MEANWHILE CRIME 741.5 COMICS: THE NEW BREED Seth 741.5 ATOMIC BLONDE VS. THE ASSIGNMENT ALSO...HARD CASE CRIME...FRACTION...AZZARELLO AUGUST 2017— NO. EIGHT PLUS… RICHARD STARK’S PARKER

Joe Lansdale Sam Glanzman

Al Williamson George Evans Bernard Krigstein

Jillian Tamaki William Gaines

Harvey Kurtzman

Roxane Gay

BW

MUNOZ & SAMPAYO’S GRITTY DETECTIVE CLASSIC ALACK SINNER

EC The Comics & Graphic Novel Bulletin of Richard Stark was the pseudo- When the Fox network first an- Set in the waning Since 2004, Hard Case nym used by prolific mystery nounced plans for a show called writer Donald Westlake when days of the Cold Gotham, I was sorely disappointed Crime has been the fore- most publisher of detective penning the cold-blooded adven- War, the graphic to learn it wasn’t based on my tures of the master thief Parker. novel formerly favorite Bat-comic of the past and suspense novels writ- Parker starred in 24 novels, six known as The Cold- twenty years, Gotham Central. ten in the hard-boiled of which were adapted into Written by Ed Brubaker and Greg graphic novels by Darwyn (The est City is not the Rucka and drawn mostly by Mi- style, from award-winning originals to treasures un- New Frontier) Cooke. Westlake rock-em-sock-em chael Lark, Gotham Central was a was so impressed by Cooke’s romp promised by police procedural set in the world earthed from the paper- interpretation of the first novel, the film version, of the Batman. Originally de- back boneyard. Now Hard he allowed Parker to be called scribed as “Homicide with super- Case has teamed up with Parker, a privilege Westlake had Atomic Blonde. More villains”, the series received sever- Le Carre than Mi- Britain’s Titan Comics for never granted, not even for films al industry award nominations, such as Point Blank and Pay- chael Bey, the comic despite never cracking the top its own line of comic back. Westlake’s respect was is a chilly, murky tale 100 in sales. In 2016, DC released books, with three of its well-earned. Cooke’s work—from an Omnibus edition, a huge door- of desperate spycraft regular series already col- the writing to the drawing to the stop of a tome collecting all 40 coloring to the design of each Cooke the chance to draw in the rendered in stark black & issues of the title. As unwieldy as lected and a fourth, a 1970s noir written by Me- book—is among the best in the popluxe graphic styles, from UPA white that leaves every the format is, it’s the best way to medium. The Hunter (basis for animation to modernist magazine read the series, the narrative gan (You Will Know Me) character half-seen, lost in both aforementioned movies) is illustration, common to the story’s building with each story arc. To Abbott, coming in 2018. A shadow or the glare of the a straight-forward take on the 1960s milieu. The Score details keep it real, the writers plotted the former sex worker who’s book, introducing Parker as one the robbery of an entire town by winter sun. Meanwhile, the series together, then split the used her experiences in of the most sociopathic charac- Parker and a huge crew, every Cuban Missile Crisis looms such novels as Money Shot, ters in literature. The Outfit in- member standing out as an individ- in the background of To cludes Cooke’s version of The ual thanks to the combined artistry Christa Faust is the perfect The exploits of private eye Alack Have and To Hold, in which Man with the Getaway Face, of Stark and Cooke. Slayground, is Alack Sinner Volume 1 writer for Peepland, a eliding into the main story of set in a closed amusement park— Sinner have enthralled readers a cuckolded ex-cop pulls thriller set in the sleazy Parker’s war on the Mob, depict- complete with gorgeous fold-out around the world since 1975. Now The Age of Innocence off a heist—and that’s the American fans of crime and com- precints of pre-Giuliani ed here as a corporation grown map -as Parker evades local gang- last thing to ever go right too big and slow. The various sters after a job gone sour. Slay- ics can thrill to the noir classic as By Jose Munoz & Times Square. Walter Hill, in his life. Graham heists pulled by Parker and his ground, which Includes Cooke’s IDW publishes the complete work the man who scripted such by artist Jose Munoz and writer Carlos Sampayo Chaffee’s script and art associates provides Stark the short, sharp take on The Seventh, cinematic crime classics as framework to explicate the