Oustanding Crime Graphic Novel

books:

	• Miss: Better Living Through Crime (Miss) Philippe Thirault Humanoids - Rebellion, 2005 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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Oustanding Crime Graphic Novel

New York's interwar crime demimonde has been richly treated in fiction and film, and now we can finally add a worthy graphic novel to that list. Set in the 1920s and '30s, it's somewhat surprising to discover that such a stylish story was written and produced by three Frenchmen. Surprising until you consider that the French have always taken the American crime genre much more seriously than Americans themselves. Sometimes that adulation has gone a little overboard, but here it results in a story of great depth and tone.

It kicks off with a quick introduction to Nola, a poor white girl raised by a violent alcoholic father, prostitute/junkie mother, and eventually, nuns. Kicked out of the orphanage as a teenager, she quickly hooks up with shady private eye, and within the book's first twelve pages, she's deep in Harlem, seeing a man about a gun, getting shot at, and meeting a slick black pimp named Slim. A series of misadventures results in Nola and Slim teaming up as contract killers for the upper crust -- a lucrative line of work that allows Nola to escape poverty and Slim to escape his creditors.

Fortunately, the story doesn't throw them into bed, and their relationship is allowed to develop nuance and texture. Their race plays a large role in both their business and personal relationship, and is used to confound the reader's expectations when Slim's backstory is finally explained. Similarly, the story avoids easy morality, as it asks the reader to sympathize, and ultimately, root for, two people who unleash a fair amount of coldblooded carnage throughout the book. It's worth noting that the artists do an excellent job with both the action sequences and everything else. Interiors, exteriors, architecture, background -- all are visually compelling despite being rendered in a very stylized manner. There aren't very many good crime graphic novels out there, but this is definitely one of them.

Note: There are two versions of the book, the one initially published in the U.S. in 2002 under the ISBN 193065281X has a color cover and grayscale art. That's the one I have, and it's great. However, it was republished in 2005 with the original full-color artwork of the French edition, under ISBN 1401206360, so I'm going to go track that version down and upgrade!

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We called them the crazy years,' New York City was spreading like a pool of urine across a subway platform. Even rats caught diseases there.' Welcome to the world of Miss, a bold new journey into crime graphic novels from Humanoids Publishing. Set during the early 1900s in New York, Miss tells the tale of two unlikely partners in crime, Enola and Slim. Enola is a poor white girl who has learned to survive by hook or by crook since being expelled from the orphanage. Slim is a black pimp with an uncertain past, trying to keep one foot out of the grave. When their paths cross, and their options run out, Enola and Slim forge a partnership as murderers for hire. This is their story ... what it takes to survive when all you have is a gun.

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