Repulse

Written by Szymon Kudranski with Jeff Mariotte
Art by Szymon Kudranski

There have been a number of these prestige format one-shot graphic novels coming out of Image lately, and many of them have been very good.  Repulse definitely falls in that category.

Repulse is a noir-ish science fiction police drama, centred on Detective Sam Hagen, who works in the After Crime unit.  What this means is that, when a crime is committed, Sam injects some of the victim's dead brain cells into his own head, and is able to see the last few seconds of that person's life.  This is not without it's own risks to his health and sanity, but ever since his son disappeared, he hasn't felt much like his own life matters.

Sam is called in when a retired cop is found murdered, and he comes to believe that the perpetrator is a robot, which is still strange in this future world.  Slowly, we learn that there is a connection between the cops that are getting murdered, and a case that Sam worked on when he was assigned to Internal Affairs.

The story questions the nature of the human soul, and whether or not robots are able to develop one.  It covers some very similar ground to the Image series Chew, but plays it straight instead of for laughs.  Kudranski's art is dark and evocative, and a perfect match to his story.  Recommended.

Garrison #2

Written by Jeff Mariotte
Art by Francesco Francavilla

I still don't feel like I know too much about what's going on in this series, but Mariotte's writing and pacing is very tight, and Francavilla's art is as wonderful as always.  I like his drawing because he manages to convey a very old school sensibility - his work reminds me of illustrators from the 70s - in a very modern and updated context.

What we do know about the story is that this man Garrison is on a killing spree in a near-future where surveillance is almost absolute.  There are a couple of government agencies looking to capture him, but after the events of the first issue, the NBS agent, Jillian Bracewell, is more interested in talking to him than capturing him, especially after he hinted that the HIA agent that he killed was planning on killing her.

Meanwhile, it is becoming apparent that Garisson doesn't know who he is either, although he does seem to be experiencing some flashbacks that may shed some light on that as the series progresses.

This is a pretty cool light sci-fi espionage story, and I'm enjoying it.  It's nice to see Wildstorm publish things like this and Sparta: USA again.  It was this willingness to experiment with unorthodox titles that made them a favourite publisher of mine a few years ago.

Garrison #1

Written by Jeff Mariotte
Art by Francesco Francavilla

I picked this up because, while Mariotte can be hit or miss (loved Desperadoes, found Fade to Black was not my thing), I really like Francavilla's art.  He has a style that reminds me of a lot of older comics from the seventies (think Giordano a little), but still feels very fresh and new.  His work on books like Sorrow and Zorro has always caught my attention (disclaimer:  I did drop Zorro, but had wanted to keep with it for the art).

This new series is about a guy who has been going on a murder spree for about nine weeks.  It's set slightly in the future, and agents of the National Bureau of Surveillance have no idea who he is.  The NBS calls in support from the Homeland Intelligence Agency, and while the two agents in charge head out for dinner, the mystery man shows up and kills the HIA man, and identifies himself as Garrison, before taking off, leaving the female NBS agent with a ton of questions.

It would seem that our man has some kind of intuitive ability, but Mariotte is playing everything close to the chest in this issue.  I'm definitely intrigued, and will be picking up next month's issue.

Fade to Black #1

Written by Jeff Mariotte
Art by Daniele Serra

I usually like Jeff Mariotte's work - specifically Desperadoes and Graveslinger, so I thought I'd give his new Shadowline mini-series a try, although I am afraid I'm a little disappointed in it.

The premise is a good one - a group of actors leave their film crew to hike through a remote desert, blocking scenes for tomorrow's shoot, and when they return, find the crew slaughtered and their vehicles damaged. Nice horror movie set-up right there. Then, we find out that they were killed by the Children of the Radiant Night, a cannibalistic cult, looking for 'the one', who is apparently among the group of surviving actors. Should be fantastic, right?

The problem is that the pacing feels a little off, and the art is quite muddy. I had to read over the first few pages a second time to realize that the characters weren't really being chased in the desert, and I felt like I was playing catch-up from the very beginning. Furthermore, there's very little in the way of character development (or even differentiation in their appearance), making it hard to care much about any of them.

I think that this could have worked a lot better with a cleaner artist and a little more editing.