I just…was not a fan of this one.

A mix of detective noir, the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, and 1930s comic stylings. This story is set in an afterlife much like our world, but stripped of all emotions and enjoyment, and gee, did that come through in the reading. :/ Jim, our narrator, is dead, but has found a way to take brief trips to the living world, where he meets eventual “love” interest, Olivia. They get tangled up in afterlife and Styx-crossing crime, eventually meeting the god of death himself.

It’s just…slow. And while the lack of emotions in the characters make sense, thematically, it also makes looking at the art so boring. Even when the living can display strong emotions, their faces have barely changed.

And since you can’t see emotions on the characters, you don’t get worried about their fate, so you don’t care about the plot! Even when you meet Hades and Persephone, two characters who, by rights, should have a lot of presence, they’re just a dude in a trench coat and a lady in a bland dress.

I could see this becoming a cult classic, but certainly not of a cult I want to be in.

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

Quite a creative look at life in the afterlife. This adult comic is written and illustrated by prolific graphic artists Peter and Maria Hoey. I was attracted to the old-timey noir auto on the the volume’s cover; the artwork within seemed clumsy and stiff to me though. Still, I enjoyed this original tale.

Even in the afterlife, there are dirty people who only care about money. Arrangements are made on both sides with live and dead "bad" police officers. They force people to cross back and forth between the living and the dead - without Hades knowing. Dialogue and narration are simple sentences throughout. Characters always look upset.

This is great. A story about the afterlife in which some people are able to smuggle things and people between the afterlife and life.

Jim has a pretty mundane afterlife, working at a gas station, and smoking. Problems start when his old crime boss hunts him down because Jim can travel between life and the afterlife and so he is pressured into smuggling for his old boss. But you cannot travel back and forth without getting intertwined with life and with death.

This is a great story of love and crime in the afterlife and in life, and the twists and turns come together to make this a gripping read which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Copy provided via Netgally in exchange for an unbiased review.

A gritty, dark noir story, but illustrated and colored in a beautiful retro style. This juxtaposition, combined with a winning story focused on lives lived at the border of life and death create a moving experience.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy for an honest review

Really enjoyed reading in perpetuity really good and good illustrations

Rating 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A great hardboiled comic featuring Jim, our poor dead gas station attendant in the A.L. who gets roped into a scheme that crosses the veil between life and death.

In Perpetuity draws you in with a 50's retro style art work, that is still quite simplistic but in a good way.

The story does a good job of portraying the monotonous nature of purgatory so well, probably too well, as I found it hard to engage with Jim. I think it was a stylistic choice to keep us, the reader, at a distance, which they succeeded in doing. It's just something I didn't enjoy.

I wish this story didn't want to push me away and keep me on the sidelines, because I feel like this had so much potential. Especially with the noir vibes. Ugh I really wanted to like this one more than I did.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an Earc of this book. All opinions were my own.

In Perpetuity may aspire to be a noir Lore Olympus: characters are in the afterlife, a rote, dull experience. Our main character is recognized by recently departed people from his earlier, living existence, and they take advantage of his ability to connect to the world of the living. Nothing good comes for any of the characters because of this ability, and it helps to expose crooked officials amongst the living and the dead to Hades, the Lord of the Underworld.

This is a graphic novel suited to the adult market due to the nature of the story line. Librarians looking to add it to their collections should be aware that there are a small number of panels alluding to sex and containing nudity.

The conclusion of the text was fitting for those aware of mythology, but others less familiar may see it as a disappointment. My largest issue was that I did not feel anything at all for any of the characters even at the conclusion of the text. The afterlife was presented dispassionately, and that sentiment continued throughout the text. I’m still unsure whether that decision was intentional.

Thank you IDW Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

The game of life is so funny. Trivial at times even.

Peter and Maria Hoey have strung together a compelling tale that serves as a reminder about how life is a bit more precious than we imagine it to be.

This was a very dark, gritty graphic novel about what happens in the afterlife. The story is odd, and involves a smuggling operation between the world of the living and the dead. What I really liked, though, was the style.
I noticed that one of the other reviewers noticed that sometimes there was unnecessary text; instead of relying on the graphics, the book would state what was happening in the picture. For me, that was part of the style. I felt like I was in a noir film and it raised the tension and the stakes. When I was reading In Perpuity, I felt like I was in this world of gangsters and seances.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this.

In Perpetuity, the Afterlife is an endless twilight where time stands still and shades have nowhere to go and Jim is shown a way to go back to the living temporarly.
The art is simplistic and both modern and retro. The storytelling is most probably odd on purpose and I did not resonate with it or with Jim.

Very nicely rendered art, with a spare feeling that creates a liminal space in most frames of the book. The artist uses diagonal lines to good effect, creating movement across the page for the eye even though many of the visuals are intentionally more static to evoke that feeling of being caught in the in-between of the afterlife.

