Hard Case Crime has been consistently publishing great books for a long time now. This fall the opened a new door and have started publishing comics. It is safe to say if you are a fan of their books you will love these comics. And what a perfect fit. Crime fiction has always translated well in comics and there has been an upswing the last few years with some great stuff to read.
The first two comics from Hard Case are TRIGGERMAN and PEEPLAND.
PEEPLAND is written by two of my favorites, Christa Faust and Gary Phillips, both authors with true bonafides when it comes to this genre. The tale is set in Times Square of the 1980s and our lead character is a punk girl named Roxy who makes her money taking of her clothes at a peep show joint called, you guessed it, Peepland. A regular customer comes in and hides a VHS tape and tells her he’ll be back. He won’t because he is soon murdered. Roxy grabs the tape and with ex-boyfriend Nick discovers why people want the tape, and of course now they are in danger. The art is by Andrea Camerini and together with colors by Marco Lesko they have really captured the feel of the time and place, kind of dirty with a wash of neon. It also couples perfectly with the story.
TRIGGERMAN starts with kind of a slow burn noir feel. Set in I think the 30s a man pulls into a tiny town out west. He steps into a small saloon and before long he mentions people being owed money and the owner of the joint finds himself dead. As he leaves a woman asks for a ride. Ride given and we now have our doomed protagonist and a femme fatale. Based on a story by Walter Hill, adapted by Matz with art by Jef. It’s pure noir and I don’t throw that phase around lightly but this is the real deal.
Both books are good fun and you should seek them out. If your comic store carries books from Titan (like Dr, Who) they can get them
