Stumptown Volume 2 #1

Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Matthew Southworth

What a nice treat it is that Greg Rucka has decided to gift us with a second Stumptown mini-series, this one titled 'The Case of the Baby in the Velvet Case'.  Stumptown is a private detective series set in Portland Oregon, starring Dex Pairos, a typically plucky female PI.  The first volume introduced her and her world, and it stood out for its excellent character writing and sense of place.

With this new mini-series, Rucka opens with Dex turning down one client (because of who his boss is), and gaining another.  A famous guitar player comes to see her because her Baby - her favourite guitar - has gone missing after the last night of a long tour.  The guitarist is friends with Dex's contact on the police force, and there is some sort of hinted-at problem there.

When Dex goes to visit the guitar tech who last saw 'Baby', she finds skinheads in the middle of a home invasion, and it is clear to everyone that there is a lot happening with this case.  As Dex is the type of PI who gets roughed up a lot, this is surely going to be an exciting mini-series.

Greg Rucka is one of the best writers in comics.  I permanently associate his style with Ed Brubaker's, and it's great to see him working on a creator-owned book again.  It's been made clear that his divorce from DC is looking permanent, and aside from Punisher, he's not doing much work with Marvel.  So far as I'm concerned, that's a great thing, as writers like him always do better on their own stuff.  Here's hoping the rumours of more Queen & Country are accurate.  Matthew Southworth is an accomplished artist, and it's nice to see his work on this book again.