The description of "film noir" is an apt one for the tone of this book, although it's very slow-paced, so it feels a bit like film noir if caught in amber. That's also an apt way to think about the overall experience of reading this book...it felt very slow and as if everything was happening on repeat in a slow cycle. For the first third or so, I enjoyed that, but eventually it started to drag down the pace of the story enough that I felt like it was having a negative impact on my opinion of the book. So it seemed to succeed in what it wanted to do, but in doing that, it made the story slow to such a crawl that I found my attention waning.

One thing really drove me crazy. Many, many times there was text on a panel that was entirely unnecessary. It was simply describing what was happening. It's as if this book was originally written as a story but then turned into a graphic novel, and nobody thought about the fact that many of those sentences could be cut since the action was now being illustrated. For example: a panel showing two people walking along a path in the park as they talk. There's text on the panel that literally says "They continued their walk on the path." Another example: a panel of the sky at nighttime, with clouds. There's text that says "Dark clouds rolled across the A.L.'s night sky." Last example: an inset panel showing a forearm with a bee stinging the person. There's text that says "A bee. Its stinger stuck in her skin." Perhaps the writer and artist are doing this intentionally, as some sort of "see & say" effect, but it's off-putting. If you're showing a man looking at a stop sign, you don't need to write "He looked at the stop sign" on the panel to explain what's happening. We can see it in the art.

In closing, I want to be sure to give props to the creators for the very clever idea of calling the afterlife "the A.L." and setting it all in a surreal version of L.A. (notice how the letters are reversed?). And truly, Los Angeles does already feel like a liminal version of most of reality, so it's the perfect place to set this book. Plus, y'know, the whole film noir theme.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eARC.

I received a free ARC, and this review is voluntary

So basically the synopsis is the story. Not much else to report there.

What I appreciated was the tone of this version of the afterlife. It was so drab, and mundane because of how similar it was to the existing world. Still have a few rules to follow, but overall, this is it. The same unfulfilled existence on repeat.

With the way it was written, it slowly unfolds, but I didn't feel as though there was a low point, or stutter in the storyline. It was a fun ride

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher IDW Publishing for an advance copy of this graphic novel dealing with the what comes after we go, guilt, ennui, and the enduring power of love between people, no matter how many times they have to die to be together.

Great thinkers, writers, poets, song writers and cult leaders have thought long and hard about what waits for us after the lights go out, the curtain closes, and a goth girl reaches out her hand and says "Time's Up". Some want to believe in heaven, segregated by race, religion, or for everyone with pets included. Some want to think that people who cut them off in traffic will have their own circle of hell to burn in for all of eternity. Some, like myself aren't sure, hope to see their dogs and cats, and maybe their family too. Or not. Or maybe one will spend eternity, pumping gas, stuck in constant traffic, looking at the grey skies, and wondering if there is more to death. An Afterlife Los Angeles, per se. Death, however does not stop the schemers from scheming, or the dreamers from dreaming. Scheming to exploit their situation, dreaming to escape their situation. And help another lost soul. In Perpetuity is a graphic novel of the afterlife, written and illustrated by Peter Hoey and Maria Hoey,

Jim is dead and not loving it. One minute he was throwing out garbage, the next he was in the afterlife, working at a gas station by the freeway, pumping gas, doing crosswords and looking at the dark skies that never change. The only activity Jim does regularly is see a parole officer, for the Afterlife has many rules, with punishment being placed in a jar for all of eternity. At work Jim meets up with someone he knew in his life, when he was playing guitar for a woman singer, who he loved. And someone who knows how he got to the afterlife. Jim soon is told that he has a very rare gift, and a gift that will make certain people a lot of money. Jim can cross back for periods of time, to the land of the living. Soon Jim is passing back and forth, but so doing puts a lot of people in danger. In danger of being killed. More than once.

A dark little story set in the noir capital of Los Angeles, and its Afterlife equivalent. Both share smoggy days, though regular LA is still far brighter. Both share constant traffic, and corrupt cops, with the powerful trying to get their way, even after death. The story is big, with a lot of characters, some who disappear, a cute cat, and a lot of bees. A lot like a mix of The Big Sleep, Out of the Past and a bit the science fiction movie Dark City. Some mysteries remain, some are solved, with the words "Forget it Jim, it's just the Afterlife", never said, but the meaning floats over it all. The art is good, a mix of cartoon, with a color palette that differentiates between the living and the dead. I enjoyed the noir book and film references, along with the use of Greek myth as both setting and to explain the characters.
A different kind of story, told well and beautifully rendered. I have long been a fan of the Hoeys with Animal Stories and The Bend of Luck being some of my favorite graphic novels. This seems a bigger story, but one that is clearly theirs. Recommended for those who love their graphic novels with a sense of strange, and with great art.

3.5 stars

In Perpetuity, is a story about Jim in the after life, who is shown a way to go back to the living temporarily.

The artwork is clean and simplistic, both modern and yet has a 50's retro feel to it.

The storytelling is quite odd, but that might be the whole point. I felt quite detached from the story, wondering where it would all lead to. You get some back story for Jim, but ultimately he came off as pretty bland, but nice. I'm on the fence about this one.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.