Hello brothers and sisters!!
Welcome back to TEX's Comics Quest! I sure appreciate you dropping by to set a spell, and I surely appreciate your readership.
Today, we delve into some more great comics from my pull list, Normandy Gold, and Postal! Let's GO!
Normandy Gold #3 - #4: Gorgeous, rural sheriff, Normandy Gold, is far more than meets the eye. She ran away from a tough situation at home as a teen and drifted for a while. She's seen the worst of life and how to survive it. When she met the man who'd become a surrogate father to her, a highly skilled, honestly religious, small-town sheriff, she had no idea that one day she'd end up on the right side of the law, first as a deputy, then, after the murder of her surrogate father, a sheriff. But the past has come reaching out for Normandy. Her baby sister has been murdered in Washington, D.C. - a big city, filled with filthy political intrigue. Since her sister was a high-priced escort, the cops are turning a blind eye...But Normandy wants an eye for an eye. She's out for justice, and she's willing to do anything to get it - even work as an escort in the same illicit company as her sister in order to track down her sister's killer. Normandy's surrogate father taught her to hunt and track both animals and men, and Normandy is the best at what she does...But in a city filled with powerful, corrupt men, will the predator become the prey?
Megan Abbott and Alison Gaylin pen this hard-boiled revenge tale that has one foot planted firmly in the exploitation genre. This used to be male writers' domain, but Abbott and Gaylin have taken a page out of the boys' playbook and they are running the ball hard to the end-zone. Normandy Gold walks in the footsteps of trailblazers like Tamara Dobson in Cleopatra Jones, or the ever-amazing Pam Grier in Coffy, and she's doing it very well. Abbott and Gaylin have laid out a tightly-written, dark storyline with a lot of twists and turns leading to something a whole lot bigger than just the murder of Normandy's sister. Every time you think you know what's going on, another clue takes the reader and Normandy deeper into a bigger, more corrupt world that threatens to swallow the protagonist whole - But Normandy is no one's meal. This is an unapologetically violent and sexually charged detective story. It is NOT for kids, nor those of tender dispositions. Steve Scott lays down lavish, sensual pencils that capture the eye, panel after panel, page after page - and he even uses some familiar faces to craft his characters, which is pretty cool. So far, I've recognized Robert Redford and Sam Elliott. Nice. Titan Comics' crime new imprint, Hard Case Crime, has really pulled out all the stops with this crime/thriller.
RATING: 9 out of 10
Postal #22 - #23: Years ago, Eden, Wyoming was founded by a psychopath named Isaac Shiffron as a secret place where society's worst could get a second chance. Isaac ruled with a hand harder and more unbending than iron and was deposed by the only woman he loved, Laura, who nearly succeeded in killing him. Now, more than twenty years later, Isaac is back and he's building an army to take back his town, an army headed by an extremely dangerous ex-FBI agent who is possibly more insane than Isaac himself. Standing against him is Laura, his ex-wife, now mayor of Eden, a woman who has evolved into a bit of a monster in her own right. And then there's Mark. Mark is Laura's and Isaac's son and acting postmaster of Eden...But he's so much more. Even though Mark suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, his mind is as sharp, active, and coldly calculating as the minds of his parents. And by Mark's side is Maggie, an assuming waitress in Eden, a beautiful woman who has captured Mark's heart, as he has captured hers...A woman who hides a darkness and steel that just might be the key to Eden's salvation or destruction. Together Mark and Maggie have beaten the worst of the worst, but Isaac's bringing his own personal Armageddon. It's time for Eden to meet its maker.
Consistently, month after month, without fail, Bryan Hill delivers an AMAZING, offbeat narrative in Postal that is undeniably one of the best in comics today. What I mean to say unequivocally is that Postal is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the best comics coming off the presses right now. Hill has built a strange, scary, hard, violent world in this series, a world that I can't stop visiting with my imagination, but a world that I would be LOATHE to live in. Hill's world is irresistible; it's populated with the most terrible, terrifying, intriguing people that one could ever imagine. The characters are all locked in a deadly serious power struggle that provides Postal with a heavy, ever-simmering tension that sometimes boils over into the most frightening ultra-violence. This kind of story, inhabited with these kinds of people cannot have a happy ending. None of them deserve it. And I can't tear myself away from watching the dreadful ending that is coming for them all, and in the process, I have learned to sympathize, even care for, some of these monsters that Hill has created...Which is weird. Isaac Goodheart's clean, straight-forward, beautiful pencils tell a story that is dark, sketchy and heavy. A very strange juxtaposition between the story and the artwork...But highly effective. Postal is coming to what I expect to be a beautiful trainwreck of an ending in issue #25, but I can live with that knowing that soon I will have the sordid pleasure of journeying to Eden through the auspices of Hulu. I can't wait for the TV adaptation! Listen. Go. Right now. Walk into your local comic store. Buy this series and read it. You can thank me later.
RATING: 10 out of 10. ENTHUSIASTICALLY!
