“What do you think I am, ten years old?”
That’s the look that appears in the eyes of lots of people I recommend graphic novels to.
“You mean like the funnies?”
Yes, the funny papers which aren’t always funny you know. In fact there is some pretty doggone emotionally charged, hard hitting stuff being published these days in the funnies. For years I was the same way. Comic books always appealed to me, but I never found any that I felt fully realized the potential of the medium… Until now, (which, is to say I’ve only just become aware of some). Don’t worry now, I’m not about to push you dedicated crime and mystery readers into the great spandexalaxy of supermen, (yet), but here I will offer some suggestions for you dedicated crime and mystery readers who can are open to new things.
First up is 100 Bullets from (writer) Brian Azzarello and (artist) Eduardo Risso - an episodic series about a shadowy figure who appears in the lives of various people deserving a shot at revenge with a briefcase full of info and a gun and of course the titular element. He assures them, any government investigation into shootings you commit will halt immediately with retrieval of the special bullets. Go ahead, have your revenge. It’s dark and stylish and a sure fire formula for repeat offender, hard boiled thrills.
Next up is Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Criminal series (now available in this AWESOME three in one hardcover collection complete with essays and bonus art work - drool, drool). It's street level glimpses of life in the loose kind of criminal organizations and life style that never end well. These are the modern update of the Western desperado in their full, tragi-romantic glory. Fans of the late Richard Stark’s Parker series, (familiar to movie fans as the basis for films like Point Blank with Lee Marvin, The Outfit with Robert Duvall and Payback with Mel Gibson - be sure to check out the director's cut Payback: Straight Up - for once, a director's cut that stands head and shoulders over the original) will be pleased.
And speaking of Parker, his first appearance – The Hunter, has now been adapted by Darwyn Cooke as the graphic novel Parker, and it should bring a whole new slavering, dedicated following to the Parker books. Cooke is on track to adapt more Parker novels.
For those without the inclination to dip a toe into a series, Vertigo Crime has begun a series of one-offs from mystery/crime stalwarts like Ian Rankin, Jason Starr and the aforementioned Brian Azzarello, and for those with a less pulpy, hard knock walk across the tracks, may I suggest Tim Lane’s beautifully rendered, melancholic Abandoned Cars, a collection of graphic shorts that read like a cross between John Fante, Jack Kerouac and Donald Ray Pollock.
Authors as wide ranging as Brad Melzer, Victor Gischler, Duane Swierczynski, David Liss and Jodi Picoult have been slumming in comics the last few years – perhaps they know something about the potential in the medium – perhaps, they too have discovered the holy grail of crime/mystery graphic novels – Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera’s Scalped.
Find something you trust and hold on to it tight, folks. Scalped will haunt you. It’ll remind you why you love to read in the first place, it’ll be respite from recent, tepid film going experiences and it’ll make you wonder why none of your so called friends ever put a funny papers book in your hand before. Set on an Indian reservation near the South Dakota/Nebraska border, it involves it’s a mystery surrounding Native-American activists from the seventies and the murder of two FBI. Agents on the reservation. But it’s also about far more. It starts with shot and takes no prisoners. Each volume, (five collections so far), expands the universe, rounding out the perspective and fleshing out each supporting character into rich, full-blooded, literary creations, that breathe, bleed and spit on the page. It’s thrilling, exhilarating and will break your heart simultaneously.
I’m still a newcomer to the medium, and looking for suggestions, so what’ve you got?
