A hidden king is uncovered … with the help of some makeup, in Bylines in Blood #4, written by Erica Schultz and Van Jensen, drawn by Aneke, lettered by Cardinal Rae and published by AfterShock.
Former New York City police Detective Easton Newburn met a New York City resident who became his assistant. This is the beginning of her story. In New York City. A place in America. Newburn #6 is written by Canadian Chip Zdarsky and drawn by Englishman Jacob Phillips. Backup “Spook-a-Rama” is written by Casey Gilly, drawn by Soo Lee and lettered by Toben Racicot. Published by Image.
Lulu’s on the run, and a naughty nurse turns out to be naughtier than she’d like in Hit Me #2, written by Christa Faust, drawn by Priscilla Petraites, colored by Marco Lesko, lettered by AndWorld Design and published by AWA.
Will Nevin: Ian, it’s the last book in the series that brought us together, the next issue of the series we’ve liked the best (I think, right?) and the sophomore chapter of the story that gave me my favorite bit about your dad maybe reading our reviews. What a nice week.
Ian Gregory: I’ve been looking forward to all three of these issues. This is also yet another triple-mystery week (or is Hit Me more of a thriller?). Do you think there are just more mystery comics coming out, or are we self-selecting?
Will: Since we’re kinda our own bosses on this, it’s probably the self-selection. But if our personal preferences are showing a bit, that gives me a reason to reconsider my decision to not suggest the My Little Pony #1 coming up in a few weeks. (The new Kaiju Score, however, is staying. It’s a goddamned monster heist!)
Bylines in Blood #4: Still the Same (But Over Now)
Will: This is it — the finale, the finish, the big ol’ climax. But the book remains largely the same as it ever was: an interesting collection of ideas bound up in iffy execution and clunky dialogue. What started as a murder mystery became by this point in issue #4 something rote and predictable — since we didn’t have any reasonable suspects after the demise of sneaky snake Mayor Wilkes, *of course* it was the tech bro/cult leader. (Is there a difference between those two things?) Ian, what’s your postmortem here? And remember to address me as “Doctor Nevin.”
Ian: All the way back in our first review of Bylines in Blood, I criticized it for being a “straight-line” mystery, where the detective follows one clue, which leads to the next clue, and so on. “But Ian,” you’re saying, “don’t all linear narratives naturally proceed in a straight line?” Great question.
Will: Excellent question.
Ian: There are many ways a story can create the sensation of branching paths — of possibilities and different actions, even when everything is proceeding only a single way. Lots of mysteries do this by creating a closed environment (for example, a mansion) and introducing a lot of suspects (people who live in that mansion).
Will: Perhaps different possible murder weapons? And … clue(s)?
Ian: The detective then interrogates these people, explores the environment, unearths clues and so on, until in the final moment they explain how everything fits together and identifies the culprit. In Bylines in Blood, there is no environment — there is no sense that Satya could have explored a different part of the metaphorical mansion to find a different clue, or interrogated the suspects in a different order. Instead, she proceeded in a straight line, and in doing so, eliminated suspects from the case. As a result, instead of a tense ending sequence where all the clues come together, by the end of issue #3, we already knew exactly what was going on — all that was left was for Satya to spell it out.
Will: Going back to tech bros for a second — especially since the world’s dumbest one decided to throw down $40 billion for the idiot bird website — the biggest revelation we have at the end is that Jenn has duped his followers into believing he’s a pandemic victim thanks to some white stage makeup. It’s an interesting concept, how these assholes are able to develop a cult of personality via deception and a carefully crafted public persona, but it feels underdone as a concept. For all the worldbuilding we got back in issue #1, not much of it seemed to pay off.
Ian: Is it possible for a concept to feel both underdone and overblown? I was never compelled by the worldbuilding in this series because it felt so cloying. Obvious Trump Analogue, Obvious COVID Analogue, and a city named The City. When you put the twist here in the abstract, that the evil tech monarch pretended to be part of a populist movement to gain public support, then yeah, that sounds interesting. In practice, it feels just as fake and over-manufactured as everything else in this setting.
Will: Finally, here’s a thought exercise, Ian: Let’s say back in the planning stage, AfterShock gave you (the amalgamated, Cronenberg-ian creative team) a fifth issue in this series. What would you have done with it?
Ian: I think you have to find a way for all these characters to interact. Every interaction in this book is because Satya is headed to their house (or place of work) to talk to them. We never directly see Jenn talk to Mayor Wilkes, or how any of the side characters behave when Satya isn’t the one interrogating them. Create a reason to, after the first few issues, put everyone together — at a news event, or a political debate, or something. Create a scene where everyone’s motivations can be acted on at once: where Jenn is advancing his plot, Wilkes is securing his political support and Satya is trying to find the truth. That way, the story naturally complicates itself as multiple characters have plots they are trying to achieve. Then, when Satya solves the mystery, it feels less like unraveling a poorly tied knot, and more like she’s cut through a Gordian one.
Will: That’s a much better answer to the question than I had (which was just nonsense about Jenn’s motivations). Yes, let’s go with yours.
Newburn #6: Who Needs Easton Anyhow?
Will: I couldn’t take it anymore, Ian, so I finally asked Zdarsky why Newburn — a series set in goddamned New York City, New York, USA — uses British spelling. And you know what the asshole said about it in his newsletter? Because the creative team “aren’t Americans.” The nerve of that guy! So I think about 85% of my outrage is fake … but also, it does take me out of the moment whenever an “honourable” or a “favourite” pops up. I mean, really, if I was writing a Toronto detective story, I’d use all the extra vowels in the world.
