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Stray Bullets (Single Issues) #9-12
The Collected Stray Bullets, Vol. 3
From the critically acclaimed and Eisner Award winning series, these stories will hook any new reader by giving them a feel for the many varied, emotionally charged stories fans have come to expect in every issue of Stray Bullets.
152 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2000
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October 14, 2021
#ThrowbackThursday - Back in the '90s, I used to write comic book reviews for the website of a now-defunct comic book retailer called Rockem Sockem Comics. (Collect them all!)
From the June 1998 edition with a theme of "Crime Comics II":
INTRODUCTION
It's time to return to the mean streets.
Yes, let's get down into the gutter with the gray- and black-hearted souls that inhabit the world of crime comics. These are stories told from the criminal's point of view, be he a petty thief or a cold-blooded killer. "Crime doesn't pay," goes the old saying, but it sure can entertain.
In case the tough guys of ROAD TO PERDITION, STRAY BULLETS, and SIN CITY glorify crime a little too much and give some of my readers inappropriate ideas, I'm throwing in CUCKOO to give everyone a reminder that crime has consequences that echo through society long after the clank of the cell door and the final sizzle of the electric chair have faded away.
FROM THE BACKLIST
STRAY BULLETS #1-14 (El Capitan)
SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR #1-6 (Dark Horse Comics/Legend)
Two of the better crime comics being produced today happen to be polar opposites in approach: substance versus style. Comparing David Lapham's STRAY BULLETS to Frank Miller's SIN CITY is not dissimilar from comparing Quentin Tarantino's PULP FICTION to John Woo's FACE/OFF. But hey, I review comics not movies, so I'm not supposed to compare PULP FICTION to FACE/OFF. Instead, I shall compare STRAY BULLETS to PULP FICTION and SIN CITY to FACE/OFF, then compare STRAY BULLETS to SIN CITY. These are all legitimate, comic-centric comparisons. I, the comic reviewer, hereby deny any responsibility for conclusions drawn by readers with an understanding of the transitive property.
Though I'm sure Lapham must be sick of the comparison by now, the parallels to be drawn between STRAY BULLETS and PULP FICTION are irresistible to reviewers such as myself. How am I supposed to ignore the fact that two incredibly talented individuals have chosen the same genre and techniques to tell a slew of riveting stories? Both Tarantino and Lapham use non-linear chronology to tell closely interwoven tales of crimes and the people who perpetrate them. Just as Tarantino's three stories jumped hypnotically back and forth through time -- allowing a character killed in the middle of the movie to appear hale and hearty later in the film -- the fourteen issues of STRAY BULLETS skip all over the calendar: starting in 1997 with #1, jumping back to 1977 with #2, and erratically staggering through the late '70s and '80s as Lapham slowly works his way back to the '90s. That Lapham and Tarantino both write rat-a-tat dialogue, create vivid and complex characters, and use shocking violence to maintain a heightened tension simply clinches the comparison for me.
Woo and Miller, on the other hand, share more intangible qualities. They are masters of larger-than-life, style-over-substance maelstroms of action and violence. Both employ fantastic plot elements or outlandish coincidences to keep the story racing at a fever pitch, and both feature heroes who, while presented as everyday joes with down-to-earth concerns, are capable of nearly superhuman feats in a running firefight. Both Woo and Miller utilize tough guy talk and action sequences so over-the-top as to nearly fall into the abyss of campiness, but the grim seriousness of the characters and situations keep Woo and Miller from plunging over that edge. Ultimately, the plots and character are secondary to the charged atmosphere and dazzling visuals these two artisans create. Just as Woo redefines action thrillers with his ballet of bullets in FACE/OFF and his earlier films, Miller pushes black-and-white comics to a whole new level with his stark penwork on A DAME TO KILL FOR and his other SIN CITY sagas.
Whenever I think of Miller's work on SIN CITY (or any of his other comics for that matter), immediately several extremely cool images pop into my head. Only later do I start dwelling on some interesting bits of dialogue or an engaging plotline. This is probably because Miller started out as a superb artist (DAREDEVIL) and then turned out to be a rather good writer and writer/artist (DAREDEVIL, ELEKTRA, BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, BATMAN: YEAR ONE). On the other hand, when I think of STRAY BULLETS I immediately start thinking of the characters and the plot. This is probably because Lapham started out as a good artist (SHADOWMAN, HARBINGER, RAI, WARRIORS OF PLASM) and then turned out to be a rather superb writer . . . though still only a good artist.
