Broken Frontier

Dan Haspiel’s Street Code comes out bearing at least some parallels to Will Eisner’s A Contract with God: a gritty, melancholy tale of the streets. While Haspiel might not be Eisner’s equal (who is?), there remain plenty of similarities in terms of both tone and style. The opening of Street Code is dark beyond measure, but the violent tale of abandoned cats is something ripped straight from the headlines or evening news.

Still, in the eight pages posted so far, we can’t tell much save for the dire situation. The character responsible for the kitty carnage is named Awful George, as the main character – ex-bruiser Jack – discovers. Other than that, there’s no real conflict laid out before us.

Haspiel masterfully lays out the horrific desperation, but does so in a way which balances between piecing exposition and detailed spreads, instead of relying just on blood and gore. I’m anxious to see what happens next – as long as Haspiel has a conflict for our broad-shouldered bruiser Jack to resolve.

An even more macabre scene is found in Pray for Death by Nicholas Doan and Daniele Serra. Detective Abby Jenkins is on the trail of a serial killer who doesn’t believe he’s doing God’s work, but instead, ruining it. Using crucifixion and other forms of Biblical brutality, the killer is creating a media maelstrom, and Jenkins must hunt down the murderous psychopath all while her boss plots her removal from the police force. Pray for Death certainly knows how to throw a lot of wrenches into the plot machine.

The art is shadowy and atmospheric, and actually shows a great deal of improvement over the course of the story – a must for substantial webcomics. Like Street Code, the scenes are utterly horrifying, but the imagery is implied rather than shock-jock bloodshed, often matching breakneck plot twists with psychological warfare.

The only problem is it's sometimes a bit too dark from the crime scene – we can’t really see what Abby Jenkins is seeing, and as a result, the creative team must rely on telling instead of showing. Still, Pray for Death is a must for thriller fans looking to break into the webcomic scene.