Pretty Deadly? Pretty cool!

1) What is your reaction to the text you just read?

I've read segments of Pretty Deadly before, as well as some of  Kelly Sue DeConnick's other work. My initial reaction what a bit shocked, I usually don't read a lot of horror, and there were moments that had some pretty intense gore. I also don't usually read a lot of western comics, but I did like this more than most. I did feel a difference in the intended demographic of the story, perhaps because the heads of the creative team was mostly women. The illustrations were absolutely gorgeous, very gothic and poetic. It didn't feel like it was catered towards specifically male or female readers, it just felt like art and storytelling, if that makes any sense. The nudity between male and female characters is equally revealed, which is rare in most modern media. The "cool/badass" factor also feels pretty even. The most significant character so far, Ginny, has all of the presence of classic action/ adventure heroes, which is really refreshing.

2) What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the work with which you were able to connect?

One immediate connection I made, was to Kelly Sue DeConnick's other work. I love her work on Captain Marvel, and Bitch Planet is especially significant. I had a really similar reaction to this, on how the artists and story handled nudity. In Bitch Planet, there was a lot of non-sexual nudity, which is super rare to see in comics. I'm not sure I've seen it anywhere else, actually. It was an element of the story and represented something, but the storytelling took precedence over pure sex appeal. In Pretty Deadly, there's literally a Sex Scene in the second volume, And though I do think that elements are intended to be appealing, again the storytelling, character development, and narration takes precedence. It feels more about setting up the characters and story, then showing them off.

In terms of personal connection, I've noticed in plenty of media recently that I do tend to relate to female characters more. It seems like the title character here is Ginny, and though we haven't met too many other characters, the ratio of male to female seems pretty even. Since I've just read the first two volumes of the series, there hasn't been too much opportunity for character development, and that's usually what really attaches me to a character. Ginny seems pretty cool and badass, but I tend to connect with more human/emotional characters. Perhaps as the story progresses, we'll see her humanity come out more.

3) What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?

Right now, the form of media what would stick closest to the story would probably be a TV series on Sci-Fi network. I see it in that sort of demographic, much like Defiance (also a sci-fi western) and some of the other sci-fi / western / fantasy programs. I do think that it would lose a lot of the vibrancy the comic has with color and style, most of that is comic-specific. The other form of media that might come close would be something like Lakia did in Kubo and the two strings, (stop motion animation with bits of CG) but since that studio mostly does children's animation, this would never fly.