Pulp Fiction in Comics

CRIME, DETECTIVE & Thriller Collections.

Nowheresville
By Mark Ricketts
(Image)

Mark Ricketts' art has come on a bundle since I last saw it - I can't remember where, but I'm sure it was a Caliber Press comic published back in the 90s, but not his actual Nowhereseville titled comic.

This here's a Zen beatnik crime novel, a murder mystery that mixes Chandler and Kerouac. It's hard not to think of Howard Chaykin at every turn of the page, and one's particularly drawn to the odd similarity with Black Kiss both in use of b/w art and plot situations here and there. But Ricketts has ironically got some credible reviews while that particular Chaykin trope got slagged and amusingly, mostly, by people who hadn't seen it.

Nowheresville has strong enough legs to stand on its own two feet without too many comparisons. It rambles occasionally, with the beatnik take probably being the excuse but overall it has got nice art, an interesting okay story and shows a good promise for future work that I will check out.

On the Road to Perdition: Sanctuary, Book 2 0f 3
By Max Allan Collins & Steve Lieber
(Paradox Press/DC Comics)

Now known to the world at large via the Tom Hanks starring film, this Lone Wolf & Cub influenced prohibition mob dram finds father and son, Michael O'Sullivan senior and Junior travelling, making deals and waiting for old scores to be settled as the Two Jacks come after them, and between it all a shrewd lass named Quennie who knows how to play her cards tight and close to her chest.

A fulfilling drama for despite being part of an arc this section is self-contained. The black and white digest format works satisfactorily but it use four panels page grids and that's always been an aggravating point with me, two and six even wise are fine, but four flattens content too sharply and tends towards repetition if used in the widescreen manner or just plain dull in terms of design, just two or three can work well in this format if it suits the story as DC Thomson's Commando has proved for decades.

A good book to read with the captions telling a narrative whereas - ironically seeing what happened with the original graphic novel - most comic book writers are these days too busy practicing writing movie scripts in their comics.

Danger Girl: Odd Jobs
By J Scott Campbell & Andy Hartnell, (with Joe Chiodo & Arthur Adams)
(WildStorm/DC)

Daft stories, incredulous plots, plenty of death-defying drama, that's the bread and butter of this collection, featuring the book's regular writers and several art stylists.

Not all the jokes work but the action generally does for these she-spies with an eye towards danger even on their days off!

There's a definite filler feel to this collection but it's a decent romp. Any more pages and it probably wouldn't have worked though.

From reincarnated pharaohs to Hawaiian jungle adventures it's all inside - a bit like some long lost issue of DC's The Inferior Five wherein it would have guest-starred Dumb Bunny with two clever girlfriends.

Top 10 Book 2
By Alan Moore & Gene Ha/Zander Cannon
(ABC/DC)

The Hill Street Blues for superheroes scenario that is Top 10 was my favourite of Moore's ABC books. The stories are less so a mystery or crime needing to be solved as much as a puzzle we haven't the obvious clues to, and a bit like an exemplary 2000AD Future Shock in part.

The subplots develop with characters coming and going, and longstanding issues tie into current events. Tightly drawn, perhaps in homage to the work of the late Harvey Kurtzman with its visual background antics, and possibly Moore's scripts requesting as such. A good sold read. There was a touch of Rick Veitch's Bratpack in some of the plot ideas running over the last couple of issues in this collection.

As a whole it explores different cultures in an entertaining way, preaches tolerance while going for the wonderfully contradictory big explosion effect.

Batman: Hong Kong
By Doug Moench & Tony Wong
(DC/Titan)

You have to question whether when the offer to have internationally-applauded manga artist Tony Wong work DC Comics it had them then needing to come up with a project or whether there was a story already in development that they felt suited his artwork. A mote point perhaps as Doug Moench delivers a story that uses all the usual Batman mythos trappings without getting bogged down in cliches.

A computer nerd hacks into a snuff movie broadcast - only this is reality TV taken to extremes. Commissioner Gordon doesn't believe him and the hacker suffers the consequences. Cue Batman's involvement - having failed to save both the youth's life and a similar murder setting, things escalate with clues leading all the way to Hong Kong, meaning Bruce Wayne and Alfred take a business/vacation there.

Batman finds himself out of sorts, able to do a crime-fighting job but lacking the cultural (more than language) barrier to get his mean demeanour across. Fortunately, his presence has influenced a young lad enough to become a hero called NightDragon.

They work together and a story of the past unravels - of loving uncles each taking a different path in life, one a police officer the other a tong leader. Gang wars, fighting, a mystery, then an inevitable couple of twists to the tale, but all along it avoids being The Corsican Twins.

Moench is really trying to show a difference in his story via cultural divides. It's also a good adventure. Wong's art doesn't always work for me here. A little too stiff and manga stylised for my personal tastes, but there's no doubt it's good stuff - even if I'm half-sure there's at least one curious art swipe: what looks to be a Norm Breyfogle figure with a John Byrne drawn head on it... It can't be. Can it?

The Iron Wagon
By Jason (Fantagraphics Books)

A sombre detective tale based on a 1909 novel by Stein Riverton (an alias for Norwegian Sven Elvestad), and adapted by the similarly pseudonymous Jason.

I did not expect to like this book as first impressions are always of the visual kind when leafing a work of the comics' medium, and Jason's flat simple art style and use of anthropmorphics without any intrinsic reason did not initially impress. As it is, the style lends itself quite well to evoking this other-time and quieter place while reminding us that all times can be filled with the dark melancholies that enthuse the human mind.

Psychology may have been a brave new science when Riverton first wrote his novel and its affectations and substances are put to use by Asbjorn Krag the detective who comes to what will become Oslo to solve a murder.

One has an eerie concern that this tale could slip into a funny animal version of TV cop show Columbo but it doesn't. In fact there's quite a bit of police procedural activity floating in the background. And there is more than one mystery that needs solving.

A satisfying read that can sit comfortably, and quietly proud, on your graphic novel shelves.

Also in this genre: Johnny Double by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso is stylish, Honour Among Punks - The Complete Baker Street Graphic Novel by Guy Davis & Gary Reed a good mystery on an alternative world full of sub-cultures, A Treasury of Victorian Murder by Rick Geary always a gem, Batman: Evolution by Greg Rucka, art by Shawn Martinbrough, John Watkiss, William Rosado, Phil Hester, inks by Steve Mitchell is a bit of a hit and miss collection, The Hound of the Baskervilles adapted by Philip Page & Marilyn Pettit not the best example of British publishing getting into the graphic novel market, CSI: Miami by Various rather bland for my tastes, Catwoman: Selina's Big Score by Darwyn Cooke a cracking good read, Catwoman: Relentless by Ed Brubaker, Cameron Stewart & Javier Pulido, Mike Manley additional inks pretty good,

Dick Tracy: The Collins Casefiles, Volume 3 by Max Allan Collins and Rick Fletcher a decent collection, and The Bloody Streets of Paris by Jacques Tardi and Leo Malet is absolutely excellent.