Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got seven new comics:

Saga – 5

Dark Horse Presents – 14

X-O Manowar – 3

The Activity – 7

The Rocketeer Adventures 2 − 4

Reset – 4

Rachel Rising – 9

And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.

”Cases From the Files of Sam Pezzo, P.I.” By Vittorio Giardino

This is a book from back in 1988 that’s been sitting on my shelf since about then. I read it long ago but decided to pick it up again since it had been so long that I forgot anything about it. It’s new all over again. This was one of a bunch of European graphic albums that the publisher, Catalan Communications, printed for the US market in the late 1980s to early 1990s. I picked up a few of them way back then. It’s in black and white, magazine sized, and runs forty eight pages but reads longer than than that.

“Sam Pezzo” is the story of a private investigator just like it says in the title. He starts out having to do a little collection work but then ends up in the middle of a murder case with a crime war thrown in for good measure. Oh, and there’s a femme fatale running about the place too. It’s all pretty standard stuff for a hard boiled P.I. tale but it’s well done. The story is filled with violence, a couple of sex scenes, and plot twists.

The art work is highly illustrative in a European style but since it’s in black and white there is also a lot of graphic shadow play. Giardino can really spot his blacks. Plus he’s a good storyteller. Despite all the twists you’ll never lose the thread of anything. Pezzo even grew a bit of stubble on his face after being shanghaied for a couple of days.

This is a book you probably won’t find when looking around a random comic shop but it’s good anyway. You won’t find many P.I. Stories like it in American comics (despite the fact that the story seems to take place in the USA) and is a nice change of pace. I’m glad I have such things on my shelf.