STRAY BULLETS began with a bang. Come to think of it, STRAY BULLETS #1 may be the one of the best first issues ever, telling a chilling and brutal tale of murder, insanity, and unrequited love. I don't want to tell any more about it, for fear of ruining it for any newbies in the audience. Suffice it to say, the story is set in 1997 and features a character, Joey, who appears as a boy throughout the rest of the series. In some ways, the series is about this lad and the unfortunate events that shape the man he becomes.
The main character of STRAY BULLETS, however, is Virginia Applejack. Introduced as a young girl, Virginia's life becomes a long sequence of escalating troubles after witnessing an alleyway murder. Schoolyard violence, sexual molestation, domestic abuse, and family tragedy all contribute to Virginia's need to run away from home. Her wanderings bring her into contact with Orson, Beth and Nina. This trio, whose backstory gets as much "screen time" as Virginia's, consists of three young, confused adults on the lam from a crime boss and his thugs with two suitcases of stolen cocaine. Obviously, involvement with the trio is not going to improve Virginia's quality of life. Virginia's only outlet from her awful reality is through stories she writes of her futuristic outlaw doppelganger, Amy Racecar. (Feature-length Amy Racecar stories appear in issues #6, #10 and a color special.) For me, the point of the series boils down to one question: Will Amy Racecar and Virginia's own sensibility keep Virginia from travelling the same troubled path as Joey?
The story in SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR is not nearly as hard to describe. A down-on-his-luck photographer, Dwight McCarthy is lured by a married ex-girlfriend into a plot full of sex, betrayal, murder and more betrayal. I'm talking tons of hot babes and hotter action here, boys. Literally every other issue features defenestration. (Before those without dictionaries get too hot and bothered, I should point out that defenestration is an act of violence and not a sex act.) For fans of the original SIN CITY mini-series, its protagonist Marv shows up in a supporting role since A DAME TO KILL FOR takes place in time just before and during the events of Marv's own ultra-violent feature. The story is actually pretty irrelevant, but the artwork looks amazing, the narration features wonderfully hard-boiled monologues, and the dialogue is crisp and biting. While the plot is not entirely riveting, Miller's obvious love for the material is sufficiently compelling.
Visceral or cerebral? Which is your pleasure? Frankly, I want them both whenever possible. For me, that's why PULP FICT- . . . um, STRAY BULLETS, I mean, wins in this showdown. Sure FACE/O- . . . ahem, SIN CITY is exciting to look at while I'm reading it, but once I've put it away in a box I don't dwell on it. STRAY BULLETS, however, stays with me. It has the thrills and violence to keep me on the edge of my seat while I'm reading it, it has the complexity that challenges me to unravel its secrets, and it has the themes and ideas which linger in my brain long into the night. Now, if only Frank Miller would consent to draw STRAY BULLETS under Lapham's scripting I think I'd be in heaven. (Tarantino and Woo together might not be too bad either . . . )
STRAY BULLETS Grade: A+
SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR Grade: B
From the June 1998 edition with a theme of "Crime Comics II":
INTRODUCTION
It's time to return to the mean streets.
Yes, let's get down into the gutter with the gray- and black-hearted souls that inhabit the world of crime comics. These are stories told from the criminal's point of view, be he a petty thief or a cold-blooded killer. "Crime doesn't pay," goes the old saying, but it sure can entertain.
In case the tough guys of ROAD TO PERDITION, STRAY BULLETS, and SIN CITY glorify crime a little too much and give some of my readers inappropriate ideas, I'm throwing in CUCKOO to give everyone a reminder that crime has consequences that echo through society long after the clank of the cell door and the final sizzle of the electric chair have faded away.
FROM THE BACKLIST
STRAY BULLETS #1-14 (El Capitan)
SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR #1-6 (Dark Horse Comics/Legend)
Two of the better crime comics being produced today happen to be polar opposites in approach: substance versus style. Comparing David Lapham's STRAY BULLETS to Frank Miller's SIN CITY is not dissimilar from comparing Quentin Tarantino's PULP FICTION to John Woo's FACE/OFF. But hey, I review comics not movies, so I'm not supposed to compare PULP FICTION to FACE/OFF. Instead, I shall compare STRAY BULLETS to PULP FICTION and SIN CITY to FACE/OFF, then compare STRAY BULLETS to SIN CITY. These are all legitimate, comic-centric comparisons. I, the comic reviewer, hereby deny any responsibility for conclusions drawn by readers with an understanding of the transitive property.
