They belong to a world we only visit when turning pages or staring at a screen, yet to them it’s as real as that itch in their pants.Īlthough he’d drawn a few stories here and there for the American market, before 100 Bullets Argentinian artist Risso was largely unknown to those only reading their graphic novels in English, this despite NBM releasing several of his European works with Carlos Trillo ( Cain, Boy Vampire).
Chuck the gambler, Loop the homeboy, L’il Moe the loudmouth, Lee the barkeeper… we’ve seen them all before.
Azzarello emphasises an underworld hierarchy and one of the rules of the crime drama, what’s largely responsible for the emotional pull, is that the loser rarely gets to win. This is played out within superbly constructed crime dramas. There’s a bigger picture, but we’re not getting all of it. Hints are dropped as to his past, and that of many others we meet here, but these are elliptical and abstruse. As the book progresses we learn Graves has allies, some of whom don’t remember this, and targets. The man handing out the case calls himself Agent Graves, his life on his face as characterised by artist Eduardo Risso, for whom that’s something of a characteristic. More than not choose to use the gift they’ve been given. Like many others we meet over the course of this book, she’s down on her luck, although more capable than some, and the moral quandry that unites them also divides them. She’s told who murdered her husband and child, but is too streetwise to take anyone at their word until she accidentally discovers it’s the truth. They won’t be traced.ĭizzy Corodova, the first recipient, has just been released from jail. This gift comes with a guarantee that both weapon and ammunition are a free pass. The hook that Brian Azzarello employs to sucker the reader in is the premise of someone who’s been wronged being presented with an attaché case containing evidence of who’s responsible along with a gun and 100 bullets. Yes, it’s that good, and astonishingly, it’s that good from the very start.
100 Bullets starts with an intriguing premise and a fascinating cast, opens out beyond that into something far larger, and rapidly joins the relatively slim pantheon of the greatest English language crime graphic novels ever produced.
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