Plot: Finding out why a handbag is buried in someone’s garden may just cost Kirk his life.
Fall. To descend from a higher to a lower place or position by the force of gravity. To become prostrate. To become overthrown. To lose power. A season of the year, aka Autumn to us in the UK. All of these definitions occur to some degree or other in this 48-page book behind a cover cover which illustrates the most apropos pair – the leaves of Autumn, an upturned hand signifying a fall from height.
Originally published in installments in Dark Horse Presents, this works much better as a collection. Brubaker’s writing melds seemlessly with Lutes’ art – in fact the book looks almost like a traditional Jason Lutes book (Jar of Fools or Berlin for example), as if Brubaker modified his way of working to fit in with Lutes rather than the other way around.
Whatever the practicalities of their working situation, this is an effective and interesting read, the presentation of the story is immaculate, fairly rigid panel structures move you through the book extremely well, panels are packed with amazing detail for such a small amount of space that each takes up. The overall effect is that you feel you’re reading a book twice the length; the story and pacing is great enough that at no time does this drag.
The basic storyline then. Kirk has just split with his girlfriend, he has a dead-end job on the night-shift at a filling station, shares an apartment with a nosy flatmate, and is generally unsatisfied with his life. When a mislaid credit card comes into his possession, courtesy of a beautiful woman (June), he can’t resist using it after his shift and from there his troubles start. What seems to be slice-of-life territory rapidly turns into a mystery, a detective yarn, as Kirk has to find out who or what June really is, what a handbag is doing buried in her garden, and how he can get out of the situation with his life intact.
As things get ever worse for Kirk you empathise with his ever-spiralling descent into despair and hopelessness – when push comes to shove most of us wouldn’t be heroes at the end, we’d want to give up under this sort of provocation, as indeed Kirk does. Finally the denouement comes, but not directly by Kirk’s hand, and what could be an extremely downbeat ending is relieved by a glimmer of hope for the future. Things might not work out, but they’re finally looking up.
An eminently worthwhile purchase, whether you like slice-of-life stories, mystery stories a la Batman actually doing Detective work, Brubaker’s more mainstream (in comics terms) writing, or Lutes’ art; for $3.95 this is the most worthwhile and satisfying comic you can buy this year so far.
