Word on the
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What's new in the P.I.
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Comics and Graphic Novels
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Tumor....Buy this book Joshua Hale Fialkov and Noel Tuazon's heartbreaking graphic novel featuring elderly private eye Frank Armstrong on his last case, trying to make up for a lifetime of screwups and regrets before the brain tumor he's been carrying around wipes his slate clean for good. This spiffy hardcover edition, with one of the most clever covers I've seen in years, collects all eight chapters of the Kindle comic, and tosses in a short prose story featuring Frank and an introduction by Duane Swierczynski for good measure. (April 2010)
The Human Target: Chance Meetings...Buy this book Written by Peter Milligan, with art by Edvin Biukovic and Javier Pulido and a new cover by Tim Bradstreet, this is a re-issue, that collects the original four-issueVertigo title and follow-up standalone that inspired the new Fox TV series. Private eye and security specialist Christopher Chance will do almost anything to protect a client -- up to and including impersoning them. (January 2010)
The Chill...Buy this book Whether this is a disappointing harbinger of things to come or not (does a purported crime line like DC/Vertigo Crime, especially one just launched, really have to mix horror into the mix to stay viable already?) remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt this is a rip-roaring old-fashioned blast of comic book fun. NYPD homicide dick (and new dad) Pavano is assigned to track down a female serial killer; one who’s picking up men and disposing of them in particularly sadistic and ritualistic fashion. Of course, this being Vertigo, the language, sex and violence are far more “adult” and graphic (blood! nipples!) than anything that could have slipped by the comic book censors in the seventies, but given the carefully plotted sense of impending doom and pure pulp gotcha! that awaits brave readers, I’m willing to bet somewhere in crime writer Starr’s past there lurks a dusty stack of comic books. The only thing missing is an introduction by Cain or Abel.
Rip Kirby: The First Modern Detective, Volume Two ...Buy this book The second volume of the highly anticipated definitive five-volume hardcover series finds cerebral, urbane (but never wimpy) private eye Kirby ripping through Europe. Features a biographical and historical essay by Brian Walker, and an introduction by Howard Chaykin. (May 2010)
Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics...Buy this book The perfect apperitif to last year's The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics, this collection from Dark Horse features a slew of all-original stories by some of the best writers and artists currently working the dark end of the comics spectrum, including Thrilling Detective faves such as David Lapham (Stray Bullets!), Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Brian Azzarello, Rick Geary, Paul Grist and Gary Phillips. And all in glorious, smack-in-the-mouth black and white.
West Coast Blues...Buy this book The French didn’t invent noir – they just gave it a name, but you’d never know it from this bleak, angsty existentialist shaggy dog tale by French cartoonist and comic genius Jacques Tardi's adaptation of the late Jean-Patrick Manchettes’s tale of a burnt-out, jazz-listening Parisian businessman who takes a Flitcraftian wrong turn and just keeps going, eventually forced to deal with hit men, gangsters and homicidal vagabonds. (October 2009)
Rip Kirby: The First Modern Detective, Volume One ...Buy this book
The first volume of the highly anticipated definitive five-volume hardcover series, edited and designed by Dean Mullaney, which will comprise every daily from the strip's inception in 1946 through Alex Raymond's tragic death in 1956. Mullaney says. "We are reproducing the strips from pristine syndicate proofs that will allow readers to see, for the first time, the full luxurious detail of Raymond's brushwork." (September 2009)
The Hound of the Baskervilles: A Sherlock Holmes Graphic Novel...Buy this book N. J. Culbard and Ian Edginton’s masterful adaptation of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle classic is purportedly aimed at young readers, but Doyle’s moody, atmospheric tale of murder on the moors and a family cursed by a bloodthirsty hound who may or may not exist is gripping stuff indeed and will appeal to anyone of any age who enjoys a solid mystery. Culbard’s artwork may seem friendly and safe enough at first, but a few pages into this book, and you realize you’ve been marching straight into graphic novel quick sand. Even better, Holmes and Watson aren’t “re-envisioned” for a new generation of popcorn-munching, SFX-addicted morons – they’re presented straight up, the way they should be. A classic adaptation, classic all the way through. (August 2009)
