By Svetlana Fedotov
Nothing gets the blood rolling like a solid noir tale. Dark streets boiling with danger, fast-talking swindlers, and the ever present lady in red have flared the imagination of many an author. Now throw some ghosts and monsters into the mix and you’ve got yourself a genre that practically writes itself. After all, what is a bigger mystery than death? The strange unknown that lies beyond the pale curtain? Comics particularly have always understood the literary draw of horror noir, something especially highlighted by the success of Constantine, Criminal Macabre, and Dead Boy Detectives. Following in their ghoulish steps, Boom Studio’s newest release Dead Letters takes all the good, scary elements of its predecessors and brings them to life, from the perspective of a down on his luck criminal as he struggles to remember who he is and why no one seems to stay dead for long.
Centered on an amnesiac named Sam, whose first memory is that he remembers nothing at all, Dead Letters kicks off with a shot of a gun and a mad spree across town. As he dodges bullets and sends some in return, Sam attempts to reconstruct what he can from his dimly-lit memories; though little does he know, you can’t outrun your enemies. He soon finds himself at gunpoint in the middle of the woods (or a park?) surrounded by a very colorful, twenties-themed collection of mob bosses, who force him to choose alliances – and things just get weirder from there. A mess of hot ladies and cold men, he soon finds out that his choice has reached the highest of authorities, yeah, GOD. Tossing in ghosts, zombies, and a gun-toting angel, Sam soon finds himself on a trip of a lifetime.
Dead Letters #1 is definitely a more questions than answers kind of comic. It keeps your interest with its hints of the macabre and the divine while keeping true to the noir feel. The story does well mixing new and old mystery tropes, such as the super-Asian, long cigarette, robe-wearing Ma, who runs her cabal of murderers with an iron-snake hand, whilst Sam is portrayed as a bit more contemporary, with basketball shorts and a wicked afro. To be fair, it’s a bit hard to tell what time period the series is set in, but if you just take it in your stride, it’s easy to ignore this. There is also a lot of story crammed into the comic and it feels like it would have been better as a double issue, or perhaps could’ve used some editing, but once again, it manages to carry itself.
The author of this tale of madness is Chris Sebela, the current writer for Ghost, and he’s a bit of an old hand at the horror noir genre. Another title of his, dubbed Screamland, about the old silver screen monsters attempting to solve a murder mystery of one of their own, was released to pretty solid reception. This newest work continues on his love for penning the weird and does a great job of bringing that to the comic audience. The artist, Chris Visions, is relatively unknown to date (I think this might be first comic), but he’s starting off his career with a bang. Usually known for illustration and cover work, his foray into sequential art is surprisingly well done, creating a smooth look for this fast paced thriller. With his use of photoshop drawing in his work, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him on the forefront of digital comics soon.
So, in short, feel free to pick Dead Letters. You won’t be any worse for it.