Broken Frontier

There's nothing quite like a good anthology, and seeing as this is an Australian production it has even greater potential to stand out. Thankfully, it does, as this is a good looking book filled with entertaining short tales.

Opening with an accountant who believes he’s a doctor because he’s performed procedures and read books, it’s obvious this is just the beginning of many pages that serve to bring dark humour to the surface, especially considering that the next few pages focus on a hapless man attempting “psychic advice” which results in a nose growing tentacles and the aforementioned accountant/doctor coming to the rescue with a chainsaw, and an odd looking nurse. 

The second story follows the two men who appear in the remaining tales, Tom and Bill, as they’re hired to get rid of a Gorgon who has been turning local trespassers to stone. Having the two gunmen and their angry victim engage in a brief conversation before…resolving the issue is a nice touch.

Singapore is set in that city as the two dicks of the title, AKA private eyes, escape certain doom before escaping the land on a ship led by a dwarf captain. Sleeping in the hold, Tom wakes to discover the ship’s crew threatening him, with his friend Bill being taken over by some evil entity.

The fourth and final tale features the pair being ambushed by a gang of troglodytes in an old village, with some odd architecture, before turning the tables with some good old fashioned fisticuffs.

A diverse six page gallery closes this one-shot, and having Bonin draw all of the 10 page stories is a good move. His art remains consistent throughout the issue, but he plays with shadows when he needs to, especially in the second story, appropriately titled Snakes on a Head. It’s a dialogue driven book, and even that is minimal, which allows Bonin’s detailed art to shine. From ships at sea to dark alleys and ancient ruins, there’s nothing the artist can’t draw. There’s no blank backgrounds here, and the amount of detail in some panels is remarkable. It’s not quite at the Geoff Darrow level, but the rendering of textures of buildings and the like is certainly impressive.

Putting two world weary fedora wearing gents that look like they’re straight from a black and white film, into the world in which the likes of Hellboy inhabit is a grand idea. The approach to the black and white visuals is not too grotesque or violent, and one artist and four different writers makes for a cohesive whole. Most of the names will be unknown, with the scribes in order being James Andre, Tom Taylor, Jason Franks and Jen Breach. Taylor will be the most well known for his great work on Star Wars: Invasion and The Authority, but all four writers show a great consistency in creating a uniform approach to this unique world, a world which I’d imagine is set sometime in the 1940s or ‘50s.

Fans of Warren Ellis’ work will surely enjoy this, as it’s filled with a casual approach to supernatural weirdness, but with more restraint.

Dicks, a 52 page black and white anthology, can be purchased from Black House Comics.