Noir
Muñoz and Sampayo’s gloriously depressing stories about NYC cop turned PI Alack Sinner quashed doubts that black-and-white comics were ideal for noir crime fiction as far back as the 1970s. If you don’t know the Argentine masters’ work, be convinced by this baker’s-dozen stories by best-in-the-business hands ranging from veteran true-crime specialist Rick Geary (A Treasury of Victorian Murder) to ace newcomer Jeff Lemire (Essex County). Turned tables are the order of the day, every piece ending with an about-face, though far from all the switcheroos can be seen coming—so no peeking ahead! Often the most sympathetic character comes out all right, and when it’s the farmer facing foreclosure in Lemire’s contribution or the underemployed Turkish immigrant in M. K. Perker’s, that’s OK. When SOBs receive sweet justice in David Lapham’s, Paul Grist’s, and Phillips and Barretto’s entries, it’s better. But when nothing is really resolved (Dean Motter’s Mister X vignette), the turnabout turns around (Offutt and Kano/Gaudiano’s The Last Hit), and something enormous is inadvertently started (Azzarello, Moon, and Ba’s The Bad Night), it’s sublime. --Ray Olson