Aw yeah, welcome to Grim Spring! Where bullet holes bloom like wildflowers. If I could be said to be ride-or-die for one comic writer or artist, it would be John Ostrander, and this is the series that started that, even if it was an inauspicious start.
Back around 2000, my cousin who is 15 years older, gave me a longbox of comics he had. This included the first 48 issues of GrimJack (minus issue 23 for some reason). I didn't know what it was, so at first, I passed them over. Read everything else in the box (about all I remember were some DeFalco-era Thors, about 10 issues of The 'Nam, maybe some black-and-white indy comic stuff), but there's not a hell of a lot to do at my grandmother's in August, so I finally gave GrimJack a shot. I was quickly hooked.
The series is set in Cynosure, a pan-dimensional city where all realities intersect eventually. Each reality retains whatever laws of physics it runs by, which allows Ostrander and Tim Truman to present basically any setting they want. If they want hi-tech robots and such, they can do that. Spirits and the supernatural, sure. Talking fish-people, absolutely. As GrimJack describes it, 'Guns work here. Magic works there. Swords work everywhere.'
GrimJack (real name, John Gaunt) himself is a mercenary, for hire to do most anything you need. Which again, allows for a variety of stories. Mysteries, supernatural horror, stories about cloning or even an issue long-Smokey and the Bandit riff with a guy who had himself built into his big rig and talks in music lyrics. The first issue is a fairly standard noir about a missing diary, with the added twist that the diary's author's ghost is hanging around.
For most of Tim Truman's time as artist, which is the first 19 issues, that's much of what the book is. Mysteries. What Ostrander is good at, though, is having smaller mysteries or cases that might only run an issue or two, but they feed into something larger that builds slowly but surely. And sometimes those mysteries involve time travel to the Old West, or children being abducted for gladiatorial combat, just to change things up.
Ostrander and Truman use the variety to gradually fill out Cynosure. How the size and constantly shifting boundaries of the city make it difficult to run effectively, so that business is king. Which is why time travel is strictly regulated, because it might void a contract. The rivalries between the different law enforcement agencies. The fact clones have no rights. The way elections work. All these bits get referenced or revealed, and there's some care to how it's done, so the pieces seem to fit. It makes the city feel like more of a place, despite being such a haphazard amalgamation. And GrimJack's been around a while, and has a busy history, so he acts as our guide. He's seen and been most places, knows how things work, and Ostrander makes that experience one of the character's advantages that he uses to survive.
That and he's willing to fight dirty. Actually, enthusiastic to fight dirty might be more accurate.
Truman's art is well-suited for the noir elements, as even the nicer parts of Cynosure have a grimy feel, while the less nice parts are drenched in shadows and garbage. GrimJack spends a lot of time in places that have gone to seed, assuming they were ever good enough in the first place to get worse. But he can also draw monsters for the horror elements. Things with too many teeth and sharp talons, vacant red eyes. There are a lot of bridges and structures that have an almost organic look, with spires and ridges like pieces of bone. Adds a bit of menace to everything.
Likewise, the characters tend to wear their age on their faces and bodies. In the lines and wrinkle, the grey hair and the scars. Gaunt's in shape, but he's also around 50, so he's not Captain America or Thor. None of the major characters are like that. They actually remind me of Joe Kubert's, in that they have that wiry musculature that makes them look like they've been rough-hewn from stone. They haven't lived the sort of lives that allow for any fat deposits to build up. Hard times.
As mentioned, Truman departs (I believe to work on Scout) after issue 19. Which is right in the middle of the Trade War storyline that acts as a sort of mid-stage denouement. Some plotlines are wrapped up, and some characters have to step back and reassess. One of the interesting things about the Trade War is how GrimJack's own flaws help bring it about. He's portrayed right from the first issue as someone who is uncompromising about the truth. As he puts it, if he gets a glimpse of it, he has to have it all. That, combined with his unwillingness to let anything go, can be a strength. It's what means he won't abandon a friend, or a client. It also means he'll dig up things better left buried, without considering the wider impacts.
One thing that's an issue throughout the series I might as well mention right at the start is, GrimJack's love interests die. A lot. Granted that a lot of people around him tend to die, but he has more dead girlfriends than Matt Murdock and Kyle Rayner put together. I feel like Ostrander can usually show how the characters' own choices brought them to that place, but he does get a lot of mileage out of Gaunt's inability to handle losing people he cares about in a healthy manner. Though I'm not sure anyone in this series actually deals with their emotions in a healthy way. If they did, they probably wouldn't be hanging around Gaunt.
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