Review: Stumptown #1
Greg Rucka, possibly my favorite comics writer at the moment for his work on Detective Comics, has debuted his new series Stumptown: a hard-boiled book full of suspense, strong characterization and detective story tropes.
There are a number of surprising similarities between his two biggest current endeavors: they both feature lesbians with troubled pasts who investigate crimes they know will probably get them into trouble or worse. They're both smart, they're both daring and they're both a little wry.
That's pretty much where the similarities end, though, as Stumptown's main character, Dex, is resourceful but utterly without resources. She's in debt up to her ears, she's probably got a drinking problem, she's the primary caregiver for a mentally handicapped brother and she has absolutely no one's respect. What I love about this is the way it hearkens back to The Rockford Files, with the lead being a somewhat down-on-their-luck private eye who has nothing other than smarts and determination. That archetypal unglamorous character - Chandler's Marlowe is never very high on the hog, either, Hammett's Sam Spade is self-evidently seedy and even Hammett's significantly less rakish Continental Op had an air of modest, work-a-day sensibility to him alongside his consummate professionalism - is just one of the ways Rucka starts unpacking the tropes of hard-boiled detective stories right out of the gate. In classic private eye style the first issue shows the investigator encountering a dangerous woman, falling face-first into some kind of mobbed-up problem, jumped twice, beaten up and meeting a potential contact at a seedy bar. It's almost like Rucka wants to sweep the table clean so he can get to whatever unique story he hopes to tell in that well-known style by getting all the major milestones out of the way, a familiar opening gambit to establish a position from which he can surprise us. I like it a lot. It's a distinct departure from most comics on the shelf today and a welcome change from cosmos-spanning, apocalyptic tales like Dark Reign or Blackest Night.
The artwork is similarly compelling and draws the reader in closer to the page: dark, stark, realistic, as much shadow as it is image in many places. The artwork alternates between forcing a given scene on us and then pushing us out to arm's length and letting us feel the tension between suspenseful events on the page and the reader's natural desire to make things work out or to see danger halted. At the back of the first issue the artist has a very interesting explanation of some of his processes of research and place-creation when working on the book. That kind of insight into the creative process is a big bonus for me.
So, no great claims of psychological insights here like I'm wont to do when discussing Morrison or Ellis or even some of Rucka's other work, but a very, very enjoyable first issue and some impressive artwork make Stumptown one of the best new buys on the shelf.
Klarion
Posted to Review on 14 December 2009
· Comments (1)
Other stuff like this: Greg Rucka, Oni Press, Stumptown
Thanks for the heads up. Looks like a great read. I'm putting this on my list this week.