Though I'm sure Lapham must be sick of the comparison by now, the parallels to be drawn between STRAY BULLETS and PULP FICTION are irresistible to reviewers such as myself. How am I supposed to ignore the fact that two incredibly talented individuals have chosen the same genre and techniques to tell a slew of riveting stories? Both Tarantino and Lapham use non-linear chronology to tell closely interwoven tales of crimes and the people who perpetrate them. Just as Tarantino's three stories jumped hypnotically back and forth through time -- allowing a character killed in the middle of the movie to appear hale and hearty later in the film -- the fourteen issues of STRAY BULLETS skip all over the calendar: starting in 1997 with #1, jumping back to 1977 with #2, and erratically staggering through the late '70s and '80s as Lapham slowly works his way back to the '90s. That Lapham and Tarantino both write rat-a-tat dialogue, create vivid and complex characters, and use shocking violence to maintain a heightened tension simply clinches the comparison for me.
Woo and Miller, on the other hand, share more intangible qualities. They are masters of larger-than-life, style-over-substance maelstroms of action and violence. Both employ fantastic plot elements or outlandish coincidences to keep the story racing at a fever pitch, and both feature heroes who, while presented as everyday joes with down-to-earth concerns, are capable of nearly superhuman feats in a running firefight. Both Woo and Miller utilize tough guy talk and action sequences so over-the-top as to nearly fall into the abyss of campiness, but the grim seriousness of the characters and situations keep Woo and Miller from plunging over that edge. Ultimately, the plots and character are secondary to the charged atmosphere and dazzling visuals these two artisans create. Just as Woo redefines action thrillers with his ballet of bullets in FACE/OFF and his earlier films, Miller pushes black-and-white comics to a whole new level with his stark penwork on A DAME TO KILL FOR and his other SIN CITY sagas.
Whenever I think of Miller's work on SIN CITY (or any of his other comics for that matter), immediately several extremely cool images pop into my head. Only later do I start dwelling on some interesting bits of dialogue or an engaging plotline. This is probably because Miller started out as a superb artist (DAREDEVIL) and then turned out to be a rather good writer and writer/artist (DAREDEVIL, ELEKTRA, BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, BATMAN: YEAR ONE). On the other hand, when I think of STRAY BULLETS I immediately start thinking of the characters and the plot. This is probably because Lapham started out as a good artist (SHADOWMAN, HARBINGER, RAI, WARRIORS OF PLASM) and then turned out to be a rather superb writer . . . though still only a good artist.
STRAY BULLETS began with a bang. Come to think of it, STRAY BULLETS #1 may be the one of the best first issues ever, telling a chilling and brutal tale of murder, insanity, and unrequited love. I don't want to tell any more about it, for fear of ruining it for any newbies in the audience. Suffice it to say, the story is set in 1997 and features a character, Joey, who appears as a boy throughout the rest of the series. In some ways, the series is about this lad and the unfortunate events that shape the man he becomes.
The main character of STRAY BULLETS, however, is Virginia Applejack. Introduced as a young girl, Virginia's life becomes a long sequence of escalating troubles after witnessing an alleyway murder. Schoolyard violence, sexual molestation, domestic abuse, and family tragedy all contribute to Virginia's need to run away from home. Her wanderings bring her into contact with Orson, Beth and Nina. This trio, whose backstory gets as much "screen time" as Virginia's, consists of three young, confused adults on the lam from a crime boss and his thugs with two suitcases of stolen cocaine. Obviously, involvement with the trio is not going to improve Virginia's quality of life. Virginia's only outlet from her awful reality is through stories she writes of her futuristic outlaw doppelganger, Amy Racecar. (Feature-length Amy Racecar stories appear in issues #6, #10 and a color special.) For me, the point of the series boils down to one question: Will Amy Racecar and Virginia's own sensibility keep Virginia from travelling the same troubled path as Joey?
The story in SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR is not nearly as hard to describe. A down-on-his-luck photographer, Dwight McCarthy is lured by a married ex-girlfriend into a plot full of sex, betrayal, murder and more betrayal. I'm talking tons of hot babes and hotter action here, boys. Literally every other issue features defenestration. (Before those without dictionaries get too hot and bothered, I should point out that defenestration is an act of violence and not a sex act.) For fans of the original SIN CITY mini-series, its protagonist Marv shows up in a supporting role since A DAME TO KILL FOR takes place in time just before and during the events of Marv's own ultra-violent feature. The story is actually pretty irrelevant, but the artwork looks amazing, the narration features wonderfully hard-boiled monologues, and the dialogue is crisp and biting. While the plot is not entirely riveting, Miller's obvious love for the material is sufficiently compelling.
