Random Back Issues #41 - GrimJack #29

Maybe let's just let Mr. Bullet stay in the barrel.

We've got a standalone issue of GrimJack today, which means I don't have to explain a lot of backstory, but there's still a lot going on. Tim Truman left 10 issues ago, and we're still two issues away from Tom Mandrake stepping in as artist. Shawn McManus is the guest artist, but as I recall, some of the readers were not fond of his version of GrimJack. I think someone described him as looking like a troll. Not like Gaunt was winning any beauty contests before.

Anyway, issue starts with Gaunt getting his new, cybernetic hand put attached. He lost his hand during the Trade Wars storyline, after he was in a giant floating pyramid when it fell from the sky. The first replacement (a big clunky thing more like a multitool than a hand) got busted in a fight with the serial killing cyborg Kalibos. So Gaunt took the guy's hand as a replacement for the replacement. Seems fair.

Now with two hands, Gaunt takes the case of Ann Carpentier. She's a widow, with two sons. Mark's successful, Danny's a junkie. Danny was found murdered in Hogan's Alley the day before. Mark feels responsible for not protecting his brother, and is hunting the killer. Ann wants Gaunt to stop him. He takes the case, but points out you go to Hogan's Alley to get leg-dropped, I mean, to escape Stalag-13, I mean, to hire a killer, so why was Danny there?

The last place Danny was seen alive is a diner that promises "home cooking". Gaunt says that might be true. . . if you lived in a toilet. Not all that different from the Perkins near my last apartment, then.

The cook (seen above) isn't helpful at first, but quickly changes his tune. Shotgun is very persuasive. Danny was with a collector/enforcer named Kaliber, who works for Mac Heath. Heath (a talking shark) says Danny owed him money. Kaliber wasn't supposed to kill him, 'cause the dead can't pay debts. Mac tries to hire Gaunt to find Kaliber, Gaunt refuses, Mac has his boys try to muscle him, Gaunt shoots one. Once there's blood in the water, it's a feeding frenzy and GrimJack bails, although he has to shoot one more fish on the way out the door.

Ann meets him, and says Mark talked to an informant named Flea who promised to take him to Kaliber. He did, he just also told Kaliber they were coming. Gaunt gets the location out of Flea, the shotgun being a solid 3-for-3 in problem-solving this issue, but Kaliber's a little big for Gaunt to tangle with. Kaliber explains he felt bad for Danny, who was suffering. So he ended it for him, even though it's got him in dutch with his boss.

Gaunt warns Mark killing someone will change him, speaking from (considerable) experience. Mark lets it go, and Ann gives Kaliber some money to try and pay Mac, case closed. Except Gaunt admits to Ann he'd have killed Kaliber if it was his son that died, and after she and Mark leave, he wonders if she'd be so merciful if the successful brother was the one murdered.

That GrimJack, always looking sunny side up. He just happens to live under a dumpster.

The Munden's Bar back-up is written and drawn by Fred Hembeck, and involves a guy trying to sell Gordon on a table that will grab people from other dimensions and bring them here for the amusement of the patrons. The bar's mirror is already a dimensional interface, what more do you need? Anyway, the guy grabs Lou Grant and Ted Baxter from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, of all things. Is Hembeck from Minnesota?

Ted's pretty freaked out, especially when one of the customers wonders if vanilla Earthlings taste as good as chocolate ones. Lou gets in his face and rallies the whole bar behind him, dismissing it as no big deal because, 'I've dealt with the network guys.' More comfortable, Ted brags about being the best darn anchorman on Earth, leading to the lady confusing him for Walter Cronkite. Ted drives everyone out of the bar with his life story, the salesman sends them home. Gordon chucks the salesman out, and GrimJack comes back to an empty bar in which to do his 'existential brooding.'

If I remember right, someone wrote into the letters page complaining angrily about how disrespectful this story was, because Ted Knight had passed away not long before it came out. He died in August of '86, and the inside cover says this came out December of '86.

[5th longbox, 54th comic. GrimJack #29, "Mercy" by John Ostrander (writer), Shawn McManus (penciler), Hilary Barta (inker), Linda Lessman (colorist), David Cody Weiss (letterer). "The Best Darn Anchorman in Cynosure!" by Fred Hembeck (writer/artist), Linda Lessman (colorist), Steve Haynie (letterer)]