Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Stray Bullets: Innocence of Nihilism


Sanguis told me to check this title out after we were bullshitting about the awesomeness of Criminal and comic noir in general. I respect his opinion so I grabbed a copy from Amazon, since it's currently out of print.

He said it was super gritty and low-life and he wasn't freakin joking. Stray Bullets documents the debased behavior of weirdos and outsiders. The book is made up of a bunch of stories, seven in total, I believe. They all take place within a few years of each other and the characters weave in and out of each situation. It's one big connected universe centered around Baltimore, MD. Have you ever been to Baltimore? It makes Detroit look safe. That's how fucked up Baltimore is.

Stray Bullets is a DOWNER. It's like Sin City if Yoshihiro Tatsumi wrote it. The glamour and romance is sucked out, and you're just left with s-c-u-m. Life sucks, everything goes wrong, people are shit.

I really dig the high contrast black/white art. The stories are well-written. It's a really good book. I'm just not looking to read the whole series. I think I'll stick with volume one for now. There are some interesting plots, and he really keeps you guessing. He sets you up with one expectation and then fucks you up with the next panel. Throws you off track. It's great. It's an original book.


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