And, it’s free! Download it. Read it. Tell others about it. Vision Machine is something special.
Read and download the entire Vision Machine TPB here!
Keep up with writer Greg Pak (@gregpak) and penciler R.B. Silva (@RB_Silva) on Twitter!
