Broken Frontier

Dex Callistro is a Private Investigator and it seems that she may have met her end, just as we are getting to meet her.

Greg Rucka returns to the world of self produced comics.  While this is no Queen & Country, crime fans should certainly rejoice.  This is quite simply, the most compelling entry in the crime genre since Brubaker’s Criminal.  While some people were baffled by Kirkman’s manifesto last year, the kind of work seen here (along with Criminal, Hickman’s Image work, and from other writers seemingly stuck in mediocrity writing for hire work) kind of makes the Image partner’s point for him.  Let newbies do the for hire work and hone their craft.  Guys like Rucka and Bendis should be showing how it is done on their own terms.

In Dex, Rucka gives the reader a fully realized character, worts and all.  She has a gambling problem, a big one.  However, she and her apparently handicapped brother are liked well enough that the head of the Native American Casino, to which she owes a considerable amount of money, is willing to trade on her services.

The case - find the casino boss’s missing granddaughter.  Dex suspects there is something not quite right with the story she is given.  When she checks out the granddaughter’s apartment, she knows something is not right.  The rest of the issue slowly builds on how wrong everything really is, as our P.I. is strong armed by common thugs and intimidated by the rich and powerful.  Just what was this 18 year old involved in?  This being a serial graphic narrative, the answer isn’t provided just yet, but most readers will surely want to find out.

As previously mentioned, it is not just an intriguing mystery that makes this comic one of the best debuts of the year.  First and foremost is Dex.  She is a real character.  There is no inner monologue, yet she still rivals Mike Hammer or Jim Rockford in charisma.  Interestingly, Rucka builds his character through her actions and her surroundings, in the way people react to her, much like Garner’s famous television P.I. was characterized.  There is no omniscient narrator to spoil the purity of her personality.

The reason that one single subtle device is so noteworthy is because throughout the rest of the book, Rucka uses more standard storytelling methods and tropes.  The issue opens at the end of the story, much like D.O.A.  Like Scalped, the seedy underworld is tied to the gambling community on an Indian Reservation.  There are people who convey their messages through force.  There are powerful men who get what they want through money.

It is a rich, layered and detailed world ably assisted by a first chapter that tells a complete and satisfying story while begging the reader back for more.  In this way, while entrenched in pulpy noir, the book also recalls the movie serials of the 30's.  It gives the audience a bang for its buck while making sure they are back next time for more.

Southworth gives the book a gritty look.  This is a book that clearly belongs on the shelf with Phillips’ work on Criminal or Guerra’s work on Scalped.  Yet, it has a quirky and chunky feel that makes it an artistic cousin to Rucka’s other great series, Queen & Country.  Beyond that perfect style, the artist takes to Rucka’s detailed script.  When a suitcase is missing from a closet, it's as obvious to the reader as it is to the trained eye of our intrepid investigator.  The art is just as accomplished by what is missing from the page as it is in what is actually on the page.

Then there is the artist’s storytelling capability.  In the introductory sequence, there is a splash page that through clever and innovative panel work creates an elapsed moment in time.  It is a feat that is accomplished several times through out the book.  What is even more astonishing about these repeated seemingly impossibly fluid artistic moments, is that they are created through a different technique each time.   Beyond the art’s moody ability to set the tone of the book, it enhances the script.

Stumptown #1 is an impressive debut.  In a year of great crime stories, the book sets itself apart in its methodology and quality.  It is definitely a book to keep your eyes on.