Review – Victorie City #2 (of 4) (IDW Publishing)

Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Keith Carmack
Artist: Vincent Nappi
Release Date: 3rd February, 2016

My ideal comic book heaven is crime, murders, horror, stunning artwork (Templesmith if I can get it), urban landscape…and I can get giddy is a new series promises it. Throw in a mention of the film Se7en and I am sold. Victorie City promised this and more – the first issue featured a Templesmith cover after all.

A girl has gone missing and issue 2 opens with Brahm Allvar, no priors, clean record having been locked up after the discovery of chopped up body parts in the back of his car. Enough parts that the police know they make up a man and a woman. While the state presses ahead seeking the death penalty for Allvar, Det. Hector Ness (who took Allvar down) investigates the disappearance of Cyndi Brown, the missing girl.

The two narratives intertwine to create a whole. It’s handled well; Hector discovers that Cyndi was seeing a psychiatrist as Allvar testifies that he saw a psychiatrist and was deemed legally sane. Right before he goes on to preach from the stand. Court proceedings go as expected but with a heinous twist from the judge – one that he will live to regret I fear.

I absolutely love the artwork in this comic. These days it is often difficult to see that artist’s hand in the panels. Sure the figures and colours may be great, may tell the story satisfactorily but a little of the raw passion, the movement, the artist’s actual creation gets lost in translation. Not so here. Markers, pen and ink; white, blue, yellow show every movement of the artist’s hand. You can see where the marker leaves the page. You can see where the pen has travelled which translates directly to the characters: the faces are visceral, pained and stoic. The result is a furious story furiously told.

Rating: 5/5.

PREVIEW ARTWORK
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