Pixels of You

A slow and sweet look into two different lives. I’m actually sad. I want more to their story. Many feels in just a few pages and beautiful artwork to go with it.

Lovely, deliberately paced story. Shows more than it tells. Artwork has a warmth with its linework and color schemes that really complements the personal nature of the dialogue. I enjoyed the snippets of larger issues at play in the world, gave an interesting contrast to the intimacy of the main story. I only wish it was longer - leaves you wanting more!

Unique and beautiful art in this book. Fast but enjoyable read.

(Rating is 3.5)I have mixed feelings about this. I liked many things, such as the world-building, the character designs, and the art style. I liked the small blurbs about how programmers can program prejudices into their AI, and how an AI can create racist algorithms, neither of them being on purpose. If you use any site that uses an algorithm, there are countless creators of color talking about how algorithms will suppress them, just because they're POC. It reminded me of the quote by Samuel R. Delany; "Science fiction is not about the future; it uses the future as a narrative convention to present significant distortions of the present." But the thing I didn't like is that the entire story felt like it never dove that deep, into either the characters or the plot. It only brushed the surface, when I really wanted it to go deeper. Like, how did the AI robots come to be? Why are they able to be self-governing, and I assume be counted as full citizens? [If they have the option to either look more robotic or to look more human, why do so many of them choose to still look robotic?]* Is there a class system among AI because it seemed like might be? If the AI have a class system within themselves, do the humans ALSO still have a class system? How do AI and human class systems intersect? I know these are all considered superfluous questions, but if you raise the point then you can't expect me to ignore it! Also, I would like to point out, I did not realize Fawn is an AI with a "human chassis" until it was explicitly stated in the story. Which affects how I viewed Fawn and Indira's first interaction. I was confused why Indira was being so rude to her for no reason, and why Fawn was being so bratty. I also feel like they didn't go too deeper into the characters and their motivations. Unless I am very dumb and didn't understand it? There are several scenes of Indira...hallucinating? Is she actually hallucinating or is it an artist's representation of chronic pain and anxiety? *[Also, I just reread the GR blurb and noticed that it says "Fawn is one of the first human-presenting AI". Uh. I don't recall that fact being mentioned in the book, at all. That also answers my previous questions of why I didn't see any other "human presenting" AI in the book, and why Fawn is called a "spoiled rich kid" in one scene.] Which baffled me, because they showed her home, and it's fairly modest. Its major perk is that it does have some nice art and that it has some nice representation. Overall, I felt like I was skimming through the book when that's just how the plot is written. I really wanted to like it more, but I just can't. Pity, since I love the artists and authors' other works!

Pixels of You is presented as a story about an identity crisis when one girl is forced to accept artificial intelligence despite her loathing for it. And, yeah, that's in here. I was definitely more intrigued by the concept that AI was unable to escape the bias of the programmers, resulting in racist android characters. What do you even do about that? The story explores racism on a few different levels, but it includes some pretty brilliant thoughts on photography, relationships and family. This might sound like a pretty complex set of themes for such a short book, but it honestly it never feels stretched too thin.Graphic novels have an interesting problem in that they sometimes rely too heavily on either dialogue or illustrations, and a lot of nuance is lost on either side because of this. Fortunately for this book, the manuscript is complete and smooth, effortlessly leaping from one theme to another without breaking continuity or style. Everything is explained, but it's not overdone. This is really hard to do. Bravo to the author. The illustrations are basically icing on the cake--turning something that's already moving and exquisite into a genuine work of art.The advanced readers copy of this graphic novel was very disappointing in terms of art, but, guys, the story was good enough for me to love it anyway. I'll definitely be first in line to read the final version. It's going to be magnificent.

Aaaaah I enjoyed this so much! Once the artwork is finalized it’s really going to be amazing!Near-future stories are always really interesting to me and I really liked that this story dealt with so many relevant issues like bias, prejudice, racism, chronic pain, and the intersection between all those things and technology.It was also just a really sweet romance! I love the banter between the two girls and the antagonists to lovers arc was really well plotted.I may have screamed when I realized the last page was the last page but oh, my heart is all squishy and warm.Even with the artwork not yet complete I could tell how interesting and beautiful it’s going to be, and I got a definite sense of what the story world will look like.I definitely want my own copy when it comes out!

I liked the story. The style of story telling was a little more vague and clipped than I'm used to, but it was still effective. Would have liked it to be a little more fleshed out. The art was beautiful! Love to see LGBTQIA+ stories that aren't just Yuri and Yaoi. I would buy another story from this author.

This was really cute and meaningful and I love the color palette throughout. I’d read another book about these two for sure.

An interesting take on the future of AI and a compelling story about two people figuring out their lives.

Exactly what is needed from modern science fiction. Two totally believable characters who are both profoundly different and incredibly likeable propel the story forward so fast it left me amazed. Absolutely worth your time.