9th Art

Of all the different genres out there, ‘Noir’ has been a long time favorite of mine. There’s something about gritty straight writing that I just can’t get enough of. From Miller’s Sin City to Brubaker’s Criminal, I’ve read and re-read them all. Joining that list now is The Killer.

The Killer (or ‘Le Tuer’, as it’s called in the original French) is the work of writer Matz and artist Luc Jacamon. A story of a professional assassin, The Killer is a dark narrative in the first-person by the hitman himself. » Read the rest of this entry «

In Gotham Central, Brubaker explored the lives of regular cops in Gotham Cityand what it was like living under the shadow of Batman.

With the Criminal series, he goes one up. First off, there’s no Batman or any other superhero/vigilante. Second, it’s a story about crime from the criminal’s point of view. According to Brubaker, he wanted to portray “criminals who, as far as their morality goes, they steal, or kill, but they’re good people somehow anyway.”

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Kari is the story of its eponymous heroine, who leads a double life. By day, Kari is a writer in an ad agency, and at night, she’s a boatman.

The story begins with a double suicide. Two women jump off their respective roof tops. One, Ruth, is saved by a safety net, while the other, Kari, survives when her fall is safely broken by the sewers. Thus begins the double life as the ‘boatman’ who cleans up the sewers. » Read the rest of this entry «