Mafia (Comic)

**Mafia**, known on Facebook as **A day in the life of Vinnie Cannoli**, is a 4-page comic featuring a cast of familiar looking characters from the soon-to-be *Guns, Gore & Cannoli* series. Follow the misadventure of two mafiosi, who are forced to deal with a different kind of rat problem.

Originally released in Dutch prior to the launch of the first GG&C, the comic was posted on the Claeys Brothers Arts Website along with some other comics, based on the original short film Hell bent for Whiskey, which was made in 2004, meaning this comic was the second iteration of the whole franchise, Hell bent for Whiskey being the first and GG&C the third. Does that still mean that this comic was the very first appearance of many of our memorable gangster (and zombie) friends and foes? Yes, to some characters, mainly Sonny and Mickey.

Like with the Hell bent for Whiskey animation, due to having been made prior to any canonicity of the GG&C lore, character designs, roles, relations and storyline do not line up with today's video game version. The devs described the three versions as being linked, but playing in alternate universes of sorts, as per an answer to a Facebook comment on the comic's canon.

The comic can be found in Claeys Brothers Arts website here(Dutch version however, don't forget to scroll down, second lowest row, second post to the right), or for the English translation, on the devs' official Guns, Gore & Cannoli Facebook (search until at the 2015 section).

## Story

The comic starts with three men in a laboratory, a snappy mobster named Vinnie, his brawny partner and lackey Paulie, and a meek scientist named Frankie. Vinnie asks to see some results from Frankie, having had previously paid him to concoct an untraceable performance-enhancing drug to be used on horses participating in racing, as to ensure victory of one for betting purposes, euphemising it as "returning their investment" in him, impatiently asking him whether he thinks the racehorses will just start running in their favor on their own. Frankie replies that such a drug was very difficult to create, implicitly asking for more time to finish. An irritated Paulie demands that Frankie shows them what he had already cooked up. Frankie nervously warns Vinnie that the state of the current drug is "unstable", and is about to suggest a change of plan, but is cut short as Vinnie snatches the glowing green flask containing the drug from him, angrily telling him to shut his mouth and grabs a lab rat from its cage, endearingly named "Mickey" by Frankie, and forces it to drink the green liquid while commenting that Frankie shouldn't waste time on testing the drug on plants, as there were plenty of rats to test the effects of his formula on. Frankie shouts for the rat in distress, restrained by Paulie. The rat appears to die from the liquid, causing both gangsters to boil in anger, with Vinnie claiming Frankie had uselessly created rat poison instead as he throws the deceased rat into a nearby trash bin. Labeling the entire project a failure, Vinnie empties a bathtub filled to the brim with the drug by pulling its plug, saying that they will be doing the city a favor by getting rid of all the rats in the sewers with the supposedly failed product. His grip released from Paulie's, Frankie lets out another scream of terror, calling Vinnie a "stupid whop". As he look down in horror as his creation is flushed down the drain, Vinnie orders Paulie to torture Frankie for his insolence, demanding he begin by breaking his legs. Paulie cracks his knuckles in preparation, but Frankie accusingly points his finger at Vinnie, ominously stating that he just "singlehandedly brought down the entire city". Both thugs are left confused, asking what he meant by that, but are interrupted mid-question by a loud roar in the background, with a huge shadow looming behind them...

Vinnie and Paulie turn around to see a giant muscular rat-like humanoid creature staring at them in fury, breathing heavily while spit drools from its maw. The three men stand still, paralysed in fear, with Vinnie seeking answers from Frankie as to what they are looking at. Frankie replies that it was Mickey, on who he used the drug on, with an incredulous Paulie commenting that it instead looked like a werewolf, one with with rodent teeth as Vinnie added. Remaining unsure of its intentions, Vinnie asks Frankie what he thinks the rat is going to do with them. Frankie simply states that one of two things may be crossing Mickey's mind: mating or eating. Vinnie and Paulie picture either respective option and ponder the results. Not liking any of the outcomes, they make a run for it and flee the building as fast as they could, while the rat hunts after them, tearing down walls and doors during the chase. They make the mistake of fleeing to the back of the building, which concludes in a small courtyard, leaving them cornered in a dead end. Frankie manages opens a manhole while Paulie holds the unhinged door in place from the relentless beast, continuing their escape through the sewers with Mickey still in hot pursuit, smashing into walls with his bare fists. Vinnie and Paulie are ahead of panicked Frankie, who desperately cries for help. The two discuss whether or not rats ate anything else but cheese, with Paulie proposing that they try to distract it with their smelly socks. Vinnie suggests "something bigger" and ends up shooting Frankie to hold Mickey off their backs for a while more to build up distance between them. Vinnie chuckles as the rat pounces Frankie's fallen body, who gargles for air and is presumed dead. Vinnie and Paulie soon find their salvation in the form of a manhole exit, which Vinnie believes directly leads to the town's sociable club.

