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A review by twicomb
The Case of the Missing Men by Kris Bertin
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.0
With art that's Nancy Drew Mystery Series done in the style of Archer if the artist had a penchant for freehand linework, and a storyline that could believably have been intended for the Weird Mysteries vintage pulp comics but rejected because the writer had dropped too much acid, this is a strange and unique graphic novel. Alternatively, picture a Gravity Falls episode that's rated R for violence and was illustrated by Russell Tandy, and you're starting to picture what this is all about.
I love the art style. It has an unpolished, raw feel that captures a lot of the 'imperfection' that was so common in vintage pulp novel covers. You know what I'm talking about - where the artist did a great job overall, but couldn't quite render the angle of the arms correctly, or the face feels a bit flat, or the perspective is a bit off. Somehow that makes all the more engaging and enjoyable, probably because it evokes that feeling of reading an old comic that you found forgotten in a trunk of your grandparents' attic. I'd love to read more graphic novels from this artist. Based on the credits at the back of the book, I believe this is Jason Fischer-Kouhi.
The story was a bit hard for me to follow at times. I think this is because the writers (Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes) had so many different ideas/themes/characters they wanted to include, they ended up jumping around from place to place in the process of trying to get it all in there. I recognize this because I suffer from this same tendency too when I get excited about a lot of fun, crazy ideas. I wish that an editor had helped them hone in on a few specific themes, and encouraged them to save everything else for their future books. Because all the ideas/themes/characters are good ones...there's just a whole lot of them and it's hard to keep up. (At least, it was hard for me to keep up. As always, your mileage may vary!)
Heads up: It's visually very violent, with a lot of imagery of blood, bodily injury (like fingernails being pulled off), dead bodies, people getting shot with guns/crossbows, severed limbs, animal attacks, and so forth. This all actually works well within the framework of the story but I mention it here for anyone who is particularly sensitive to such things.
This book gets an entire full additional star for the absolutely amazing map at the front. It's rendered in the style of an old map you might get when visiting a small town, complete with advertisements for local retailers around the edges. I love maps in books, and this one is one of the most creatively and enjoyably executed that I've seen in a long time.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eARC for unbiased review.
I love the art style. It has an unpolished, raw feel that captures a lot of the 'imperfection' that was so common in vintage pulp novel covers. You know what I'm talking about - where the artist did a great job overall, but couldn't quite render the angle of the arms correctly, or the face feels a bit flat, or the perspective is a bit off. Somehow that makes all the more engaging and enjoyable, probably because it evokes that feeling of reading an old comic that you found forgotten in a trunk of your grandparents' attic. I'd love to read more graphic novels from this artist. Based on the credits at the back of the book, I believe this is Jason Fischer-Kouhi.
The story was a bit hard for me to follow at times. I think this is because the writers (Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes) had so many different ideas/themes/characters they wanted to include, they ended up jumping around from place to place in the process of trying to get it all in there. I recognize this because I suffer from this same tendency too when I get excited about a lot of fun, crazy ideas. I wish that an editor had helped them hone in on a few specific themes, and encouraged them to save everything else for their future books. Because all the ideas/themes/characters are good ones...there's just a whole lot of them and it's hard to keep up. (At least, it was hard for me to keep up. As always, your mileage may vary!)
Heads up: It's visually very violent, with a lot of imagery of blood, bodily injury (like fingernails being pulled off), dead bodies, people getting shot with guns/crossbows, severed limbs, animal attacks, and so forth. This all actually works well within the framework of the story but I mention it here for anyone who is particularly sensitive to such things.
This book gets an entire full additional star for the absolutely amazing map at the front. It's rendered in the style of an old map you might get when visiting a small town, complete with advertisements for local retailers around the edges. I love maps in books, and this one is one of the most creatively and enjoyably executed that I've seen in a long time.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eARC for unbiased review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gun violence, and Violence