Writer: Ryan Parrott
Artist: Eleonora Carlini
Colorists: Mattia Iacono & Luca Mattioni
Letterer: Becca Carey
Cover Artist: Dan Panosian
Publisher: Boom! Studios
Price: $19.99
Release Date: August 26, 2025
Justin Bright is trying to make it in high-priced San Francisco. While he’s behind on his rent, he keeps looking for a job. He has a taste for the high life, so Justin spends nights in clubs, looking for abandoned drinks to nurse. When he sees two ruffians roughing up a man as he returns home one night, Justin identifies with the victim. Will leaping to the man’s assistance change his life? Or will Justinn become another victim of the growing Proxy Hater movement? Let’s link into Vicarious TP and see!
Story
Everything is new to Justin, now that he’s living on his own. To his surprise, Justin proves a capable fighter and deters the aggressors. Their victim, Christian Gold, refuses to go to the hospital. Instead, he asks Justin to drive him home. After zooming down the highway in Christian’s sports car and exploring his luxury home, Justin wants to know how the man made it big. Because Justin did him a solid, Christian gives him a name. Justin can follow in his footsteps, but the journey will demand everything he has and isn’t without risk.
In Vicarious TP, Justin undergoes an operation to become a proxy. By linking with his implant, people all over the world can see, hear, feel, smell, and taste everything Justin does. Linking offers many benefits, such as enjoying food you love but shouldn’t. You can attend exclusive parties or enjoy a long-distance relationship through your proxy. If you hunger for the high life, the best proxies have agents. And like Christian Gold, they don’t come cheap.
Ryan Parrott’s story follows Justin through the thrills and dangers of becoming a proxy. As with many emerging professions, opponents have strong reasons why linking with a proxy is harmful to the individual and society. Vicarious TP explores the gray areas of the law, where technology or substances may be legal for one purpose but illegal for another. And then there are the dangers accompanying any technological device implanted in the Human body, particularly when they control brain functions.
Art
Eleonora Carlini draws this world of pleasure and pain with straight lines and sharp angles. Justin cuts through the competition with a star on his cheek, golden rod earrings, and a wide smile. Like the man who gave him his start, Justin’s long hair forms rough waves as it frames his face and bounces along his neck. Biometric tattoos give Justin a singular appearance when he disrobes.
Mattia Iacono and Luca Mattioni contribute a vibrant palette that heightens the energy pulsing through near-future San Francisco. Justin’s tattoos shine and glow like the neon lights that brighten the skyline in Vicarious TP. Sylvia Synn’s gold tiger stripes link her with her star proxy, while Christian’s blond hair connects him with the movement’s chief opponent. And then there are the red clothes that Sylvia and Christian wear to Justin’s first proxy party. They evoke the blood that covered Christian when the “Sunday School Frat Boys” laid into him.
Becca Carey fills white balloons and colored narrative boxes with black uppercase letters. The letters grow bold for intonation and occasionally enlarge or shrink. Sound effects enhance small but significant events, whether Justin is meeting a client or disposing of his unwanted past. But most often, spikes protrude from proliferating balloons as clients dig what Justin is doing and urge him to take it to the next level. Thanks to Boom! Studios for providing a review copy.
Final Thoughts
In Vicarious TP, Justin Bright’s desire to be his own man means becoming other people. As he swims in a sea of predators, Justin proves he can dish out what he takes. Ironically, in this story about identity, Justin may be bright. But who is Justin?
Rating 9.6/10
For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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