Antarctic Press 2019
Created by Tom Sacchi & John Ward
Written by John Ward
Illustrated by Giles Crawford
Coloured by By Dan Thompson
Lettered by Henry Barajas
Booker and Jim rescue a missing dancer, but end up being betrayed. The cops hand Jim over to a local mob boss who offers to free him in exchange for betraying Booker-who mounts a daring raid to rescue his new friend.
I am a huge fan of this book. It has this throwback feel to the days when Noir was the happening thing. Mix in the musicians and the clubs and it all just has this absolutely right tone and feel to it. Then what the boys do is infuse humour into this making it something that feels dangerous but at the same time makes you giggle because of our “out of their depth” pair of would be rescuers. There is so much of this that has those moments where you shake your head while grinning because you know it’s the right thing to do. You might not even realise your doing it either and that’s even better.
The way that this is structured is extremely nice to see. It has a very smooth ebb & flow to the way we see information revealed as the boys traverse the pages. How action is woven through and this insanely good characterisation helps move the story forward is such a true delight to see. Sometimes we find a story that just seems to fall into place like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle and you just cannot stop until it’s complete. This is a story like that and it just has this effect upon the reader where it all ends up being some of the most you can have.
How we see the story unfold and the path the boys take is great. The orchestration of the events we see is something to behold I gotta say. When we see the girls and how they are drawn into the proceedings well you’ll have to read this to believe it but it screams planning and execution and all kinds of shit that I didn’t think would happen in the order I which they did. I mean this local mob boss I got mad respect for this little shithead I will say that. Ooh child my tongue just got loose then again this isn’t exactly an all-ages book thanks to the subject matter and well this is me getting into it.
The interiors here are simply charming and the fact that Giles style seems to simple makes this even more impressive. After all if you are going to do simple then it damn well better be impeccable and Boy George it is. We get facial expressions, feelings and emotions out this that last for days. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show off a stellar eye for storytelling. The way that the composition of the panels is done is sensational with how backgrounds are utilised or not and just the overall effect each one has on the reader. The colour work is not what you’d expect to see. There is some beautiful shading within the colour blocking that highlights just the right features.
Every step along the way of the journey that we accompany Jim and Booker on is full of twists and turns with each turn of the page. That we can feel so connected with them and relate to the wounds and frustrations they encounter is just an added bonus. The story & plot development with this pacing and the characterisation along with these wonderful interiors this is just another reason why I am such an advocate of Antarctic Press and the creators whose work we see. The future of comics isn’t the stagnate repetitive cycle the larger ones have it’s here at the smaller press companies where talent is allowed and encouraged to grow, blossom and be the best it can be.