Written by Ed Brubaker
Art by Sean Phillips
Published by Image Comics
Every time that writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips get together and produce a comic book or (more recently) a graphic novel, it is always a cause for celebration.
This dynamic team is one of the best in the business and I cannot get enough of their work. Each story is meticulously crafted. Both the narrative and the artwork is just luscious. There is truly not anything like it, and their work is amazing and solid each time out. Their latest work is no different, as they have created a thrilling new tale, one that I won’t forget anytime soon.
This is a hard book to review because it actually is so good and perfect that there is not a hell of a lot to add.
I’ll try though.
The book takes place in the year 2012. Jacob Kurtz shows up to Hollywood with the idea of becoming a writer. It seems that a comic book that he created years ago, Frank Kafka, Private Eye is being turned into a television show. He goes down to see and and he realizes that the television show actually is terrible. And that is where our story begins.
During his time in Hollywood, he does get a chance to reconnect with his Aunt Suzy.
Aunt Suzy had a husband who wrote a lot of older Hollywood B-movies. This intrigues Jacob to no end.
The scenes between Suzy and Jacob are priceless. The dialogue is pitch perfect (though to be fair, the entire book is filled with excellent scenes like this). But it is a perfect place to really get this story going. There are a lot of story clues that pop up in this scene which I thought was really great and intriguing.
We also get to meet another character called Angie.
Angie was raised by someone named Gnarly after her mother was killed.
Together, they ran Gnarly’s bar and they had to deal with all of the various criminal types who came into the place. We then see Gnarley has been diagnosed with cancer. It all hits Angie how much Gnarley actually did for her. The bar gets taken away. Angie has to resort fo becoming a thief. We then see how her and Jacob meet. A mutual friend asks Jacob if Angie can stay with him. At that point, all of the players are in place and the story starts really taking off into overdrive.
Jacob and Angie’s relationship then blossoms and becomes a focal point in the book.
They are also becoming a pair of criminals as they start delving deeper into the Hollywood underworld. It starts to get dark plenty fast as past and present start to collide in a way that neither thought was possible. It is very interesting as each new development comes into play as well.
Meanwhile, while this is happening, we also have the character of Tracy Lawless.
Tracy is home from being on the Special Forces team. Tracy is also a civilian again for the first time in a long time. But what does that mean?
Well, a series of unfortunate circumstances lead Tracy having to look into a life of crime. The city has always brought out the worst in him and this time is no better.
All of these various plot points start to build to a crescendo and the whole thing leads to a boiling point. The various story threads start to come together very quickly and nobody is safe. All of the characters start to become closer together until finally you realize how they all relate to each other.
The exciting plot points all come together by the end of the book.
It is all tied up in a way that I wasn’t expecting for sure. Not everyone gets a happy ending here and most of the characters that survive are pretty much scarred forever. The only ones that make it out good are the readers.
That is because Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips are two comic book creators that are just at the top of their respective crafts. The writing is incredible and the artwork is tremendous. I don’t know how they do it but the pair have created another modern day classic.
This is as good as it gets and I cannot wait to see where they go from here.
RATING: A
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