Pay-what-you-want DRM-free Brian K. Vaughan comic about privacy in a near future dystopia? Someone was reading my mind. This is so great. ( )

The first half of Vaughan and Martin's digital yarn, set in a post-internet, hyper-private future where everyone wears masks and adopts fake names in public and policing is done by reporters, the PI tracks down the secrets, dirty or otherwise, you might once have googled or stalked Facebook for. Hired by a young woman to investigate herself to ensure that her past will stay hidden in the course of a (rare) employment background check, he figures the job is done when the client turns up dead, but hasn't reckoned on the determination of the client's sister to discover who killed her and why.

The setting is bright, colourful, full of strange and bizarre costumes and masks. The story is a tight, future-noir detective tale told with Vaughan's usual style and flair, and the art is wonderfully crisp and smooth, with terrific flowing action scenes.

The comic to date is available at the website for whatever you're willing or able to pay, so it can be sampled easily by anyone willing to take a look. ( )