The Hunter ...Buy this book Talk about highly anticipated! Eisner Award winning Darwyn Cooke (Batman, The Spirt, Catwoman) adapted and illustrated Richard Stark's novel, which introduced the ice-cold professional thief Parker. Betrayed by his dame and double-crossed by his partner, Parker has only one thought in mind - revenge. First in a proposed series of adaptations!. (July 2009)
Femme Noir: The Dark City Diaries What a long strange trip it's been. First appearing as a web comic on various sites around the internet (including this one), and then as a regular ink-and-paper comic book, the 'Femme, she of the gats and gams, is back once again, collected in a spiffy trade paperback collection, with a Foreword by Max Allan collins and an Afterword by some cat called Smith. Written by Christopher Mills with art by comics legend Joe Stato, this volume collects all 4 issues of mini-series, plus two complete bonus stories and conceptual artwork. (May 2009)
Britten and Brülightly ...Buy this book For those who lament the days when film noir actually meant something more than a mouthful of oscenities, some overly stylized lighting and some ridiculously gratuitous violence, some tired clichés and a lot of guys wearing fedoras, this one's for you. Berry's gloriously murky, almost- black-and-white artwork and near-Chandleresque prose “gets” noir in a way most current filmmakers - and more than a few over-praised and over-hyped“noir” novelists - never will. (March 2009)
Tell Them Johnny Wadd is Here The original hard-boiled, hardcore dick, star of all those cheesy porn flicks, reurns -- in comic book form. And even more amazing, it's worth reading. (January 2009)
The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics ...Buy this book This hefty brick of a paperback, edited by Paul Gravett, is like a warning tossed through the plate glass window complacency of all those skinny, over-priced little graphic "novels" that offer a lot of overblown pretentious artwork and precious little actual plot. You want story? This collections offers a virtual who's who tour of crime comics from the forties to the present, offering samples of everything from Will Eisner's The Spirit to Collins' and Beatty's Ms. Tree. The earliest selection is a dry run of Spillane's Mike Hammer ("Mike Lancer and the Syndicate of Death" from 1942) and winds its way to the present, offering mostly complete stories (or story arcs, in the case of strips) of such familiar classics as Dashiell Hammett and Alex Ross' Secret Agent X-9. Sure, even clocking in at close to 500 pages, there are some glaring omissions (No Dick Tracy? NoSlam Bradley? No Johnny Dynamite or 100 Bullets?), but the spattering of off-beat choices and outright rarities they offer instead (a 87th Street Precinct tale from 1962, a 1975 Alack Sinner vignette, a 1948 Simon-Kirby short) more than make up for it. I'm a crime comic geek, but there are enough lost treasures here to satisfy even grumpy nitpickers like me, and the unflinching noirsih sophistication offered here by some of the European entries wil be a knock upside the head for American fanboys who think the cartoonish Sin City is the be-all and end-all of crime comics. Please, please, please may this be an annual collection. (August 2008)
The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle ...Buy this book Written by Jim Butcher himself, and drawn by Ardian Syaf, this hard-cover graphic novel collects all four-issues of the 2008 mini-series, featuring Butcher's wizrd/private eye Harry Dresden. (October 2008).
Backup ...Buy this book A novelette featuring Harry Dresden, everyone's favourite wizard private eye, written by Harry's creator, Jim Butcher, and illustrated by Mike "Hell Boy" Mignola. (October 2008).
Cash and Carry ..Buy this book The latest graphic novel collection of Tim Broderick's rock-solid Odd Jobs web comic series (which runs on this site, famong others) featuring quixotic, low-key private eye David DiAngelo. Arguably the most consistent private eye comic -- web or print -- in years, and certainly one of the very best. Plug yourself in. (February 2008)
J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography ..Buy this book
Now here's something you don't see everyday: a no holds-barred biography of the FBI head honcho (and headcase) done in comic book form. Rick Geary, famed for his Treasury of Victorian Crime series and numerous grahic novel adaptations of literary classics, does his usual bang-up job of extensive research, finely rendered period detail and good ol' storytelling. It's all here, from the Bureau's early, Depression-era gangbusting days to the shadowy world of Watergate, with plenty of professional (and personal) malfeasance (and rumours of malfeasance) to ponder. Hoover might not have been all bad, but he sure was drawn that way.
High Moon This on-going web comic, brought to you by DC's online wing, Zuda comics, is the usual mish-mash of genres, a spaghetti western/werewolf story about a former Pinkerton man working a missing daughter job .. and werewolves are the least of his problems. It may sound dopey, but it's scripted by David Gallaher, the guy who did a bang-up job bringing Johnny Dollar to comics, and artist Steve Ellis is a man who knows how to wield a mean pencil. (Starts January 23, 2008).
