Re: RARA-AVIS: GANGLAND comics

MARK SULLIVAN (ANONYMEINC@webtv.net)
Sun, 7 Jun 1998 20:53:10 -0400 (EDT) I also enjoyed "Gangland." Vertigo also recently published a one-shot
(actually, there is plenty of shooting, but the story is told in one
issue) called "Hell Eternal." The first person narrative is a bit too
gimicky, as the bulk of the story is addressed to a gun, as a woman
explains "how could it ever come to this," but the story is pretty good
and the art is even better. Definitely hardboiled, it reminds me a bit
of Vaachs' non-Burke book, "Shella."

Speaking of which, there are a few Vaachs comics. "Hard Looks" features
new originals and adaptations of Vaachs's short stories. "Cross" is a
7-issue series based on the Cross stories in his "Bad Blood" anthology.

Image Comics has two crime titles. "Shut Up and Die" tells a different
self-contained crime story in each issue. The first two have been very
good. Even better, though, is "Jinx." The title character is a
hardboiled, female bounty hunter who is beginning to question her career
choice while simultaneously becoming involved with a possibly-reformed
con man (whose earlier stories have been collected in the graphic novel
AKA Goldfish). Features very impressive, stark-contrast black and white
artwork.

Of course, the master of the white on black background (inheriting the
title from Will Eisner for "The Spirit") is Frank Miller in the "Sin
City" books. In many ways his characters, male and female alike, make
Mike Hammer and Vaachs's Burke seem like softies (although they are just
as sentimental as those two underneath).

My favorite crime book, though, has got to be "Stray Bullets." Like
Tarrantino, "Stray Bullets" is full of characters you would never
actually want to meet, but are fascinating from a safe distance. The
emphasis here is on the lives of people on the edge of the not-at-all
glamorous, low-level criminal lifestyle.

Mark

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