What I Bought 11/28/2020 - Part 3

Well lah dee da, look at the book that wasn't on its first issue or its penultimate issue. How fancy.

Sympathy for No Devils #2, by Brandon Thomas (writer), Lee Ferguson (artist), Jose Villarrubia (colorist), Simon Bowland (letterer) - This guy is like one of those cartoons about the baby that keeps wandering into danger while some poor dog gets injured trying to save it.

The issue starts with Winston chasing some crook on what passes for an elevated train in this world, while somebody else - presumably his assistant that hates him - monologues about how terrible Winston is and how much he's hurt everyone around him. We learn later that the crook was the last person to see their colossal murder victim alive. An examination of the large corpse reveals it's supposed to look like he was killed with a laser pistol to the head, like the victim 3 years ago, but his stomach contents say different.

The victim's wife, the blue lady from last issue, shows up, and she and Winston pretend not to know each other. Winston leaves to interrogate the guy he caught, the scene skips forward several hours, someone is dead, and the Mayor, who is a glowy lady, shows up with goons who kick the shit out of Winston.

There's a lot being left hinted at or unsaid. Probably to use for shocking reveals later. Maybe I shouldn't be assuming it's Winston's assistant narrating. Could end up being someone entirely different. I'm curious is the Mayor is the one who gave Winston his gifts, since it didn't seem to help when her goons started beating him.

Ferguson likes these sort of oddly-cut together panel layouts. Some of them work, some not so much. The back-and-forth panels between Win and Raleigh investigating this corpse, and doing so three years ago, yeah, that's easy enough to follow. 

But there's a page where Win gets knocked off the train and one of its legs (or giant hairs) grabs his ankle and swings him under the railway so he can grab another and swing back up. Ferguson does that as a 16-panel grid, but some of the panels at the top of the page are of a building that wouldn't be visible until Win gets back up on the train at the bottom of the page.

I think he's trying to give a sense of location, establish the building as Win awkwardly makes his way up around, but in practice, it's three panels of nothing, really. I'm left wondering at first glance what the point was. Interesting attempt, though, I guess.