Destroy All Monsters, by Brubaker and Phillips (Reckless Book 3)

For quite some time Ed Brubaker has been one of my favorite writers, one the few I could go out and buy something without even know what is it about, especially if it's another collaboration with the excellent British artist Sean Phillips. Currently they have a working agreement with Image Comics, and in 2020 they decided to switch from the usual format of serialized comic books to original graphic novels.

Back in 2019 they had released two graphic novels set in the world of their acclaimed series Criminal, and they felt curious about the possibility of going that route with their new material. 2020 saw the release of Pulp, a self-contained graphic novel, and its success convinced them that it was time to make the switch with all of their creator-owned work.

Reckless is a long form story to be told in a series of original graphic novels. The eponymous Reckless appeared at the end of 2020 and Friend of the Devil came out on the spring of 2021, and I have already commented both, so it's time to write about Destroy All Monsters, third book in the series, released in October 2021.

Ethan Reckless, a former FBI agent, offers specialized assistance to whoever might need it, ranging from locating missing persons or lost objects, to engage in not always legal activities, provided Ethan judges it to be the right thing to do. As part of the payment for one of his first jobs he received El Ricardo, an abandoned movie theater in Los Angeles that has since become his base of operations.

He is assisted by Anna, a young woman who sorts out prospective clients and is quite capable at doing all kinds of research. The series is told in a progressive manner, with each book telling a complete story set some time after the previous one, slowly building a longer narrative. Reckless was set in the early eighties, and Friend of the Devil took place in 1985.

In Destroy All Monsters we jump to 1988. Ethan and Anna's peculiar friendship is going through some difficult times, and Ethan is so distraught that he makes some uncharacteristic mistakes. Without Anna's help to run some background checks, he takes a job taking his clients word at face value and without questioning what they ask him to do, which in time leads to all kind of complications, putting Ethan at risk along with other people.

His client is a politician who wants him to follow a real estate businessman who betrayed his partner, ruining an investment plan that would benefit a neglected community in downtown L.A. looking instead for a way to make a bigger profit. Ethan's client wants to expose the corruption that allowed the entrepreneur to do so, and maybe even restore the original plan, but he seems to have his own secrets and Ethan takes to long to realize that something else is going on.

With Reckless, Brubaker and Phillips work in a way that allows each book to stand on its own, as if they were separate stories that anyone can read without needing to know what has gone before. Even so, I'd recommend reading them all in order, as the stories feed on each other even if there's no central story. With each new book Brubaker seems more at home with these characters and their world, and as a result the reader can become more invested with it in a progressive way.

It could be argued that the reader is the one growing more familiar with this world and characters and not the writer, but one way or the other it's clear that each new volume is a little bit more complex and ambitious than the one before. Brubaker and Phillips craft has been top notch for quite some time, but maybe the freedom resulting from not needing to break everything in equal sized chapters is inspiring the to do their best work in these graphic novels.

Another aspect of the Reckless series worth mentioning is the amount of research that Brubaker has done to make these stories feel true to the time that they depict. No matter how far fetched his noirish approach to storytelling can be, or how far fetched the situations he proposes may seem, there's a certain air of authenticity in these stories that adds a very special flavor to the whole series, and in this volume in particular it has to do with the real state development in some zones of L.A.

This allows his world to feel like a one where people can live, and in fact has done done so. In some ways this becomes a balancing act, especially for people who has complained about how Ethan is a hard character to empathize with. Is important to understand that this is by design, as since the first book it was clear that Ethan is not a good person. He has his own code of honor, but same as some of the best noir antiheroes, he's willing to do nasty things to other people.

There's also an ongoing insistence by Ethan himself about his supposed inhability to feel any emotion, situation that creates a sense of disconnection between him and other characters, except maybe Anna. Her absence makes Ethan reevaluate some things at the same time that we get to know more about both of them. In this volume we can see the contrast between the dark melancholy around Ethan and Anna's bubbly disposition.

And as for Sean Phillips' art, is amazing to see all the thing that he can do in any page. He has a clear narrative that is very easy to follow, and an amazing capacity to use any location as another tool to tell the story in a visual manner, wether it is by creating an ideal atmosphere for every scene, or by finding a way to use the surroundings (or lack of them) as a tool to manipulate the rythm of the action in any given sequence.

One aspect of his work that is often ignored is his great use of facial expressions to add emotional weight to scenes where there's not much action. You can tell a lot about the characters just by their faces, like the cynical smile of a corrupt cop or the evident sneer of a politician dealing with people they consider inferior. There's a scene with Anna and Ethan talking on the phone with a perfect depiction of Anna's changing mood as the conversation progresses.

Jacob Phillips color work is also worthy of a shout out. The best color artists tend to add to the narrative, and Jacob is near the top of the craft. His color palettes change with the time of day (warm pinks and yellows for daylight, cold purples and blues for night), and he has a great sense of contrast and composition. I especially like the way that he adds to the action by using saturated colors that emphasize the tension and intensity.

One of Sean's greatest talents is the feel for composition and narrative clarity on every page. His toolbox include all kind of visual tricks, from manipulating the gutters (or lack of) to playing with the size of every panel as ways to affect the rythm of the story, or using the lettering as a way to guide the eyes of the reader through the page. His son then complements the art by adding the right atmosphere to each scene, making their collaborations a flawless display of graphic narrative.

