I've mentioned here before that my favorite creative team working in comics is writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips. Their work on such projects as The Fade Out, Kill or Be Killed and Fatale pushes the boundaries of what is possible in the comic book medium.
Criminal is a hall mark of the Brubaker/Phillips collaborations, telling stories that sprawl across decades about a loose of affiliation of crooks and con artists.
I've been catching up on the trades of the Criminal series and one of the most intriguing ones that I've read recently is The Last of the Innocent. The story ostensibly is about a man named Riley who owes money to a loan shark and discovers is wife is cheating on him. Riley solves both problems by murdering his wife and using her money to pay off the loan shark.
What makes this story especially interesting is that Riley is an expy for Archie. Years before the CW series Riverdale took Archie on a dark and disturbing turn, Brubaker and Phillips was taking their turn at this approach with Last of the Innocent.
Let me summarize some of the story from Last of the Innocent but instead of using the character names, I will reference them by their Archie names.
Archie returns to Riverdale for his father's funeral. Jughead still lives there, trying to stay clean and sober from his life long drug addiction. Moose works in Riverdale as a polie officer. Betty is still there, so fresh and pretty. Archie still has a thing for Betty but he made his choice years ago to go with Veronica. Of the two women, Veronica would have sex with Archie.
Archie is regretting that choice. Veronica is fucking Reggie back in the city while Archie is in hell working for Hiram Lodge who is still pissed his daughter married this loser.
Archie comes to the very reasonable conclusion that his only course of action now is to murder Veronica.
And that's chapter one.
Sean Phillips employs his usual palate of dark and scratchy inks but he draws certain key sequences in the classic Archie comics style. Which can be really weird if Brubaker's script still has characters discuss sex and drugs.
______________________________
Speaking of taking Archie on a dark and disturbing turn, here is some Archie art I found posted on Twitter.
One is a cover from Pep#155, the anthology series that first introduced Archie to comic book readers well back in the day.
And the other is a panel from an Archie story.
And yes, for both, I did the same damn joke.
Look, I don't get paid to be here.
Yes, I'm in a mood.
Sorry this post took a dark and disturbing turn which I hope will not scar you for life.
Everybody be good to one another.
_____________________________________
It's a Weekend-A-Go-Go here on the ol' blog thing as both Songs For Saturday AND Cinema Sunday put the spotlight on the Go-Go's.
No comments:
Post a Comment