Lost Vegas #1

Written by Jim McCann
Art by Janet Lee

I love digging into a new comics series when I don't have the first idea what to expect from it.  I didn't read anything about Lost Vegas, the new series from Mind the Gap writer Jim McCann and his Dapper Men collaborator Janet Lee, but kind of assumed it would be something like Bill Willingham's Proposition Player, about gambling and the supernatural.  I didn't expect it to be a well thought-out science fiction adventure series, but that's exactly what it is.

Roland is a gambler of low repute, who likes to try to cheat his way through some of the lower-class casinos in the galaxy.  Right at the beginning of the book, he's caught cheating and sold to Lost Vegas, a high-rolling operation that has its indentured servants, holographically disguised to be identical, slowly earn their freedom by serving guests and turning over their tips to the house.

Roland has spent five years putting together an escape plan which involves modifying his holographic collar, and trusting a couple of other employees, who have different reasons for wanting to help him.  Much of this first issue is taken up with showing us around the casino, and demonstrating the wealth of creativity that McCann and Lee are pouring into this book.  Roland is not a particularly likeable character, but that's rather the point I think.  Still, I'm a sucker for a good heist story, and that's what this book promises.

Lee's clean, expansive pencils work very well here, as we get an eyeful of what a futuristic casino in outer space would look like.  This was one of the more entertaining books I read this week, and I will definitely be coming back for the next issue.