Above, the club, seemingly of Italian flair, with fitting interior design and a bar, is filled with members of the local mob, the Bonnino Family. Some of them are seated at the tables and at the back of the hall, an unnamed older gangster is having a conversation with the Don, Sonny Bonnino, and talks about a fellow gangster, Sammy the Meathook, who has apparently entered the witness protection program and is testifying against the overboss. Sonny tells him to never mention Sammy again and says that a "rat" like him holds no loyalty to anyone and calls for vigilance, as to look out for supposed "rats", even in their own family. They glance around suspiciously as Vinnie slams open the club's bathroom door, the manhole having apparently exited there, surprising the two gangsters, and yells that they are being attacked by a rat, while Paulie is seen in the background, stomping on Mickey's head as he tries to struggle his way through a toilet. Sonny questions their sudden appearance from the toilet, thinking that they've been in there the whole time, but a panicked Vinnie simply repeats the word "rat" over and over again. Sonny misinterprets this and assumes he is referring to Paulie, mistakingly thinking he means "rat" as in traitor. Sonny musters up his goons, telling them to grab their baseball bats as they were "gonna crack some skulls". Paulie runs for the door as Mickey finally manages to rupture through the floor. Paulie attempts to keep the door closed, but the rat breaks the wall around it, almost crushing Paulie and crashes into the club's hall. Faced with the enormous rat, the gangsters, while puzzled at the beast, begin swarming and attacking it on Sonny's orders.

A battle ensues, with the rat smashing at least two gangsters against walls and furniture, while the others bash the beast with bats, broken bottles, lead pipes, chairs and even a rolling pin. Paulie recuperates and joins the brawl, while Vinnie attacks with a pair of brass knuckles. The rat is soon overwhelmed, tired and weakened by the beating and a lot of stomping, with footprints still visible all over the rat, though it still takes their combined strength to restrain Mickey. Sonny rejoins his crew, equipped with a chainsaw and orders someone to prepare him a bathtub. Mickey is now seen in said tub, being dismembered by Sonny's partner wearing an apron, with Paulie holding onto the rest of the body. His attention is garnered on another gangster, who is putting a silencer on his pistol, who declares his intention of putting down Paulie, still under the assumption that Paulie was a "rat". Sonny disarms him in anger, who corrects the confused gangster, with a facepalming Vinnie asking for someone "to whack this guy for [him]" for his stupidity. Gleaming with pride, Sonny orders his gangsters to take the dead decapitated beast outside to show to the public as a display of power. It is then when they see a number of other freakishly huge rats wreaking havoc in the streets, destroying buildings, trashing the place and chasing after and devouring residents, proving Frankie's second theory correct, having been exposed to the same experimentally concocted liquid that turned Mickey into a monster, specifically the batch of the drug in the bathtub that Vinnie unplugged, which, expectedly, found its way into the sewers, but instead of killing the rats living there, mutated them. The gangsters simply stand there in awe as they observe their surroundings.

6 of the gangsters are then seen in the sewer (The Rusty Lookalike, the Paul Cicero Lookalike, Sonny's interlocutor, Sonny, Paulie, and Vinnie). The Paul Cicero Lookalike asks Sonny what they were going to do now, to which he replies that they were going to wait in the sewers until everything was sorted out, with Paulie having heard that rats don't live very long, at least not in the mob. As one asks if it could get any worse, Vinnie silently looks at his left in panic, as an alligator curiously swims towards a pipe with a glowing green liquid pouring out, its jaw wide open...

## Trivia

* This comic marks the first appearance of Sonny and Mickey the Rat, along with characters resembling Rusty and the Lupara Gangster.
* The overall setting differs vastly from the previous and later iterations, with no presence of human zombies, replaced here with undead rat mutants. Various foes and friends are also seen in this comic, with some changes:
	+ Vinnie is wearing a brown coat, black driver's gloves and white-grey pants. He is not wearing a hat anymore.
	+ Paulie is muscular and wears a white tank top, dark blue jeans, and a black fedora with blue lining.
	+ Frankie looks younger with his brown hair, and is wearing a blue shirt and light blue jeans. He is also wearing a lab coat, showing his profession to be a scientist (though this can be discerned from the lab setting)
	+ Sonny looks younger than his GG&C counterpart. His hair is not greying, but a little disheveled, and he instead wears a beige suit, white shirt and matching beige pants.
	+ The gangster in the blue tracksuit jacket with a striped flat cap resembles Rusty.
	+ The head of the gangster who talked to Sonny about Sammy resembles the Old Man variant of the fast zombies.
	+ The head of the trigger happy gangster with the silenced pistol matches the head of the Lupara Gangster.
	+ Mickey just looks like an ordinary medium sized zombie rat in the game, although heavily muscled and humanoid in build.
* The two gangsters sitting on the right table playing cards while smoking cigars in the social club heavily resemble fictional mobsters, with the balding man in the beige shirt bearing a striking resemblance to Tony Soprano from the TV series *The Sopranos*,portrayed by late actor James Gandolfini and the black-haired man in the blue shirt resembling Paul Cicero, played by Paul Sorvino (who was based on real New York mobster Paul Vario) from the film *Goodfellas* and Sal Bonpensiero, portrayed by Vincent Pastore, also from *The Sopranos*.
* A ristorante called "Satriali's Rest" can be seen during the rats' carnage, a reference to "Satriale's Pork Store", a major location in *The Sopranos*, which serves as a front for the DiMeo crime family.
* A potted plant in Frankie's laboratory, apparently an early test subject for the drug, appears to have developed a large, jagged mouth, a reference to *The Little Shop of Horrors* and its main antagonist, carnivorous plant Audrey Jr.
* A rampaging rat can be seen holding a sign reading "Mulberry St.". This is a reference to the real life Mulberry Street in New York City, formerly a conurbation for Italian-Americans and the starting point of Manhattan's Little Italy district.
* In real life, rats have lifespans ranging up to 2 years.

## Links

* Old Claeys Brothers' website with first design cover.
* Current Claeys Brothers' website
* Developers' Facebook