BRIAN K. VAUGHAN - THE PRIVATE EYE

BRIAN K. VAUGHAN - THE PRIVATE EYE

Written by Brian K. Vaughan, drawn by Marcos Martin and colored by Muntsa Vicente

Brian K. Vaughan has proven to be one of the most respected comic book writers of the last decades, while not the most prolific (working in the more lucrative TV series arena has taken time away from his comics work), every time he does a project it becomes an event. 

A tale set in the future, where the internet cloud bubble burst and everyone's secrets spilled out for everyone to see. In this future privacy is the way of life. Almost everyone wears a disguise (sometimes, several). Activities are conducted in total anonymity and the population's home life is sacred.

When a private detective is approached by a woman to investigate her sister's murder, he discover a plot that will threaten society as it is now.

While not one of Vaughan's best works, The Private Eye is a clever, and original premise, that delivers plenty of thrills, patented BKV twists and an exciting ending.

Kudos to artist Marcos Martin for really going to bat with his imaginative costume designs that truly bring the reader into this world. Imaginative layouts, simple but appealing renderings make this story a truly fun read.

Serialized in digital form at http://panelsyndicate.com (Where you can acquire the entirety of the story for whatever you'd like to pay!), it was also collected in hardcover form from Image Comics, which you can purchase through this link:

THE HUNTING PARTY

THE HUNTING PARTY 

Writer Pierre Christin and artist Enki Bilal's classic tale of the last days of Soviet Russia is a quiet, subdued masterpiece.

The Hunting party is a graphic novel which attacks the taboos of communist crimes. Christin and Bilal take the subject head on: The purging, the systematic elimination of the opponents to communism, the hunting for the Trotskystes, the Kominform, the Spring of Prague crushed under Russian tanks, the massacre of the peasants' resistance to collectivization... Christin's slow but hypnotic plot is carried over the story's 82 pages by the powerful dialogues. It is with abandon that the author plunge us by flashbacks, in a maze of past repressions, crimes and terror. 

Enki Billal's art is atmospheric. His quiet drawings conveyed the desperateness of the last days of Soviet Russia. It's a style full of decrepitude and it goes well with this nauseating political history. With Bilal, no wall is without cracks, not a street without holes, nor is a face spared the ravages of time and bad decisions. Even the trees seem exhausted. His use of visual metaphor's and allegories to display the emotionally charged scenes, bring resonance to this story of power and control.  Bilal does not use colors to embellish, but to generate emotions. One can only describe The hunting party's visual atmosphere as, unhealthy. 

Reading this graphic novel does require some minimal knowledge of contemporary history, but the true Russian aficionado will be able to seize all the subtleties of the graphic novel, in particular the contents of the propaganda posters. 

The hunting party is not only one of the best political graphic novels in the history of the Ninth Art, but also reveals itself to be a work of conscience and recollections.  Even more, it was a formidable prediction of the explosion of the Eastern bloc.

Get this seminal work here:

ALEX TOTH - BRAVO FOR ADVENTURE

                                            ALEX TOTH - BRAVO FOR ADVENTURE

Written and drawn by Alex Toth

Legendary cartoonist Alex Toth (June 25, 1928 - may 27, 2006)'s magnum opus, Bravo for adventure, is the story of an ace pilot during the 1930s who doubles as a stunt pilot for the moving pictures and pilot for hire. A great concept that due to various publisher problems never really took off. Still, the stories that Toth got to produces are extraordinary both in it's story, pacing and art.

The stories are intricate but simply told, with various moving parts that flow with an ease that certainly couldn't have been easy to achieve. Toth was a well-known perfectionist, who only got more critical of his own work as the years passed by. The artwork is, simply put, masterful in its clear layouts and visual storytelling. Every line of ink is there for a reason and the fact that the work seems so restrained is deceptively perfect. This should be required studying for any would be comic book artist. It should also be in every serious comic book aficionado's library.

Out of print for 30 years, all of the stories were reprinted in an handsome, oversized hardcover by IDW which you can get here:

DAREDEVIL Vol.1 #1-11

DAREDEVIL Vol.1 #1-11

The very first comic book I ever remember reading was a Daredevil comic. I was probably six or seven and the character struck a cord right away. No real superpower to talk of really, except for a "radar sense" that helped the blind hero in his fight against criminals. The striking red devil costume, the swashbuckling attitude, his cane used as a weapon. I was sold. 

It is a fascinating experience to re-read those old comics every ten years or so. Obviously, the scripting by comic book legend Stan Lee, is extremely dated and in places, shows a chauvinistic attitude that is borderline uncomfortable but the excitement of the new Marvel age of comics was evident on every page. 

The first 11 issues of Daredevil (starting in April 1964) are wonderful to look at on an artistic level as they featured the works of comics legends Bill Everett (Daredevil co-creator along with Lee and Jack Kirby), and EC Comics veterans Joe Orlando and Wally Wood. On a purely visual level, those comics are simply marvelous (pardon the pun). 

While Daredevil's original villains were not memorable (at least for the right reasons) these comics did feature the first appearance of The Purple Man, who mass audiences went on to discover in the Jessica Jones Netflix Series.

Follow either of these Amazon links to discover these classic comics: