TALES FROM THE INTERFACE #3 – An Honest Review

In TALES FROM THE INTERFACE #3, available soon on Kickstarter from Emmanuel Filteau, starving citizens accumulate status and avoid death when they play in a virtual world called the Interface.

The Details

• Written By: Emmanuel Filteau
• Art By: Emmanuel Filteau
• Cover Art By: Emmanuel Filteau
• Cover Price: CA $5 (digital edition)
• Campaign End Date: May 2, 2021

Was It Good?

The art is very good as a mix of punk rock flair merged with comic work you’d find by Moebius or something you’d find in 2000AD magazine. It has a distinctly European look to it that’s not common these days, and it’s a visually appealing comic.

The story is certainly unique, taking a satirical twist on modern Internet culture and extending it into a post-apocalyptic, dystopian future. The results are a blend of the terrifying and the absurd. At the very least, it’s an interesting read.

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The plot doesn’t quite tell a complete story, so you feel like you’re thrown into the middle of events at the start and the book ends in the middle of more events. That may or may not work for you. This reviewer felt the reading experience was incomplete as a stand-alone comic. It may read better if the prior and future issues are collected in a trade.

What’s It About?

[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]

Clara and Gauthier are a young couple just trying to live one day at a time. Their lower-class life is dictated by tasks carried out when they connect to the Interface, a virtual reality game world.

The Trancervical corporation runs the Interface and most of society, along with the ability to resurrect people once they die. However, there are limits. Citizens are allocated a set number of lives based on their class status in life. When the smallest offense or crime is committed, a citizen is killed but brought back only if they have an extra life.

It’s a grim and callous look at a future where life has adopted to act like a video game, and human life is treated as callously and disposable as a video game avatar. The concept becomes more terrifying when the resurrection process is shown with all the finesse and decorum of a backwoods slaughter house assembling spare parts out of a barrel. There’s a distinct edge of black humor in this comic that defies you to take it too seriously.

During one of Gauthier’s executions (it’s never explained what offense he committed), Clara runs and decides to head underground to look for a way out of the society she was born into. Fending off giant rats and execution beasts, Clara eventually finds a small group of like-minded individuals living in a small building called the Archive. The Archive has art and books and information about the world before the apocalypse, and the like-minded individuals come to be free of the Interface, if only for a while.

Clara is set up as the protagonist and you can see how opening her eyes to the world as it was becomes a type of indoctrination for her as a future rebel.

She returns home to her family and finds Gauthier has already been resurrected, but with an extra life he did not have. Transcervical granted Gauthier the extra life because they see great potential in him, and he’s asked to attend a Welcoming Banquet to hear a proposal. Clara doesn’t trust Transcervical but she agrees to go with Gauthier as his +1.

The writing and art practically hit you over the head with the idea that Transcervical can’t be trusted. Their spokespeople are rendered as slimy and dishonest salesmen. Gauthier is a slouchy slacker that shows no potential at all, so it’s easy to see whatever Transcervical is up to is not in anyone’s best interest except Transecervical’s.

Gautheir and Clara attend the banquet, and it has all the earmarks of a sales presentation, complete with food and impressive decor. Transcervical’s proposal is a request for Gauthier, and everyone else in attendance, to join their team. Clara is immediately on the defensive until she hears the catch.

We conclude the issue with a bloody disruption.

How Does It End?

Starving citizens smell meat. Gauthier hears the pitch but not the catch. Clara is safe but angry.

Final Thoughts

TALES FROM THE INTERFACE #3, available soon on Kickstarter from Emmanuel Filteau, is a unique take on future dystopian sown from current Internet culture and gaming. The art is excellent and the ideas are creative, but the lack of a clear beginning, middle, and end made the reading experience slightly dissatisfying.

Score: 7.5/10