I've previously reviewed some of the single issues of Mortal Coils, and I was not alone in picking up on the Twilight Zone vibe of the series, nor was I alone in digging that vibe. The first three-quarters or so of Mortal Coils: Bodylines is very much in that vein, self-contained stories that often have twist endings, and which explore science-fiction premises with a literary tinge to the style. Not every story hits with me, but for the most part, Lewis's imagination and ability to put together a "done in one" story shines through. The closing part of the trade goes a little wrong, as Lewis attempts to tie things together with a meta-fictional structure that doesn't entirely make sense, and isn't helped by some unclear and muddy artwork, but overall, Mortal Coils: Bodylines is a pretty solid offering of science-fiction/horror stories.
I was an English major for about five minutes in college before switching over to journalism. A. David Lewis stuck with it, not only earning a degree in English Literature but still teaching it to this day at Georgetown. Why do I bring up this contrasting educational background? Because I believe that English majors and journalism majors view the English language in very different ways. To journalists, the English language is a tool, to those with a more literary bent, it is a paintbrush. Lewis's trade paperback contains annotations of his stories, wherein he points out the references to literature (and less highbrow influences, like people he's known), and the general style of the stories is one that is a bit more flowery, intellectual and well-informed. It's got more than a little in common with the writing style of Neil Gaiman, although instead of fantasy literature, Lewis has aimed for a more general American literature as his inspiration.
This can be a bit off-putting, and Lewis does not believe in talking down to his audience. The stories often make a lot more sense if you get all the references, and might seem a little abrupt or even unfinished if you don't. Certainly I found some of the weaker stories to be the ones where the characters spend a lot of time discussing or quoting poetry when it was really not all that germane to the central story, in my worldview. This is my point of view imposing itself on Lewis's stories, as I seek a story that contains more straightforward characterization and plotting than theme and metaphor, and certainly I wouldn't say those stories are bad, but I find them less approachable.
Mark Waid says in his introduction that Lewis's stories rests on the strength of his narrative, but I would say that they rest instead on the strength of his ideas. In these pages, you'll find stories of a rape victim imprisoned in the body of her rapist, a master programmer on the run from his creations, a TV executive who finds more than she bargained for on the set of the network's science-fiction show, a cure for Alzheimer's that uncovers some dark secrets and much more. While Mortal Coils has more than a little in common with the style of classic TV show The Twilight Zone, the focus of that series was often on its shocker twist endings as much as on the weird ideas, but Lewis focuses more on the idea itself. The endings are not always as punchy as a result, but the stories themselves tend to be more enjoyable.
I've read a number of these stories before, and I found them all to be interesting tales set in a science-fiction/horror genre. The stories I hadn't seen before fill out the back of the book, and they're sort of a diversion from the stories that fill out the front of the book. "These Things Happen," the strongest of the new stories, is a very funny meta take on talk shows and comics wherein A. David Lewis has himself interviewed by one of his characters. While fourth wall breaking is hardly unheard of in comics, Lewis and his artistic collaborator J.K. Woodward find a way to add some new wrinkles (and more importantly, new gags) into the mix.
The last three stories in the book, however, is where Lewis went off the rails for me. These three linked stories give a foundation to what has gone before, attempting to tie it all together into some sort of meta-fictional context not unlike what Grant Morrison did in the pages of Animal Man. However, I think that the strength of the book was in its more self-contained nature, and the number of stories coming together here, not to mention an uncertain point-of-view, results in what felt to me like a muddled mess. The artists on these last three stories didn't do the book any particular favors, either. Woodward's realistic approach is attractive, and conveys the weirdness of the premise, but Youkovich and McJunkin have an inky, hard-to-read style that combines with Lewis's heavy infodump storytelling to make for a very confusing read.
All in all, Mortal Coils is a bold experiment in small press publishing, evidence that short-form stories are still viable and full of neat ideas. I just wish that Lewis hadn't felt the need to tie everything together, because his love of theme and meta-textual context weakens what is on the face of it a pretty good pop sci-fi/horror comic. 7/10
