Dex Parios
Created by Greg Rucka

"I don't suppose we can talk about this?"
-- Dex smiles and tries to reason with the two thugs
who've tossed her in their trunk
and driven her to a deserted spot to kill her.

tTalk about a losing streak.

All DEX PARIOS, the sole operative of Portland's Stumptown Investigations, has to worry about is her gambling jones, the 18 large she owes the Confederated Tribes of the Wind Coast Casino), tracking down the messed-up granddaughter of the casino's manager and taking care of her mentally-challenged kid brother Ansel.

And -- oh yeah -- being shot point blank in the chest by two mouthbreathers-for-hire who’ve warned her off of her latest case.

And that’s just in the first few pages of Stumptown (2009-10), Greg Rucka's twisty, turny four-part comic book mini-series.

It’s about time the recent glut of first-class graphic novels focusing on crime fiction finally tricked down to the comic book stage. And Stumptown was well worth the wait – it’s a four-color treat for anyone who’d despaired of ever seeing an honest-to-God P.I. in a regular (or as regular as small comic book press runs go) comic book again. There are no muscle-bound dudes in tights here; no silicone-fed Amazons fighting crime in G-strings and high heels, no time-traveling evil entities from the 8th dimension, no scratch-and-sniff foil covers – just good old dirt-under the fingernails hard-boiled grit set in a world as real as morning breath.

Recalling such classic no-nonsense latter-day private janes as Max Allan Collins’ Ms. Tree, Brian Bendis’ Jinx Alameda and Ed “Criminal” Brubaker’s late, lamented all-too-brief take on Dakota North in the pages of Daredevil, Rucka’s Dex is nobody’s bimbo. She’s a blue collar smart ass whose “up yours” take on life, tattered professionalism and rough-edged compassion make her one of comicdom’s most compelling female characters of recent years.

And artist Matthew Southworth’s moody, cinemagraphic depiction of  Portland is a wonder to behold, all blotchy shadows, telling details and under-the-fingernails grit. Now if only the fanboys will read it…

Greg Rucka, of course, is the Eisner Award-winning comic writer and crime novelist who writes the Atticus Kodiak books.

COMICS

• STUMPTOWN
  (2009-10, Oni Press)
  4 issues
  Written by Greg Rucka
  Art by by Matthew Southworth

• "The Case of the Girl Who Took her Shampoo But Left Her Mini (Part One)" (October 2009, #1)
• "The Case of the Girl Who Took her Shampoo But Left Her Mini (Part Two)" (December 2009, #2)
• "The Case of the Girl Who Took her Shampoo But Left Her Mini (Part Three)" (April 2010, #3)
• "The Case of the Girl Who Took her Shampoo But Left Her Mini (Part Four)" (November 2010, #4)

COLLECTIONS

• STUMPTOWN.. Buy this book
  (2011, Oni Press)
  Written by Greg Rucka
  Art by by Matthew Southworth

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.