Heavy Liquid - Adam Borgia

1. Analyze: Event - Primary ~Quasi Spoilers~
Although the Idea behind the story overlays everything (that being that a strange and extremely rare mystery metal may be melted down with strange hallucinogenic effects), I really felt that Event was more significant to at least our main character and his drive throughout the story. He's addicted to this drug, true, but as it is slowly revealed to us, he is also addicted to a girl from his past from whom he is now separated. It appears that he is slightly more willing to overcome the latter addiction however, and so it creates a nice parallel. The Event referred to though is his being hired by a shadowy businessman to track down this girl (who is trying very hard NOT to be found); this realization of this request is always looming over him, and he must sort out his own motives for doing so--is it strictly business and a means to another fix, or is it something more? The arrival of this event brings some strong emotions to the surface from both sides and allows for a sorely needed healing for all parties.

2. Rating: PG-13/R
There are a handful of uses of the "F" word (5 or so), although these are used as a nickname for a tech device and not explicit in their use or directed toward anyone, and the swearing occurs over the course of a few pages. There is also one scene with partial side nudity from a flashback. It actually felt a little out of place... There's honestly just a lot of heavy adult themes going on here involving gangs and violence and consistent drug use (albeit a very different kind of drug, not a narcotic). With a well placed censor sticker and some crossed out text, this could be a comfortable PG-13 all around.

3. Springboard
Well the easiest thing to point out is that Paul Pope would have had to know and understand the nature and habits and lifestyle of drug addicts, but I don't really care to know how he did his "research." Safe to say it is very convincing. Not so convincing is one of his minor character's French. I don't know if if was intentional, but there were a fair amount of grammatical and sentence forming mistakes. Maybe Google Translate gave Pope a hard time. There is actually a good portion of the story involving art and sculpture though, and Pope would have to know certain terms and processes he describes to keep from coming off as lazy.

I've been around a lot of studio artist who deal with sculpture as a medium, so I am slightly aware of the "lingo." The difference between casting and moulding is significant, even though I've heard them used interchangeably. Moulding is when the original work is covered with a material (either bronze or resin) and allowed to set, creating a mould (clever, huh?) when separated from the sculpture. Casting comes from using this mould as a skeleton or framework to produce a certain amount of replicas. Casting is not done usually in the same medium as the original sculpture, which is why a marble statue may be cast in replicas of plaster or cement. This distinction is important at a certain point in the story involving one of the characters and a decision they choose to make.