eco- was the final Parker comic: Darwyn Carlos Sampayo. The first of two 741.5 M926a come on like a film noir volumes, The Age of Innocence The Warriors and The Geta- nomics of organized crime and Cooke died of cancer in May 2016. version of American Splen- introduces the down-and-out dick. Beaumont & Village dor in their homely Mid- way, lends his words to A former cop who refused to go two Hard Case series, along to get along in an out-of- not up to the job. In the earlier western banality both shat- control police department trying to chapters such as “The Webster tered and supported by each adapted by French ride herd on an out-of-control city, Case” and “The Fillmore Case”, violence. The latest work creators Matz and Jef . Trig- Sinner lives in the mythic Manhat- the action follows the traditional from the men responsible large cast into shifts, Rucka german is set during the tan of the Seventies, the shabby, pattern of detective stories: Sin- scripting the day shift, Brubaker heyday of the Capone ner gets hired, goes digging, often for 100 Bullets, Azzarello & decadent NYC D.C. told to “DROP the night. Meanwhile, the artist mob, which sends one of DEAD”. The streets are full of too deep, and the killers are Risso, Moonshine is set dur- the writers waited a year to get, its executioners out west freaks and fiends, too many of caught. Starting with “Viet ing Prohibition and follows Michal Lark, rendered the stories Blues”, the work becomes compli- whom wear a badge. Only Sinner is the misadventures of a big in his trademark shadow-smeared to look for a missing half- there to protect—or at least cated by politics both global— naturalism. Lark kept the action mil...and his long-lost love. avenge—the few innocents that black power, labor rights—and city mobster sent to dark- grounded using a eight-panel grid, exist in this grimey, graft-ridden personal. The art begins to loosen est Appalachia to set up a The source of the large panels exploding on the page of his life. The warzone. Sometimes, the man’s up as well, becoming visual jazz, a new supplier of hooch. when something crazy happens, feature film starring bebop of ink, not sound, especial- like Mister Freeze showing up Michellesource of Rodriguez, the fea- ly in the boxing saga “Constancio Brutal but beautiful, Moon- shine is like other contem- unexpectedly and turning a de- Theture Assignment film starring turns and Manolo” and the nightmarish tective into ice cubes. That’s one Michelle Rodriguez, “Memories”. Munoz and Sampayo porary crime comics such the usual hired killer of the best aspects of GC. The The Assignment turns themselves show up in “Life Ain’t as Lazarus and Black Mon- plain, flawed humanity of the po- story on its head as A Comic Book, Baby”, looking for day Murders in that there is licemen, whether the haunted the usual target’s hired psycho killer the guy with the same name as Marcus Driver, the conflicted Rene story on its head as their character. That’s the closest an element of the fantastic. sister gets her re- Montoya, or the angry but cerebral vengethe targetson the hitman, sister the pair ever got to the City That The weirdest gimmick of Crispus Allen, is contrasted to the Never Sleeps; citizens of Argenti- them all is at the heart of Frankgets her Kitchen. revenge Rawon inhumanity of the costumed hitman Frank Kitch- na, they never visited the New Fraction & Zdarsky’s best- creeps, with the Flash’s B-list and unflinching in its York they portrayed with such love Rogue Dr. Alchemy making an violence,en. Raw it’s and available un- and venom. Now you can take that selling Sex Criminals, with the fourth volume on its especially chilling appearance. fromflinching Tates in its Creek. vio- trip with their two-fisted Virgil of Gotham Central is Ed McBain vs. lence, it’s available crime, Alack Sinner. Reserve your way. Get on the list today! Batman, the reader the winner. BANG! BANG! bw copy from Beaumont or Village! now from Tates Creek MEANWHILE Simon Matchcard, ends his failed attempt to engage with the greater world with an out-of- body experience. It takes him through a series of ruins, abandoned farmhouses and dilapi- dated meeting halls, leaving Simon with the answer to all his problems. The twenty-third issue of the pamphlet-turned-hardback by Cana- dian alternative icon Seth is the most architec- tural yet. Both Simon’s visions and the latest chapter of “Nothing Lasts”, a biography