IDW Publishing 2018
Written by Brian Buccellato
Illustrated by Alexis Sentenac
Lettered by Neil Uyetake
In the seedy Los Angeles underworld, lives intersect like motorway overpasses. When a crime boss’s poker game is robbed, three lowlifes—a bad cop, a drug addict, and a haunted thug—attempt to stay one step ahead of the others, as redemption or destruction is their only ticket out…
I wasn’t sure what to expect form this but I will say I have very much enjoyed Brian’s stories in the past (if you haven’t read Sons of the Devil or Cannibal your missing out). Brian has a way of writing a realistic set of people who just happen to find themselves in these situations that spiral out of control in ways that test the limits of what we see in ourselves. This is why I think his work is so accessible to everyone and why we can’t get enough of it.
The way this is structured is sensational. There is a lot going on in the opening that makes you wonder, who is being watched, is he watching the past unfold as this conversation is happening? All we do know is that it’s powerful, gripping and begs for an explanation and hopefully what we see unfold from there on out will do just that. Although it does look like this Lenny person shot Richard however I am not convinced he’s actually dead, at least not yet. So this is an opening that does exactly what it’s supposed to do, capture your attention, widen the eyes and expand the mind and make sure you need to know what’s happening next.
Brian really doesn’t waste any time at all bringing us the story and it’s full speed ahead as we don’t really need to see the past to know what happened. Richard going to his wife and seeing that man, a man who raped his wife, showing up everywhere to bring her flowers and remind her daily of what he did and is capable of. Yeah this is enough to mess with anyone’s mind from a broken woman to a police officer and that we get that sense of desire, pain and frustration swirling around the characters is almost an adrenaline rush.
The flow this story has is amazing and as we get to each new segment, which all the transitions here are done extremely well, we meet new characters and see how these people are important to Richard who has emerged as the main character. I like how it’s done it just feel natural to me to see things going the way they do. When we meet Myra, his partner, she’s a piece of work and I am not sure how I feel about that yet. Shady, sure but she’s a cop and she’s looking out for her partner. She has a mouth on her and sex drive that well involves her strapping on and him getting the shit fucked out of him. Yeah she’s complex, interesting and a tad bit on the take.
I love the interior artwork here. The manipulation of the linework through it’s varying weights so that we see such attention to detail is spectacular. The eyes are supposed to be windows to the soul and I like that Alexis pays such close attention to them in that regard. The utilisation of page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a great eye for storytelling. The way that backgrounds are utilised expands the moments and scenes they appear. That Alexis does all this on his own is reason enough to earn respect but to do it at this level is impressive on a different level.
What would you do? You spouse is raped and you have no control over anything, your work partner is suggesting something a tad illegal but effective and you just so happen to run into that scumbag. How far are yo willing to go to get revenge, reclaim your life and be happy again?