Pulp
Ed Brubaker, illustrations by Sean Phillips and Jacob Phillips
Image Comics
Fiction, Action/Graphic Novel/Historical Fiction/Western
Themes: Cross-Genre, Frontier Stories, Thieves, Urban Tales
****
Description
In 1930's New York City, aging Max Winters scrapes a living by churning out pulp western adventures - adventures loosely inspired by his own youth as a wild and wanted man. But time moves on, and even that meager source of income dries up, just as his heart starts to give out. On the verge of a desperate act, he runs into another relic from the past, a retired Pinkerton agent with an audacious plan. Does Max still have a little gunslinger left in him, or are those days well and truly dead?
Review
This is a dark little story, a noir-tinged look at a man taking one last desperate grab at balancing the scales and leaving a worthwhile legacy in a world where the bad guys all too often win. Setting the tale in 1930's New York City, as too many Americans think of Hitler's rise as just a problem "over there" while Nazis proudly march in city streets and spread regime propaganda, has eerie resonance today. There's really only one way a story like this can end, but Max at least makes the most of it. A decent, if sad, graphic novel.