The Last Homicide part 1 of 2

Written by Frank Martin
Illustrated by Pietro Vaughan
Colors by Eugen Betivu
Letters by Toben Racicot

Currently unavailable to the public, but you may be able to contact Frank on his Kickstarter HERE for more info.

When it comes down to it

most comics are like hosting a party. You have guests who gather in your little 'world' or 'space' and for a time they interact with each other. Keeping your focus as a creator in that 'world' and -more importantly- what you have to show to the reader with what your characters do is the real trick of telling a story. Here's a case with a sure-handed writer like Frank Martin who has honed his characterization and interplay to a very spare yet clean story line.

A son of a notorious mobster is found in his penthouse mansion murdered. Two detectives -one on the verge of his retirement (a la Lethal Weapon Danny Glover) are there to not only solve the case but prevent a mob war with the rival gang. They want to preserve the peace for the city before things get out of hand.

 

The art needs work.

I don't mean to be dismissive or cruel, but just reporting the facts. And it's curious that the artwork here has a very rough-hewn look to it. An overdose of blacks, where characters in complete silhouette have speaking lines but are trapped in the background, and strange proportions to hands and feet make me think that Pietro Vaughan has a way to go still to master his craft. Looking at the art from a foot or more away things fall into place just fine, so I think it's really in studying human proportions more and where to lay in the shadows is what needs to be worked on.

The writing sure doesn't!

The good news is that Frank's writing more than compensates for the slightly off-quality to the artwork. There is absolutely no dead wood here. Tied into the strong voice he's creating with his writing is a very believable structure to the larger scope (still in that 'world' idea though) his two Homicide Investigators live and work within. I'd compare The Last Homicide writing wise to The Wire HBO series or Chris Nolan's Dark Night Batman movie. It's something that I keep being reminded of from time to time: you can't go cheap on the story or the writing. The Last Homicide certainly doesn't.

Next Tuesday:

(this title sounds like a 1980s Garage Metal Band)

Miserably Altered #2
by Angelina Roman-Ochoa
and Brahim Bensehoul

 

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