There's a lot more that can be said about this talented trio of authors, but nothing that myself or others hadn't said before. In any case, is far better to check any of their collaborations and analyze the various ways they have of feeding off each others' strengths to consistently produce some of the best looking books out there, and Destroy All Monsters is no exception.

If you like criminal fiction or neo-noir storytelling, Reckless should be at the top of your checklist every time there's a new volume out. The original plan was to do five books, but they have confirmed that there going to be more than that even if there's a pause after completing the fifth one. Destroy All Monsters is a worthy addition to anyone's personal library, same as anything from the impressive team formed by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips and Jacob Phillips.

Maniac of New York, by Elliot Kalan and Andrea Mutti

For decades slashers have been an important part of modern horror. They can be dangerous maniacs or supernaturally-powered psychopaths, as horror fans seem to have a soft spot for stories about relentless killers, as the popularity of franchises like Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street or Scream seems to attest. Most comic books about slashers are movie or TV spinoffs, but there are original ideas too, and Maniac of New York is a perfect example.

For decades, slashers have been an important part of modern horror. They can be dangerous maniacs or supernaturally-powered psycopaths, as horror fans seem to have a soft spot for stories about unrelentless killers, as the popularity of franchises like Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street or Scream seems to attest. Most comic books about slashers are movie or TV spinoffs, but there are original ideas too, and Maniac of New York is a perfect example.

Maniac of New York is a creation of Elliot Kalan, a podcaster and television writer mostly known for his work on TV, as former head writer on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and a lead writer on Netflix's revival of Mystery Science Theater 3000. His partners on this project are talented Italian artist Andrea Mutti, famous for his work in Bonelli's Nathan Never series as well as a handful of projects for Marvel, DC, IDW and other publishers, and veteran letterer Taylor Esposito.

The story debuted last year with a five-issue miniseries published by Aftershock Comics. The series follows a ruthless serial killer thst slaughtered almost eighty persons during Times Square's traditional New Year's party. Four years after the incident the killer, christened by the media as "Harry the Maniac", is still at large, and his seemingly random attacks have practically become a normal part of life for new yorkers.

It's an election's year and the ongoing rivalry between the city's mayor and the governor prevents an organized response from the authorities, and every police precint seems to be content with the situation as long as the next attack occurs outside of their respective jurisdictions. What's more, homicide detectives use Harry's existence as an excuse to file away unsolved cases, blaming the Maniac even when the evidence points in other directions.

A couple of years back the mayor formed a special task force to follow the case, but it was just a public relations move and no one is really trying to stop the murderer, at least until the arrival of Detective Gina Greene, the new head of the task force, who has personal reasons for wanting to catch Harry. When she finds out that her job post is a farce, she turns to Detective Zelda Pettibone for support.

Hated by her peers for refusing to cover up an incident involving her old partner, Pettibone was the last NYPD officer to have a lead on Harry. A cynic with a bad attitude and a drinking problem, she's convinced that Harry represents some sort of divine punishment against the city and there's no way to stop him, but reluctantly agrees to help out the idealistic Greene and together they try to navigate the neglicence of their bosses.

One could make a case of Maniac of New York as simply being Kalan's love letter to slasher stories, complete with tributes and references to any number of films, but the author takes the story further by building a complex and multilayered narrative with various levels of meaning. He also honored one of horror's most revered traditions by infusing his story with a healthy dose of social commentary and a biting critic of Americans' response to shootings and other avoidable tragedies.

Kalan doesn't pull any punches, and even when all of his characters are fictional, it is quite obvious than a few of them, including the Mayor, the Governor, a Congressman and a TV personality, are stand-ins for real persons, so reading about their reactions and responses to a tragic attack feels like watching the news cycle after any real life violent tragedy in recent years, which adds a powerful and unexpected emotional punch to the story.

Mutti's art is a great fit for Kalan's story. His clean linework and muted color palette, mostly composed of cold hues, help create a moody atmosphere, and his striking use of red whenever violence erupts and blood starts running becomes a nifty narrative tool that affects the overall mood. He uses sparse details to great effect as most locations are easily identifiable, and his "acting" skills add to the personality of every character through a good range of facial expressions.

Kalan's anger towards the negligence, stupidity and incompetence of authorities is palpable, but he uses dark humor to avoid his story taking a depressing turn. He writes with a sense of purpose and makes it easy for the reader to identify or sympathize with both his protagonists, who most often than not are the most rational characters in the story, as well as the only ones seemingly capable of showing human emotions.

The story was designed to be told as a series of miniseries. A few months ago a second miniseries, Maniac of New York: The Bronx is Burning, was completed, offering a partial conclusion to the story, and a third arc/miniseries, Maniac of New York: Don't Call It a Comeback, has already been announced. The first two miniseries are also available as TPB collections, so it's fairly easy to hunt them down and get up to date with the story.

Maniac of New York might not be suited for everyone's tastes, but if you're a fan of horror, specially of the slasher variety, you owe it to yourself to check out this gory and entertaining series. Even if horror is not your thing, if you enjoy social satire and have no quandaries about the graphic depiction of violence, it might be worth your time to give it a try. Who knows? Maybe you'll find out horror might have something for you after all.