Mortal Coils #1 came out ages ago, but I was sent a copy recently, so let's take a look at it now.

It's an anthology title of sorts.  There are two stories, both by writer David Lewis, and both seemingly unrelated.  However, according to the editorial, the idea is that over time the stories will build up into something bigger.  So what we have is, it seems, apparently freestanding stories with latent connections that are going to become apparent in time.  It's an ambitious scheme, but since I have no clue what the common plan might be, let's just focus on the two stories in this issue.

"Disembodiment" is psychological horror.  Angela Christi wakes up in the body of a man, in his flat.  Or alternatively, he might just be a delusional man who thinks he's Angela.  It's hard to tell, what with most people having little practical experience by which to resolve these "body swapping or total delusion" dilemmas.  The situation is made worse by a rape backstory, the sort of plot element that tends to send my alarm bells ringing - it's all too easy to bring in rape simply to add cheap weight to a story.  But Lewis does carry it off - he's doing a horror story and it does stand up to the weight of using that concept.  The sense of dislocation and revulsion is well conveyed.

On the downside, the story does suffer from some very wordy scripting, which seem to be the result of trying to cram everything into the available space.  There are a couple of pages which are really overrun with captions, to the detriment of the art.  The content is all pretty good, but there's just too much of it for the available space.

Artist Evan Quiring has a good sense of layouts and storytelling.  His figures are a little inconsistent (particularly Angela, but then we don't see much of her body).  The pacing is good enough to overcome these problems, though.  Overall the story does well with a strong concept, and avoids falling into cliche (even if it does veer close on a couple of occasions).

The other strip, "Deeper Blue", is a reference to the development of artificial intelligence as evidence by the Deeper Blue computer which defeated Garry Kasparov (albeit, I'm told, not Kasparov on his best day).  It's another story based on a single central concept, this time a scientist trying to build robots programmed to outwit him, and becoming increasingly pleased with his achievements as he realises that they're finally going to succeed.  While it's a good central idea, and the trial-and-error aspects are nicely illustrated, Lewis doesn't entirely manage to convince when it comes to the lead character volunteering for this sort of competition with his robots.

The scripting is better here, but the pacing is a little cluttered in the first half given that this is basically an action chase sequence.  There's a string of seven-panel pages, and again it feels like the story is being squeezed into the available space.  Within those limits, though, Jason Copland does fairly good work, and his robots do have a suitable sense of menace, even if they do have a touch of the B-movie about them.  Then again, it's that sort of story.

How either of these fit together into a wider picture, I have no idea - and at this stage, I'm probably not meant to.  As two short stories based on taking a single central idea and working them through, though, this is solid, and promising.

Rating: B+

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