Read Only Memories #1-4: How Do You Feel About (AI) Love?

The golden in this story is the way Sina explores how this case and Hedy change Lexi Rivers, who has to deal with stuff bigger than what she hoped (like immortality or cults), resulting in self-criticism, questioning her biases and opening up to love in some ways we didn’t expect from her character. Specifically, for the fans of the videogame, this comic will feel like a delightful extra evolution and change from a character that always charismatic, complex and a queer icon with troubled love issues.

Definitely, this way of getting Lexi to evolve and the case this makes for the reader re-imagining love and compromise through artificial intelligence (especially in Hedy and Mahita’s dialogues with Lexi) is the heart of it, but the layers on top of it are just as important, as the art shows a dynamism, richness of textures, highlights and neo-noir hyper-emotional blue and pink colors that impact how the journey presents in the best of ways. Stefano does an excellent job with both covers, art and color, that gets rounded up by Christa Miesner’s futuristic design and lettering. If neo-noir and city lights is your style, this will be your instant favorite.

Most of the short stories put their basis so much stronger on the game, with that having the strength of them being very emotional and about the character’s guts – or circuits. Plus, the pixelated art is just so much like-the-game that the general feeling is just heartbreaking in a good way. Like, goddamn if I didn’t cry with Turing on Mermaids Don’t Cry or with ROMs in space. They’re all little example of mastering the short story, with usually three pages getting really close to home. Plus, the two written by Mary Kenney (Mermaids Don’t Cry and A Bar Called Home) have little extra peaks of, respectively, non binary and bisexual identity of their main characters, and really well crafted for the few pages.

My main issue with these short stories, however, is the lettering (and to some extent some part of the art). While Christa Miesner did an excellent job in Valentine’s Day, in the short stories the lettering is not consistent, weirdly placed and out of tone with the art. Said pixelated art is very well crafted, detailed and charming, but both the lettering and the placement of speech bubbles sometimes makes the visual narrative get a little difficult to follow. If you get used to that part, these jewels and gifts of extra stories can’t be recommended enough, especially for fans of the game, but nevertheless with enough valuable qualities to arrive to a lot of hearts, with or without the previous knowledge.