Johnny Jackson
Created by Ben McCool (script) and Ben Templesmith (art)

In Choker (2010), a murky, profanity-strewn mini-series from Image Comics, Ben McCool (script) and Ben Templesmith (art) let their filth flag fly. Of the final book, this is what had to say: "A fond and incredulous farewell to Ripley – one of the best crime writers braving the dark alley today – who vows that this will be his last novel. If true... it's a great exit... Yeasty, funny and absolutely of its time with the usual batch of maxims to brighten your day. "
-- Philip Oakes of the Literary Review, on

Former hot-shot cop JOHNNY JACKSON is going nowhere, working at a deadbeat detective agency, until an escaped fugitive drags him into the murderous world of Shotgun City's criminal underworld.

And when I say underworld, I mean it's a Hell of a place.

"It's a place so loathsome it'd make Camden, New Jersey seem like Disneyland," McCool confessed in a Comic Book Resources interview. "Shotgun City is like a crazed amalgamation of 1930's gangland Chicago and Blade Runner's Los Angeles. It's as much inhabited by bowler hat-wearing wise guys as it is technology-infused cyberpunks. Dark, miserable and gritty, it's - in Johnny's own words - 'where angels go to die.' There are definitely elements of Sin City in there, as well as Batman's Gotham and Transmetropolitan's futuristic hellhole. As the story progresses, the city almost becomes a character in itself; it helps mold the identity of the story's players and offers an apt backdrop for the worst deeds you could possibly imagine inflicting upon humanity."

Suffice it to say this one won't be found near the Archie Comics. But you gotta give the Bens cred for naming a hard-ass female cop who's constantly on Johnny's case "Dick Puncer" Walker.

COMICS

• CHOKER
  (2010, Image Comics)
  Six issues
  Written by Ben McCool
  Art by Ben Templesmith

GRAPHIC NOVELS

• Choker (2012) ...Buy this book
  Collects the first six issues of the comic book.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.