told house by house, revel in buildings and land- scapes, while the middle section reprints “Some Small Paintings”, an art show focused on the warehouses and office towers of Seth’s imagi- nary Dominion City and the solid citizens that inhabit them. Seth’s art has reached a point of sublime simplicity, his inky brushwork and mon- ochromatic palette a melancholic joy to behold. Those in the mood for stronger emotions should read Red Range: A Wild Western Adventure, written by Joe (Hap & Leonard) Lansdale and illustrated by Sam Glanzman. Glanzman died Identity has always been fluid in comics. That’s created all those amazing tales of horror, war one of the main appeals of the medium. Masks and weird science, the second volume of The and magic words, the power of costume and EC Artists (Fantagraphics) will keep you spell- the rebirth described in secret origin stories: bound. THRILL as the romantic Al Williamson, these are essential tropes of comic books. In the realist George Evans and the modernist her YA graphic novels SuperMutant Magic Bernard Krigstein set new standards of comics Academy and This One Summer, cartoonist craftsmanship for generations to come! CHILL Jillian Tamaki dealt with the issue of identity at as publisher William Gaines faces down the the age when such concepts become palpable, forces of censorship, only to be betrayed by his when the body itself transforms from one thing vengeful competitors! HOWL as an overworked to another. In her new book Boundless (Drawn and underpaid Harvey Kurtzman slaps together & Quarterly), Tamaki uses fantasy motifs to MAD as a way to make some easy money and describe the changes that come in adulthood. A accidentally changes American culture forever! Facebook from an alternate universe drives a Like the preceding volume, this Oversize edition woman to live her life in reaction against her can be found at Central. Meanwhile, you can other self. Another woman finds her relation- find the first collection of Marvel’s World of ships haunted by a cheesy kiddie flick, while an Wakanda at all LPL locations in the TEEN sec- phantom infestation of bedbugs overturns a tion. This spin-off of the popular Black Panther new couple’s life. Then there’s “Sexcoven”, in series features the Midnight Angels, women which a mysterious sound file initiates listeners warriors who protect the royal family of the Afro- into a new form of perception, a place of “no futurist nation of Wakanda. But revolution roils body. No name. No parents. No, like, boy/girl the land and the hearts and minds of even the distinction. It’s perfect,” says one “coven- most dedicated of the Dora Milage are torn crawler”, right before his equally enrapt friend between love and liege. Written by Roxane Gay, is flattened like a possum by a truck. A similar whose Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body has been mystical experience is described in the fifth and one of the sensations of the year, this series final chapter of Clyde Fans, the graphic novel deals with the sexual and political issues ex- serialized in Palookaville since 1998. The intro- plored in Gay’s work while delivering the action verted one of the book’s sibling protagonists, and suspense expected of Mighty Marvel. BW July 12. He was best known for his war comics for Charlton and DC, including the beloved “Haunted Tank” series. His later work included the autobiographical A Sailor’s Story and U.S.S. Stevens, the latter available from Eastside. Origi- nally released in 1999 to no response, the new version from IDW is in color—all too apt, given the centrality of color to the story of Red Mask. An African-American avenger of crimes perpe- trated against freedman in the brutal years following the Civil War, Red Mask first appears after the gut-churning act of racist violence that opens the book, dealing death to the hooded murderers of an innocent family. Neither Lans- dale nor Glanzman shy away from the ugly truth, so it’s an ugly story they tell. It gets weird, too, with a swerve in the third act right out of one of Glanzman’s zany Silver Age comics like Kona, Monarch of Monster Isle. It’s rough stuff, but if Django Unchained rang your bell, you should reserve Red Range from Northside. Westerns were never part of the “New Trend” in comics that raised EC to the top of the field in the 1950s. But if you want the dope on how that company’s singular crew of writers and artists