Broken Frontier

Reading like a primer teaching how to make dirty, ill-gotten gains squeaky-clean, BOOM! Studios’ The Rinse presents an intriguing perspective on the old the caper tale. Available this September for a measly buck, The Rinse is the brainchild of crime novelist Gary Phillips, a man who would seem to know far too much about laundering money to be walking around free.

Following a day in the life of Jeff Sinclair, San Francisco’s premiere “laundry man” as he navigates the murky waters of white collar crime in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge, The Rinse is a tightly scripted heist story that tells what happens to all those greenbacks once the curtain falls. If you’ve ever wondered how your favorite fictional criminal manages to actually benefit from their various illicit enterprises, it’s a good bet you’ll find the answer in The Rinse.

Phillips has obviously done his homework but he doesn’t let his research overwhelm the plot, balancing out the originality of his subject matter with strong, sure characterization. Sinclair is a complex character, with a highly refined sense of personal morals that conveniently allows him the luxury of viewing his lifestyle through very rosy glasses. It will be interesting to witness his journey as he begins to understand that despite the level of insulation he enjoys from his clients’ criminal endeavors he still drastically impacts the lives of their past and potential victims by facilitating their ability to financially benefit from their enterprises. Sinclair lives in a twilight world of shifting criminal alliances and high finance, so it’s fascinating then, that he so stubbornly tries to see things in black and white.

Phillips' solid characterization is visually supported by his artistic collaborator Marc Laming, who brings a classy, traditional crime fiction feel to the book that helps ground it securely in the genre. There’s an easy workmanlike quality to his art that reminds me of some of the house artists of the Seventies and Eighties giving The Rinse a timeless feel. When reading it, one gets the sense crimes such as these occur every day right outside our windows and a large part of that comes from the gritty, familiar sense of reality evoked by Laming’s art.

Fresh, intriguing, and educational, The Rinse is a most welcome new addition to the crime genre. Phillips and Laming have created a visually distinct, crisply-paced caper story that shows a different side of the criminal underworld. One of the best, most original crime comics in some time, The Rinse comes highly recommended and stands right up there with books like Bendis’ Jinx or Brubaker’s Criminal.