Officer Downe

Written by Joe Casey
Art by Chris Burnham

If I say that this is a graphic novella by Joe Casey about a hardcore cop who can't stay dead, fighting crime however he feels like it, is that enough of a description to totally understand the concept and make enough of an informed decision about whether or not you would enjoy it?  Basically, they had me at Joe Casey, but perhaps a more discerning reader would need more incentive...

How about that the book is set in Mother****ing L.A (as the first words in the book tells us)?  Or that it's drawn by Chris Burnham, who assisted Casey so well on the brilliant and under-rated Nixon's Pals a couple of years back?

Maybe you'd need to know that Officer Downe is resurrected through the efforts of hundreds of men with degenerative neurological disorders?  Or that the LA crime scene is under control of the Fortune 500 - a group of animal-headed criminals?  Maybe you'd need to know that the Fortune 500 hires the assassin Zen Master Flash and his cadre of students dressed in Kick-Ass's track suit to kill the good officer?

If that's not enough for you, maybe you should be aware of the fact that this book is like reading a strange mix of Marshal Law and Hard-Boiled.

If none of that convinces you to go pick this up, then you're beyond help, because this is a balls-out fun comic to read, and proof of the fact that Casey is in a class of his own as a writer (when not working for the Big Two).