All I am going to say about Total THB, Volume 1 by Paul Pope is that each person has their own feelings on this combination of 1984, all other dystopian stories, Brave New World, cyberpunk, coming of age story.
Okay, I lie…… I will say more.
It had some WOW that’s awesome moments. And then some WTF ??????????????? moments (I mean there is a story arc where a Steinway piano is a sentient special agent assassin). And then Whaaaaaaaaat is going on moments and it makes NO sense. In some ways a lot of the book feels incomplete and/or as if this is book 2 and not one. Or there was some kind of prequel to it (the dreaded Book Zero, or Online 1.5 kind of thing….) Perhaps it was either a self-published thing 30 years ago or what we’d now consider a “webcomic” (there was internet in the 1990s right? (ahahaha). Some reviews did mention getting parts of it “back then” and it says “30 years ago” in publisher descriptions.
There were a few things that bothered me, such as the “native people” of Mars haven’t been given a lot of back story, so when we met one, I had a, “What is that? Why are they so off looking? OH it’s an “alien” not “human” reaction. Another is that the main character (the girl HR) of the story is really unlikable and I’m assuming you’re probably supposed to like her. Plus, things really do start in the middle of the story (who are these people? Why are there two cities? Why did they go to Mars in the first place? What’s up with the Bug-Faced people (masks)? What does HR’s father have to do with things? Why is THB a rubber ball that is only good for as long as you have it moisturized and then the super body guard deflated?) And then there are the illustrations which are all black and white. Some panels are overly blank (just a lot of white space) and then some panels are crowded, messy, incomplete. Is this a finished book or a reader copy?
When I finished my take away was that I think I have read way too many dystopian stories as they are all blending together and Pope’s work is reminding me of something I read, but I can’t remember what. This has colored my liking of it a bit as I’m trying to figure out if my feelings are really for that or for this book. There are two other volumes (volume two is currently out with volume three due end of 2026) so maybe some of my answers are there.
