Category: Crime

Look Out for Femme Noir

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Next month, the first issue of Femme Noir: The Dark City Diaries, written by Chris Mills and drawn by Joe Staton, will be listed in Diamond Comics Distribution’s Previews. If you get Previews, I’d like you to check it out. My guess is after doing so, you’ll want to order a copy. If you don’t get previews, then please ask your local comic shop owner to take a look at it.
Femme Noir is a cartoon crime comic inspired by Eisner’s The Spirit, Gould’s Dick Tracy, plus a healthy mix of cliffhanger serials, B-movies, pulp magazines, and more. Each issue will feature a 28 page standalone story [how rare is that!] plus two pin-ups by guest artists!

Issues #1 and #3 are inked by Horacio Ottolini, issues #2 and #4 by Mark Stegbauer. Colors are provided by Melissa Kaercher and Matt Webb. As an added bonus, each issue is offered with two covers: one pencilled by Joe Staton and then digitally painted by Alfredo Lopez Jr, with the second by a guest artist. Those guest artists are Brian Bolland, Matt Haley, Phil Hester, and the late Mike Wieringo. [Some fans will buy the issues just for the guest covers!]

The official Femme Noir website is http://www.femme-noir.com. Check out the website and if you like what you see, help me spread the word. [And no, I’m not getting any kickbacks. I like Chris Mills’ work — especially his crime comic Gravedigger — and I’d like to see Chris and Joe Staton get the audience they deserve on Femme Noir. If it wasn’t a worthy comic, I wouldn’t be talking it up… and you wouldn’t still be reading this.]

No Country for Old Men

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“No Country for Old Men” brought to the screen by co-writers and co-directors Joel and Ethan Cohen is being talked up for all kinds of awards. After seeing it today, I’d say it’s going to win a bunch. Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy and boasting a flawless cast that includes Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Woody Harrelson and Kelly MacDonald, this could be THE film to beat come award season.

The Good: not going Hollywood and changing the story; Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Woody Harrelson and Kelly MacDonald are perfectly cast; the scene where Chigurh brings the cuffs to the front, strangles the deputy and then calmly cleans his wrists; when Moss stumbles on the drug-deal-gone-bad aftermath; when Chigurh makes the old man “call it”; Moss barely escaping into the river and then coming out to calmly prepare for the “next attack” which is barreling at him; Moss’ dialogue with his wife and later Carson Wells; Sherriff Bell’s dialogue with everyone; the pacing; when Chigurh appears behind Carson Wells on the steps; Woody Harrelson’s scene with Bardem; the direction.

The Bad: Anton Chigurh. Nothing else comes close to being “The Bad.”

The Ugly: Doctoring your own gunshot wound; and when you hear “there’s a bone sticking out of your arm.”

If you haven’t yet, you should read the book and then see the movie. That way, come Oscars you’ll be ahead of the curve.

Revolver: Hit or Miss?

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Have you seen THIS TRAILER for Revolver? I hadn’t until just a few minutes ago.

It looks like it could be really good. With a screenplay by Guy Ritchie and Luc Besson and a cast that includes Jason Statham, Ray Liotta and Vincent Pastore, you’d have to believe it’s going to be good, right? Then when you read THIS PLOT SUMMARY you have to ask, how can this not be a winner?

So why do I still have some doubts?

Get Scalped with No Risk

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I’ve been a fan of Scalped by Jason Aaron [writer] and R.M. Guera [artist] since issue one. In fact I like the series so much I’ve purchased both the individual comics and the trade paperbacks [Indian Country and Casino Boogie] as they become available.

 

Scalped is a crime comic set in the “world of gambling, gunfights, G-men, Dawg Soldiers, massacres, meth labs, trashy sex, fry bread, Indian pride…” And everyone is diggin’ it. Brian K. Vaughan [Y: The Last Man, tv’s “Lost”] calls it, “the best crime book you’re not reading.” Garth Ennis [Preacher, The Punisher] calls it the “best new series in years.” Playboy, Wizard, Entertainment Weekly and many others have all praised the series.

So what are you waiting for? A money back guarantee? Click HERE and you’ve got one!

 

Good, Baby, Good

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Based on Dennis Lehane’s novel of the same name; Gone, Baby, Gone is a powerful drama wrapped around the mystery of a kidnapped girl and the secrets of everyone involved. When three days have passed without any progress the missing little girl’s aunt hires two young private detectives from the neighborhood to get information unavailable to the police. As the mystery unravels and secrets are revealed the detectives [and audience] are left with tough moral questions and no easy answers.

The Good: The relationship between Cassie Affleck and Michelle Monaaghan. The bar scene. The mean streets of Boston. The real people from these streets given cameos and speaking parts. Ed Harris. The screenplay by Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard. The direction by Ben Affleck. The ending.

The Bad: The house with the ex-con child molesters [well done, but bad stuff].

The Ugly: The handsome woman… the choices that have to be made.

Gone, Baby, Gone is a Good, Baby, Good.

Secret Dead Men

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Nothing is as it seems in Duane Swierczynski’s first novel Secret Dead Men. Del Farmer appears to be an FBI agent investigating a mob hit. In reality Farmer is a dead reporter trying to discover the reason behind his own murder. Yeah, you read that correctly. Farmer is a dead guy. Well…

…he isn’t just a dead guy.

See, Farmer has the ability to collect souls of the recently departed. In his quest to discover the secrets behind his own murder, Farmer has collected the souls of about a dozen others…

… and they live in his brain hotel.

See, the brain hotel is a mental construct, that appears like a typical hotel and allows the recently departed to have a semblance of life. People in the brain hotel go on about living [although it’s just their memories for the most part] but they can also interact with each other. Sometimes, if their skills are better suited to getting him out of whatever jam he’s in, Farmer even uses them to pilot the body that he currently inhabits…

…and if you’re still with me, then my guess is you’ll enjoy the novel.

I loved Swierczynski’s The Wheelman and The Blonde. And although Secret Dead Men falls a bit short of being as good, we should remember that Secret Dead Men was Swierczynski’s first novel. It’s definitely worth a look.