The Collected Stray Bullets, Vol. 8

Stray Bullets (Single Issues) #29-32

by David Lapham

David Lapham's Stray Bullets is a dark, explosive, character-driven crime series, praised for its harrowing portrayal of contemporary life. This volume collects four complete stories from this groundbreaking series: A notebook, full of despair, plunges a detective into a bizarre kidnapping where the victim is just a lost and forgotten pawn in a story of blackmail and love. A stolen gun gives a best friend a chance to shine, and proves that a happy ending is only determined by where the story ends. A joyous reunion, full of balloons and cake, will signal the end of the salad days for a wealthy socialite unless swift and inhuman action is taken. They say you can't go home again, but the law says differently, and a young girl running from a 12-foot-tall, 800-pound Bazzloomis will be forced back into its salivating maw and be swallowed whole...

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

152 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2004

Reviews

[Ill D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweeping forth with the same alterations to steel-o (as it were), Lapham has continued his experiment in: cohesion… Of all things, the decision to make a story (actually) make sense, has been roundly rejected in order to seek out it’s own choppy, Post-Modernist vision and own unique focus on the frantic and the pulpy. With 8 volumes down and only one more to go (repetitiously known as Vol.5) the typical unloosed aluminum yarns of persons and places have been re-coiled to (generally) pleasant effect.

Thankfully, surprises continue and we’re treated with a stories that include more interstices and gritty backstories. A firmer picture has created something more structededly seen within the mind’s eye and it returns that appreciation with more attention to be granted to the normal devices of dialogue and action that typically propel their tales. Tints and tones of the orthodox shine through and the results, while certainly not losing an iota of their *Laphamness, ultimately retain what we love and are injected with what we need.

More hi-jinx. More Mid-West state weirdness. More wiles.

[Manu · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was DNF for me. It went too slapdash and meandering for me. None of the focused energy of the volumes 1-6