Loose Ends #3 – Review

By: Jason LaTour (writer), Chris Brunner (art), Rico Renzi (colors)

The Story: The story of a hometown-crime-gone-bad heads to South Beach.

Five Things: 

1. Hooks you from the cover alone.  Man!  Do Brunner and Renzi know how to do a cover or what?  I hate to get into hyperbole, but this has to be one of the covers of the year (and I say that without “Best Covers” being something that I really track).  I just know that it’s rare to look at a cover and get this type of gut reaction.  You’ve got the sexy lady (with the juxtaposed brass knuckle necklace) dancing and she’s between the two guys in Baghdad and the concert in South Beach.  Not only does that fit the issue and kinda tell you what is inside, it’s visually exciting.  It makes you want to read the issue.  I saw a tweet from Dave Johnson (one of today’s BEST cover artists) that basically said that covers were all about DESIGN and this cover is a wonderful example of that.  It isn’t just about drawing a pretty image, it’s about creating a memorable visual that makes people want to read the book.

2. Electric colors from Renzi.  My knowledge of color theory is so lousy and colors are the area I feel least comfortable commenting about in reviews, but I DO know when I see something that is awesome.  Renzi is using an absolute riot of bright colors for this issue.  It’s complex and hip and perfectly puts you in the proper mood for the scene in question.  I wish I could say more, because this is clearly incredible coloring.  All colorists would like to have this effect, but very few can do it, they just surrender and color Wolverine’s costume blue and yellow like they’re doing a coloring book.  THIS is color as art.

3. Nuanced art.  You can kinda get lost in Renzi’s colors, but those same wonderful graphic design elements that are present on the cover are seen throughout the entire issue.  Most of the scenes are so electric that you almost miss the nuances in the art.  Like the fact that the central female character (Jes) looks sexy as hell until you get a close up on her when you can see how she’s a little haggard.  And that makes sense, she’s a small town honky tonk waitress, who drinks, uses drugs and has gotten beaten and raped in the last few days…  Brunner is able to perfectly capture the fact that she’s putting on a facade and when you peel that back, it isn’t that Jes is ugly but you can see the mileage.

Loose Ends #2 – Review

By: Jason Latour (writer), Chris Brunner (artist) & Rico Renzi (colorist)

The Story: A series of flashbacks gives us more details on our protagonists.

What’s Good: If there was a minor nagging complaint from Loose Ends #1 (which I loved), it was that you left the issue a little unsure about what was going on.  Sure, we’d been treated to a superb comic that featured a gritty come-apart in a roadside honky-tonk, but it wasn’t that clear who these characters were, what they were up to, whether they knew each other, etc.  To some extent, that shows some of the silliness of reviewing single-issue comics because I’m sure the creators sit there, reading the reviews and think, “Sheesh…how about wait for the second issue, guy!”  because things are clearer after a second issue.

This issue again features really stunning art by the team of Chris Brunner and Rico Renzi.  What’s amazing about the art is that is uses a technique that I don’t generally like that much (dot-overlay) to make the flashbacks clear.  Then Renzi colors these flashbacks with a uniform amber that allows Brunner’s inks to just sing.  It’s just a great example of a colorist not gooping up nice art.  THEN, when we get to the more present-day scenes, the colors are all kinds of bright and alive.  The art in Loose Ends is glorious.

And, I’m enjoying the story too.  Part of this issue is a flashback to a bunch of these characters as high school kids.  It allows you to see how they all fit together and really makes some of the events of issue #1 take on greater depth.  What’s cool about this scene is that the information isn’t just served up on a platter for you as I was repeatedly flipping back to check someone’s name from an earlier page.  It was a lot like a puzzle as the pieces snapped into place.  This is a dangerous trick for creators to try because if the comic isn’t captivating, the reader isn’t going to care enough to do the work.  But, Latour, Brunner & Renzi have made such an electric comic that the adventure is awfully fun.

Seeing how this flashback tied up some loose ends also gives me greater hope for the opening scene.  It shows a drug-land shootout that is gritty as hell.  I’ve got zero clue what was going on in this scene, but having see how neatly other scenes are being explained, I’m very confident it’ll all turn out.

Loose Ends #1 – Review

By: Jason LaTour (writer), Chris Brunner (artist) and Rico Renzi (colors)

The Story: The subtitle says it all: A “Southern Crime Romance”.

What’s Good: What a welcome surprise this was.  This is really the kind of comic that makes you want to scour the back of Previews to find hidden gems because, outside of Criminal, you simply won’t find outstanding crime comics at Marvel or DC.

The action all takes place in and around a roadside diner.  It really isn’t possible to spoil the plot because we really don’t know what is going on yet, but we spend this first issue just meeting the characters.  There’s the hot waitress that you see on the cover, some down on his luck criminal loitering in the parking lot, his ex-girlfriend and the typical drunk thugs hanging out at the bar.  Latour paces the storytelling very nicely and by the end of the issue, you feel like you have a pretty good handle on who these characters are even if you don’t really know what they’re up to.

Along the way, everything goes to hell in a hand-basket and we get a nasty, violent battle royale in the diner that doesn’t pull any punches.  Flipping back through those pages as I type this, that whole scene is just raw as hell.  There’s no stylized material arts or anyone being a badass, it’s just a nasty barroom brawl and the creators completely sell the realism of it all.