Hawaiian Dick The return of the Eisner-nominated series, now on-going, featuring the adventures of ex-mainland cop Byrd, who's set up shop as a slacker Island dick in 1950s Hawaii. A great supporting cast, a whiff of woo-woo, solid writing and a entertaining blend of hard-boiled action and period detail and colour, make this one of the best (and, in fact, one of the only) detective comics to come out in years. In the debut issue, Byrd meets a World War II flying squadron, who soon find themselves under attack by a Japanese fighter plane--in 1954. Exotic drinks will be consumed and island kitsch will be evident. Call it tiki noir.(Novemeber 2007)
Silverfish ...Buy this book David Lapham's latest graphic novel is stunning - simply one of the most gut-wrenching, brutally thrilling books I've ever read. It plays out like Hitchcock on meth, a wicked, black-and-white kaleidoscope of teen angst, evil stepmothers, psychotic killers with fish on the brain, deadly secrets and an abandoned amusement park on the Jersey shore.Writer and artist Lapham, of course, is the man responsible for the sporadically published and highly regarded Stray Bullets crime comics, but if he's taking time from that to write masterpieces like this, he's more than forgiven. (June 2007)
Le Soleil naît derrière le Louvre Latest in French comic artist's on-going series of graphic novel adaptations of Léo Malet's Nestor Burma series, about a WWII-era Parisian private eye. In French only. (2007)
Criminal: Coward ...Buy this book Collects the first five comics of Criminal, writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips' unflinching street-level look at crime and those who make a living at it. Violence-shunning Leo is a nice enough guy (well, all things considered), a once-legendary thief now eking out a living (and keep his head down and his butt out of prison) as a professional pickpocket who gets roped into into a high-risk caper that goes horribly awry. (May 2007)
The Black Diamond Detective Agency ...Buy this book Oooh, good stuff! Eddie "From Hell" Campbell adapts a screenplay by C. Gaby Mitchell into a hot turn-of-the-last century period piece that promises "Orphans! Mayhem! Terror!" as a quiet corn farmer from a small town in Missouri becomes the prime suspect behind the destruction of a train carrying official US currency paper. He's on the run, determined to bring in the real culprits, but he has the all-powerful, all-seeing Black Diamond Detective Agency (can you say "Pinkertons?") hot on his heels. What to do? The one thing the agency doesn't expect -- Hardin adapts an alias and joins their ranks. (On sale in May 2007)
Criminal Macabre: Supernatural Freak Machine .Buy this book This graphic (very graphic, in fact) novel collects all five issues of the aborted 2005 mini-series by Steve Niles and artist Kelly Jones that ran aground after three issues.Cal Mcdonald is a booze-soaked ghoul-chasing gumshoe taking on the usual creepy-crawlies from Hell and other parts. (Spring 2007)
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures Marvel kicks off a new line of sci-fi/horror/fantasy comics with this adaptation of the first novel of the popular vampire/detective/romance series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. As far as Iv can figure it, this will be a monthly series. A two-issue mini has also been announced, which will feature an original story written by Hamilton herself. (On-going)
Sam Noir, Samurai Detective: Ronin Holiday This original three-issue black and white mini-series by Image was part hommage and part fromage, but it was definitely a helluva lot of fun, as an ex-ronin turned P.I. headed down the vengeance trail, skewering assorterd henchmen and ninjas who stood in his way. It completely sold out, so this sequel, released just months later, was not exactly unexpected. In this one, Sam is in vacation mode, figuring a tropical retreat is just the thing to take his mind off the pain. But of course, trouble of the stabby kind soon finds him.
Criminal Macabre: Two Red Eyes The latest Cal Mcdonald mini-series finds our booze-soaked ghoul-chasing gumshoe taking on Noserfatu, the world's oldest vampire, plus something even more frightening: sobriety!. The first arc in a proposed new series. (Starts December 2006)
Helmet of Fate: Detective Chimp Now we're REALLY stretching it. In this amusing one-off, the simian sleuth becames the all-seeing, all-powerful, all-knowing Dr. Fate -- quite a leap for "a lowly chimpanzee with some jumped-up language skills." (January 2007)
Playback: A Graphic Novel... Buy this comic Not the Philip Marlowe novel but an adaptation of the original, unproduced screenplay that Chandler eventually turned into the last Marlowe book, all about a Vancouver cop trying to get to the bottom of some nasty business and help a dame out of a jam. This handsome, if rather bleak story was brought to graphic novel form by writer Ted Benoit and artist François Ayroles and published in France in 2004 -- now it's been translated into English, and it's a righteous job, all shadow and menace and dark style, sorta like Sin City, but with much better writing. It's Chandler, man. (July 2006)
ON-GOING TITLES & MINI-SERIES
Daredevil (featuring -- at least occasionally -- Dakota North) No, seriously. Since Ed Brubaker starting writing it, the comic featuring Marvel's blind horn-head has adopted a surprisingly noirish tone, and includes the on-going -- if sporadic -- resurrection of P.I. Dakota North as something other than a bad joke It could set the stage for the supposedly upcoming Dakota North mini-series. Check it out!
(Began with #82, April 2006 issue)
ALSO OF INTEREST
Drawing Crime Noir: Drawing Crime Noir for Comics and Graphic Novels... Buy this comic This 2006 title, by Christopher Hart, claims to give you the skinny on how to draw for "crime noir," which he proclaims the "hottest style around". And he does talk a good game, I admit -- he mentions "windswept streets, dark shadowy figures, reckless women, gleaming pistols, men without conscience, boulevards of fear," blah blah blah and he even namedrops Chandler at one point. But mostly he reduces the genre to a series of visual cliches, and then tells you how to render them.. He does offer some interesting and useful drawing tips, though (providing you can alreadydraw relatively well). It's when he expounds on the genre itself that he gets into trouble, and joins the long line of people (directors, critics, popcorn chewers, etc.) who wouldn't know noir if it bitchslapped them across the face.
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