BING!
Dan: Hey, Red! It looks like we got an email from Crimespree HQ!
Kate: ::Looking at the computer:: Yeah, we did get an email. But why are you staring at the microwave? I think my popcorn is ready…
K: Besides, I already told them I took care of that “problem”. It got a new pair of cement shoes.
D: ::drops bag of popcorn after burning tongue on hot popcorn:: Sh’yea, like you’re so tough. ::Dances around, fanning mouth::
K: HQ wants us to review a comic book, looks like “Dead Man’s Party” by Jeff Marsick and Scott Barnett.
K (and D): LET’S DO THIS THING!
…
K: What did you think?
D: Defiantly a funky sort of vibe to this one. “Dead Man’s Party” was really a different sort of read for us, right?
K: Right. I finished the read, and am still waiting for dudes in capes having massive donnybrooks due to simple misunderstandings, while their female teammates stand around wearing vastly inappropriate uniforms.
D: Right. That’s next week’s read.
K: Sweet! Can’t wait to see what happens!
D: ::Stares::
K: But there was none of that here.
D: No. This time around it was the story of a world-class hit man who gets some bad news.
K: Yeah. A surprise disease is NOT good. He didn’t even get superpowers out of the diagnosis.
D: Not every comic book is about superpowers and tights. And that’s not very sensitive
K: ::blink::
K: ::blink blink::
K: ::blink blink blink::
K: Really?
D: Really. So what we have here is a very dark tale of the “Hit man at the top of his game.” Kind of a stock character in this genre. Nothing wrong with that.
K: True. But when there is almost no back-story to our protagonist, it really felt like a cardboard cut-out of the “brooding anti-hero, hanging out with bad people, talking about how many people he’s killed.” But that twist ending was…!
D: Yup.
K: Didn’t see that coming!
D: YUP!
D: And how ‘bout that art? Beautiful work.
K: STOP LOOKING AT THE NAUGHTY PARTS.
D: ::Distracted:: Wha?
D: OUCH!!!
K: It is pretty work, though. The black and whites have the look of, I don’t know, “digital charcoal” or something. I wish I knew what it was called. Very cool stuff.
D: ::Still distracted:: Wha?
D: DOUBLE OUCH!
D: So what we’ve got here is a very stylized tale of a hit man up against the Ultimate Challenge Of His Career, depicted with very subtle, expressive art.
K: Right. I just felt like it took soooo loooong to get to that awesome twist ending.
D: Me, too. Great payoff. Seems to suffer from slow pacing.
D: I’m going for more popcorn.
Dan and Kate Malmon are a happily married couple (except when Dan forgets to do to the laundry) in Roseville, MN. When not working, reading comics and mysteries or watching sports, they hang out with Franklin the dog. You can find both Kate and Dan on Twitter.