Ian: He really blew you off there, huh, Dr. Nevin? I’ll be praying for a speedy recovery.
Will: He owned me, Ian. So hard. ANYWAY, Newburn without Newburn is still a surprisingly good book as this month we take a deep dive into assistant Emily’s past to find out — surprise! — she was in the police academy before a brawl between cadets went sideways hard. I like how we see her love for detective stories and a taste of her analytical brain, how she wants to “solve puzzles” — but when we first see her back in issue #1, she’s scamming mafia dingdongs out of their coke. It’s a hard fall.
Ian: In previous issues, you may remember that Emily was willing to work with any of the gangs in New York, but never with the cops. This issue shows us the more personal reason to go with the ideological, and I like that we get this much depth to what is technically the “sidekick” character. Even though the book is titled Newburn, this is really Emily’s story. And it’s always nice to see a detective story address the fact that real police detectives don’t really do any detecting — not in the sense that Emily is good at, and wants to do. Instead, she runs headfirst into the real function of the police: protecting themselves before anyone else.
Will: To hit an idea the series has already broached: The differences between a gang and the more rogue elements of a police force are not all that distinct. Emily’s not the only character on a journey; Sydney, a cop we first see losing a whole bunch of money in a secret mob casino, was at one point a good (?) cadet. If I was a cop, Ian, I would simply not get in debt to the mob and then betray a former friend to cover said debt. But perhaps that’s just me.
Ian: Any sense of loyalty Sydney may have felt to Emily has faded, if it was even there in the first place. I do like that he’s not some high-ranking officer, or deep in the pockets of the mob — those would give him too much personal power and significance. Instead, he’s a weaselly self-preservationist, and that makes him all the more real as a character. I’m interested to see how this plays out for him considering Newburn’s technical “neutrality,” though as we’ve seen that neutrality isn’t exactly all-encompassing. Emily can’t seem to find a place to just solve puzzles. Unlike in stories, she’s running up against the real people who create those puzzles, and dealing with them is much harder.
Will: Finally, the backup continues to be a solid story of a teenager pushing back against what can seem to be an indifferent system — although I do want to say we should consider the repercussions of the popular “the cops called it a suicide but there’s no way that’s right” narrative. Make all the Epstein jokes you want, sure, but this can lead to some emotionally harmful conspiracy theories.
Ian: I still like this story, but I see what you mean. The main character of the backup has a particularly strong voice, and I like her interactions with the detective, whose main priority seems to be clearing the case as soon as possible and attracting very little attention. However, they aren’t completely adversarial, which makes for an interesting dynamic as she works to unravel the case.
Hit Me #2: A Story of Leather and Lace (OK, Mostly Leather … and Guns)
Will: OK, Ian, I need you to stay with me on this one. This is a high-concept crime book, right? Maybe a mix of genres. Lots of action. A female lead. Ian … this is a better and smoother (but admittedly different) version of Bylines in Blood.
Ian: I mean … yeah. Rather than feel “ripped from the headlines,” these characters feel complex, unique and real. Lulu could have simply chosen to not get involved in any of this, but instead she had to take the diamonds. There’s also no triteness about this series — Lulu gets sold out by Mistress Demonica within minutes, and Danny only barely survives. Things feel tense in this series in a way they never did in Bylines in Blood.
Will: If you can’t trust the local med play domme, who can you trust? With last issue’s exposition out of the way, I thought this was a much better chapter in the story — the action is crisp and meaningful, and I like how we’ve established Danny as a damsel in distress. Also, a guy got knocked the fuck out with a dildo. What’s not to like about this series?!
Ian: I really like Lulu as a main character. She’s flawed, but she cares about Danny and her regrets about him are going to drive this series forward. I can already see the start of a change — last issue, Lulu was somewhat dismissive of Danny and his crush on her, but here she’s starting to realize that her focus on the self may have let something pass her by. I’m impressed that I’ve come to care for these characters so quickly.
Will: Finally, we’ve had sadism, masochism, med play and one reference to sissy maids — what pervy goodness do you think awaits in #3?
Ian: I do hope we continue our tour through the fetish community — we haven’t seen a public/club dungeon yet, so maybe that’s where Lulu’s headed. Maybe this is a ridiculous comparison, but I can’t help but compare this series to urban fantasy like The Dresden Files, only instead of a secret community of magic users, we’ve got a secret community of sex workers. They’re a core part of the appeal of this setting, and I hope Hit Me doesn’t stray too far into the organized crime aspect.
Will: A public dungeon? Definitely never been to one of those before. NOPE.
Does This Smell OK to You?
- Okay, for real, how did Jenn’s makeup get on Denzin’s Bible in Bylines in Blood? How did that happen?
- If a guy can get knocked out with a dildo, he can get knocked out with a Bible.
- I’m not sure why exactly you’d have leftover Spam, but Spam fried rice is as good a thing as any to do with it.
- Headline, KPNX 12 News: Using leftover hash browns and half a waffle, wildlife managers return potbelly pig to family who lost everything in Tunnel Fire
- If I’m reading this correctly, the suggested way to reheat french fries is to … deep fry them again? Who has time for that?!
- And, yes, Chip Zdarsky (if that is your real name), I’m calling the potato edibles in that link “french fries” because I’m an American, and that’s all that matters.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
Ian Gregory is a writer and co-host of giant robots podcast Mech Ado About Nothing.