Visceral or cerebral? Which is your pleasure? Frankly, I want them both whenever possible. For me, that's why PULP FICT- . . . um, STRAY BULLETS, I mean, wins in this showdown. Sure FACE/O- . . . ahem, SIN CITY is exciting to look at while I'm reading it, but once I've put it away in a box I don't dwell on it. STRAY BULLETS, however, stays with me. It has the thrills and violence to keep me on the edge of my seat while I'm reading it, it has the complexity that challenges me to unravel its secrets, and it has the themes and ideas which linger in my brain long into the night. Now, if only Frank Miller would consent to draw STRAY BULLETS under Lapham's scripting I think I'd be in heaven. (Tarantino and Woo together might not be too bad either . . . )
STRAY BULLETS Grade: A+
SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR Grade: B
August 22, 2018
By the third turn of the samsara’d comic-tell-tale-wheel, black comedy+heavily indebted to Pulp Fiction references+crime ‘n’ gunplay tale, finally spools off into a more coalesced stage of development. Which is not to say that the form has become more legible, cohesive, nor communicative but, a general style has matured to the point of steadily dependable replication. For all the lacunae of (un?)intentional vaguery, a perfectly imaginative Merry-Go-Round of the Absurd(ist) and the Po(st)-M(dern) becomes the style du jour.
Even with more threads finding their ways around eachother, ghost-like characters, in their characteristical transparency, hardly latch on to eachother. Not creating anything more cohesive, (disappointingly at the 3rd volume mark) internalized, yet quietly unseen character machines dispensing and recycling devices are hard at work to regurgitate what they can, and to produce what is needed next. Platonic molds are being filled with the primordial ooze(s) of thought but, the structures of a normal story have continually been (utterly) twacked out here. Jettisoned out into the further reaches of the Po-Mo field of astonomic vision, vision and cohesion have been sacrificed for style and tone.
Cacophonously swirling around its internal nexus of purely original content, this Merry-Go-Round of the pulpy and the crunchy finds itself riddled with just enough realidad to effectively inert our collective suspension(s) of disbelief. On the contrary, precisely it’s by its realness that with each bullet whizz, it rejects the mundanity of the average day, injecting tension and sturdying the readers’ attention(s). Still falling short of its initial promise, just like it’s philosophical influencer/informer, Post-Modernism, Stray Bullets still continually misses the mark of something far more palatable for a wider audience.
Even with more threads finding their ways around eachother, ghost-like characters, in their characteristical transparency, hardly latch on to eachother. Not creating anything more cohesive, (disappointingly at the 3rd volume mark) internalized, yet quietly unseen character machines dispensing and recycling devices are hard at work to regurgitate what they can, and to produce what is needed next. Platonic molds are being filled with the primordial ooze(s) of thought but, the structures of a normal story have continually been (utterly) twacked out here. Jettisoned out into the further reaches of the Po-Mo field of astonomic vision, vision and cohesion have been sacrificed for style and tone.
Cacophonously swirling around its internal nexus of purely original content, this Merry-Go-Round of the pulpy and the crunchy finds itself riddled with just enough realidad to effectively inert our collective suspension(s) of disbelief. On the contrary, precisely it’s by its realness that with each bullet whizz, it rejects the mundanity of the average day, injecting tension and sturdying the readers’ attention(s). Still falling short of its initial promise, just like it’s philosophical influencer/informer, Post-Modernism, Stray Bullets still continually misses the mark of something far more palatable for a wider audience.
November 9, 2019
It's confirmed - 'cool beans' is being used at least once in every issue. I didn't notice this in the first volume, but it sure stood out in the second. Here, it's present again, so I'm thinking leitmotif. Too bad the stories aren't so fun here.
Amy Racecar's adventures have her on the run in Smalltown, USA, following a circus whose clowns are trying to kill her. After an encounter with Jack Rum and several killer clowns, she kills everyone and is on the run again. She is later surrounded by more men who want her dead, but she just doesn't care about living any more.
Beth and Nina are sunbathing in the outdoors. Nina is upset about her life, so she often gets high. Beth hooks up with Ian and actress Holly for a while, but returns to Nina and the trailer park.
The funfair story brings too many characters together in a confusing mess that ends in some shooting and fist fights.
Amy Racecar's adventures have her on the run in Smalltown, USA, following a circus whose clowns are trying to kill her. After an encounter with Jack Rum and several killer clowns, she kills everyone and is on the run again. She is later surrounded by more men who want her dead, but she just doesn't care about living any more.
Beth and Nina are sunbathing in the outdoors. Nina is upset about her life, so she often gets high. Beth hooks up with Ian and actress Holly for a while, but returns to Nina and the trailer park.
The funfair story brings too many characters together in a confusing mess that ends in some shooting and fist fights.
April 8, 2022
This was pretty weird...
April 29, 2014
This book is such a gem, with each instalment offering different perspectives from different characters all based loosely in the same world. And while each volume stands alone it is clear that they are all headed to a climatic conclusion.
Great story and artwork. Keep it up guys.
Great story and artwork. Keep it up guys.
February 9, 2016
A solid instalment in the series
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews