Suicide For Hire

(All pictures from Suicide for Hire by Rafael Medina. Click on the pictures to see them within the context of the website.)

So, I've decided that anytime I add a new comic to my reading list, I should justify adding it with a review. Of course, this is just a trick to get me to write more. I'm still not sure if I should do the same when I take them off. I've been reviewing what I read, and there are quite a few comics that are dangerously close to being kicked off my list. (Scary-Go-Round, for example). I'm not sure if that's me, though, or if I'll have much to say when I do. Mostly I just lose interest.

Anyways, the comic. It's about two high-schoolers who start a business where they help suicidal teenagers carry through with their death. It's an extremely dark comic to the point of being offensive to anyone who's had to deal with the loss.

It's also a furry comic. Like I've said before, I don't understand the stigma. Like many furry comics, though, the author tends to use his characters as a mouthpiece for his own moral views, and this comic is about as preachy as they come. However, most of the characters in the comic have gone right past morally ambiguous right into amoral, so there's a little bit of irony there.

The stories and characters are paper-thin, the jokes are okay, not too funny, but they get a chuckle every once in a while. The author has a tendency of putting self-deprecating comments in the margins, which really aren't needed. There's a lot of dialogue, and I mean a lot.

But for some reason, I still like it. I'm kind of confused about this, since it has all these faults. I think it appeals to my dark nature. I also like that pretty much everyone who uses the service does so for the most superficial reasons, and most of them try to back out at the last second. I went through the darkest time in my life during my identity crisis as well. I've contemplated and attempted suicide. Believe me, there's no reason to commit suicide except for selfish reasons. It's a selfish act. I think we all know that.

There are also many points in the comic where the words say one thing, but the pictures say something else. It's slightly amusing, and it happens enough to keep me satisfied.

The only worry I have for this comic is I'm not sure if the author can keep writing it for much longer. It seems only so long before he runs out of things to say. We'll see if that happens. It looks like he's expanding his focus a bit. There hasn't been a customer in a while now.

So, really, I don't know if I'd recommend this comic, but I'm going to keep on reading it. Maybe eventually I'll figure out why I like it so much, then I can tell you all.

By the way, I just added The Wotch to my reading list page. I've actually been reading it for a while, but didn't notice it wasn't there, but it is now because I put it there. Suicide for Hire also got a write-up.