Adventures of a System Administrator: The Beginning and Ransomware Review: Refreshing

Gordidon in ‘Adventures of a System Administrator’ created and written by Juan Espinosa, takes a chance on himself and quits college to become a system administrator. He takes it as the same type of danger of quitting a stable job to be an actor. But he isn’t completely without a net. Gordidon seems to have a solid plan and applies for numerous positions.

Gordidon is a young man, living with his parents, leading an ordinary life, who’s terrified of telling his mom and dad that he’s not going back to school. But time passes and he’s still on his parents’ couch looking at junk email and a whole bunch of rejections. As ambitious as he claims to be Gordidon seems stagnant. With the only decision he’s made on his own on the surface seems foolhardy, what is he supposed to do now? His father John is wondering the same thing. Being a man from the Dominican Republic who still works at two demanding professions (a lawyer and adjunct professor), what must John think of his son’s choices. Throughout this first issue subtitled ‘The Beginning’ the audience is introduced to a set of characters who are living their lives. There’s no apocalypse or zombie-vampires, just a straight up narrative told with realistic artwork. The panels are well drawn and inked with a clear attention to detail. When Gordidon is walking down the stairs on his way to a cab, you can see his shadow. Similarly when he is standing under a tree the outline of the leaves are seen. It’s as if shadow and light are being used to show a realism that few indie-comics tend to pay attention to.

During the seventeen page first issue a call from Gordidon’s past seems like an opportunity. Everyone is polite, like in a horror-movie. You know the kind of people who practice human sacrifices in the woods at midnight. Still, it’s worse than that as his coworkers are blindly-careless and tend to click on the wrong email. Which leads into the second issue entitled ‘Ransomware.’ It continues Gordidon’s journey into the world of IT. Its cutthroat as there’s a race to be first to fix a cataclysmic problem.

What Espinosa does well is flesh out Gordidon’s world by letting us know who his family and coworkers are. It’s important for the reader to know that Rik, Gordidon’s coworker is lazy when it’s found out that Rik and his sister are dating. For a family with a strong work ethic that can lead to the sort of drama where there’s no need for flying monsters. Overall, ‘Adventures of a System Administrator’ is a refreshing relief from all the end of world comics, or people who suddenly have powers they have no idea how to deal with them. It’s nice to read about a guy who’s good at his job, respects his parents and has a clear direction in life. If nothing else it brings hope in how to deal with the everyday minutia of life.