Artists: Sean Phillips
There has been a bit of an internet buzz about some mainstream comics since DC launched their New 52 last year, stealing some of Marvel's thunder, for which they only have the rather insipid and frat boy Avengers vs X-Men as an answer (and we're talking comics here, not films so the Avengers movie doesn't count in this context). However not everything notable about the DC relaunch has been for the better. There have been some well executed comics, particularly Action Comics, Animal Man and All Star Western, but there has also been a good deal of concern about sexist attitudes coming through in their depiction of certain female characters. Let us not forget that they have also let Rob Liefeld write one of the regular series who, although he may be a nice enough person who can deliver flashy, if poorly executed artwork, has never learned even the rudiments of how to write, and possibly never thought that it is a skill that you have to learn.
Ironically amongst all this, the comic that has been arguably the runaway success story is from the company Liefeld help set up in direct competition with Marvel and DC. Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips seem to have been on a determined mission to show the world that literate, articulate crime stories the equal of books by Hammett, Chandler, Ellroy and Rankin, can be told within the comics medium. In Fatale they have added Lovecraftian horror to these stories to great effect.
When it comes to detective fiction, comics have one great advantage over both films and novels in that it is easy to refer back to earlier parts of the text to understand something brought to light later on, or to clarify something a character said, or to understand some subtle relationship one character may have to another. This means that ultimately, in the hands of skilled creators, these comic stories can be denser and more complex than anything delivered in other media. Four chapters into the story of Fatale and the creators have constructed just that, a piece that takes full advantage of the comics medium, which rewards reading together with the other issues close to hand.
From interviews with Brubaker we know that the story will eventually return to closer to present day, but at the moment it is depicting events from the 1950s, classic noir territory. Corrupt cops, morally dubious protagonists and the titular femme fatale are all present, but this is far from noir by numbers as Brubaker and Phillips weave genuine horror into the proceedings. So well grounded is the reader in the grim world we know from detective fiction that the horrific elements, when they do rear their heads, are much more shocking as we are suddenly reminded that this is a horror comic. There are plenty of developments to keep our interest piqued as the lengths men will go to for Josephine, the fatale of the title, are revealed, and there are hints that it never ends well for any of them, echoed at the end by something uttered to our main lead for this section, the journalist Hank Raines whose life has fallen to pieces since meeting her. In addition we also get more insight to the corrupt cop, Walt Booker, which lends a degree of sympathy to him. That's the thing with this book, the human characters seem neither good nor evil but human, with all the contradictions of character that entails.
This is a wonderful book, and Sean Phillips art just oozes atmosphere. Alan Moore once said in an interview about V For Vendetta that it wasn't "Alan Moore's V For Vendetta" but his and artist David Lloyd's, as the book was very much a collaboration. That is very much the case here, and one cannot imagine Fatale being the comic it is without one or the other of the creators. They work together so well that it has the feel of a comic made by one writer/artist, with writing and art merging so well that it is futile to try to separate the two. As with their comic Criminal, there are articles included in the individual issues which will not be collected in the trade paperbacks, as a reward to readers for supporting the series, and these make these comics well worth buying in the floppy format. Where else would you find informative and interesting articles on the inspirations for Chandler's Phillip Marlowe, Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. The only real problem is Ed Brubaker recommends so many good books, you may well fill your reading list from now until Christmas.
No comments:
Post a Comment