By: Jason LaTour (writer), Chris Brunner (art), Rico Renzi (colors)
The Story: The story of a hometown-crime-gone-bad heads to South Beach.
Five Things:
1. Hooks you from the cover alone. Man! Do Brunner and Renzi know how to do a cover or what? I hate to get into hyperbole, but this has to be one of the covers of the year (and I say that without “Best Covers” being something that I really track). I just know that it’s rare to look at a cover and get this type of gut reaction. You’ve got the sexy lady (with the juxtaposed brass knuckle necklace) dancing and she’s between the two guys in Baghdad and the concert in South Beach. Not only does that fit the issue and kinda tell you what is inside, it’s visually exciting. It makes you want to read the issue. I saw a tweet from Dave Johnson (one of today’s BEST cover artists) that basically said that covers were all about DESIGN and this cover is a wonderful example of that. It isn’t just about drawing a pretty image, it’s about creating a memorable visual that makes people want to read the book.
2. Electric colors from Renzi. My knowledge of color theory is so lousy and colors are the area I feel least comfortable commenting about in reviews, but I DO know when I see something that is awesome. Renzi is using an absolute riot of bright colors for this issue. It’s complex and hip and perfectly puts you in the proper mood for the scene in question. I wish I could say more, because this is clearly incredible coloring. All colorists would like to have this effect, but very few can do it, they just surrender and color Wolverine’s costume blue and yellow like they’re doing a coloring book. THIS is color as art.
3. Nuanced art. You can kinda get lost in Renzi’s colors, but those same wonderful graphic design elements that are present on the cover are seen throughout the entire issue. Most of the scenes are so electric that you almost miss the nuances in the art. Like the fact that the central female character (Jes) looks sexy as hell until you get a close up on her when you can see how she’s a little haggard. And that makes sense, she’s a small town honky tonk waitress, who drinks, uses drugs and has gotten beaten and raped in the last few days… Brunner is able to perfectly capture the fact that she’s putting on a facade and when you peel that back, it isn’t that Jes is ugly but you can see the mileage.
4. Hip and exciting story. This issue reminded me a LOT of the 90′s movie, True Romance (the story that Quentin Tarantino sold to make the money that allowed him to make Pulp Fiction). When you’re seeing Jes and Sonny living it up in South Beach, it’s hard not to get sucked into the bright lights and scene right along with them. You feel like you’re there: living on the run from drug dealers and feeling like the few thousand dollars you got from them is all the money in the world. Of course, there’s gonna be some blood before this is all over, but I love the story. The creators have made me like these characters more in 3 issues than most stories do in hundreds.
5. Wonderful production values. I could begrudge the oversized printing of these issues a little because they don’t fit in bags and aren’t going to be compatible with anything else when I go to bind them (Oh, there is NO question this is getting bound). But, how can you be upset with the perfection of the package? The cover stock is nice and heavy and perfectly matched to the printing that the creators wanted to do. Heck, the interior pages are done with paper that is better than Marvel and DC use for their covers. Even the little stuff is right on this comic: staples are centered, printing is centered, no sloppy colors anywhere, etc. It just looks like a comic book that someone cared about.
Conclusion: Unless the creators shit the bed in the final issue (which I doubt), this is your miniseries of the year. This is a wonderful example of what comics can strive to be and it makes the rest of my comics pile look pretty bad in comparison.
Grade: A
-Dean Stell
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Filed under: Other Tagged: | 12 Gauge Comics, Chris Brunner, Dean Stell, Jason LaTour, Loose Ends, Loose Ends #3, Loose Ends #3 review, review, Rico Renzi
