By: Ben McCool (writer), Ben Templesmith (art) and Tom B. Long (letters)
The Story: Private Investigator Johnny Jackson has his final showdown with the mutant vampires and corrupt cops in Shotgun City.
Review: It might be cliché to point out the delays on this title, but those delays are very germane to this review. The first issue came out in February 2010. That was before I started writing for WCBR and still ran my own comic review blog. Back then, I said that the art in Choker #1 was kick ass and that the story had promise. I gave it a 7.2/10.
But, a lot of time has passed. Choker #4 came out in October 2010 and Choker #5 was in January 2011. So, we’ve only had 2 issues of this comic in the last 18 months. That’s enough time that anything but the broadest themes of the story have dribbled out of my mind. I remember that there is this hard-boiled P.I. named Johnny Jackson. Jackson is a former cop and is working on a series of grisly crimes committed by folks jacked up on some drug that turns them into kinda vampires. Oh and corrupt police are involved and the corrupt police are using some kind of super-steroid called Man Plus. That’s about all I remember. What’s lost for me are all the little relationships among the characters that would make the climax of this issue strike an emotional chord. I just can’t remember if I’m supposed to be cheering for Jackson’s Deena Pilgrim-esque partner?? I can’t remember if his sidekick is sympathetic or dorky? I feel like I should be happy about the outcome, but it just didn’t resonate for me.
Now, it could be that this will read a lot better in trade. And, I could go back an reread my single issues. But honestly, with the backlog of comic material in my house, something has to be pretty damn special to elbow its way back onto the reading list as a refresher due to publishing delays. And I’m not sure Choker is that special. It’s nice, but it’s simply not the greatest thing ever. Certainly it isn’t good enough to kick my current back issue project (rereading ROM Spaceknight) to the side.
The art in this issue is classic Templesmith. If you’re a fan (and I am), you’ll love it. It’s got all the energy that you expect from his work and wonderful use of color. But it’s missing the little, over-the-top stylistic elements that made the art in early issues special. Like, I remember one early issue having the police cleaning up a splattered dead body on the street with something called a Corpse Vac 3000. There was another where the crazy lady cop had her ex-husband scrotum hanging from her rearview mirror (like a pair of fuzzy dice). I’d bet those are little, ad lib additions by Templesmith. But this issue has none of that cleverness. It’s just Templesmith giving you straight-up, honest Templesmith art. And that’s GREAT, but it lacks his wicked sense of humor (probably because he was just trying to get it done).
Conclusion: If you’re a Templesmith fan, it’s probably worth checking out this series in trade since he doesn’t do a lot of comic work anymore and the dude has a very unique style. But, for a single issues reader, it’s really hard not to give this issue massive demerits due to the delays that sapped any emotional resonance that might have been there.
Grade: C+
-Dean Stell
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