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Stray Bullets
Stray Bullets, Vol. 3: Other People
Take a ringside seat for these brutal tales of twisted emotions. An ordinary housewife, burning with a sick passion, will see her afternoon's entertainment turn deadly for an innocent child. A bright young woman, incapable of love, will destroy the hearts of men and cut the widest swath of destruction seen since Sherman's march to the sea. A distinguished teacher, unable to control his base desires, will learn that the telephone is mightier than a white-hot slug in the gut. And a faithful husband, yearning to swing wild, will bring home a problem he would gladly sell his immortal soul to solve. These are some of the real-life battles that will knock you to the mat and have you seeing stars.
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First published January 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
June 9, 2023
So what do you do once you've built up a complex time-spanning cast of urban characters at the wrong end of the American Dream? Yes, that's right and push the remaining cast aside to write 7 loosely related issues about 'other people', about love, sex and dangerous liaisons... and you do it even better than you did your first two volumes! Beware, keep a low profile and try avoid those stray bullet individuals that can turn your life upside down!
As this is my fifth read of this series, I can safely say that it was from this volume that I recognised something truly special about this series as it refuses to follow any set path or template, and just grows organically into what it is. This volume looks at the dark side of relationships, and in a very smart but subtle way, where mostly it's the weakness of men that causes the problem, and once that box is opened... only tragedy awaits? 10 out of 12... yes sirree, time for that GIF:
2023, 2019, 2016, 2015 and 2013 read
As this is my fifth read of this series, I can safely say that it was from this volume that I recognised something truly special about this series as it refuses to follow any set path or template, and just grows organically into what it is. This volume looks at the dark side of relationships, and in a very smart but subtle way, where mostly it's the weakness of men that causes the problem, and once that box is opened... only tragedy awaits? 10 out of 12... yes sirree, time for that GIF:
2023, 2019, 2016, 2015 and 2013 read
July 27, 2019
“Winners are winners. Losers are losers. You can’t win them all. God bless them all”—John Gots.
Volume one of Stray Bullets takes place in Baltimore 1980-82. Volume two takes place Somewhere in the West, in a California desert, 1982-84. The third volume, Other People, shifts to LA, 1984-86, with pomo chapter titles such as “Sex and Violence” and “Live Nude Girls!” We keep adding characters in this expanding canvas, and the tone once again shifts, so how do we avoid the impression of random chaos? Well, we don’t avoid that morally, as these stories are consistently about crazy criminals as well some people making bad choices for the first time.
So the moral compass is spinning everywhere, but the sense of stability in the overall narrative is anchored in a steady, eight panel grid in black and white. There’s some character connections between the stories, though there also some (so far) standalones (so we expect to possibly see these folks again later). What else unites them? There are no happy endings. No bad, misguided deed goes unpunished. Lots and lots of booze, which is never a good thng in these stories. And guns, which go good with mixed drinks.
The primary focus of volume three is about sexual sins: Men cheating on their wives, wives cheating on their husbands, and things going terribly wrong. It’s an almost Calvinist view of what seems now to move up from the gutter to the lower-middle class. And it’s shifted from nineties Pulp Fiction to forties noir tone.
In the first story, “Sex and Violence,” Beth’s sister Amy is sick of her sister bringing home guy after guy, so she runs away and stays in a friend’s basement, where she encounters some Pulp Fiction s/m action. From the frying pan to the fire! Beth rescues her at the last minute, but there are some things you can’t unsee.
In “Two Week Vacation,” a milque-toast kinda guy who is hen-pecked by his wife accidentally kills a guy who is harassing him on his way home from work. The power surge he suddenly feels from the act of violence dramatically transforms him into a Bad Ass doing anything his wife and he himself never imagined him doing, out of control. . . well, for two weeks, anyway.
“When Ricky was Sleeping” happens like the title says, as some fellow drunks follow him home and demand money from Kathy that Ricky owes them. Very realistic nightmarish scene, where threats are ne guy hits on her, and she is sick of Ricky’ s drunken behavior, so it makes perfect sense for her. . . oh, you guessed it! Kathy sure knows how to pick ‘em.
The 4th story is about Amy Racecar, space traveler of the future, engaged as a forties style private shamus. We also learn where these stories come from: Written by the real world Amy, the stories a reflection of what Amy experiences.
“Live Nude Girls,” has a title that will invite voyeurism, but is actually pretty flat and straightforward, depicting Amelia on the road to becoming an exotic dancer.
The sixth story is about an affair gone south: A distinguished college teacher, who can’t stop sleeping with young women, learns that a motel phone in the hands of his young lover just may ruin his relationship with his wife.
The seventh and last story returns us to Beth, a bright young woman, incapable of love, who destroys the heart of every man she sees. She is courted by loser after loser in the bar one night, then finally settles on an—until now--faithful husband, fantasizing a one-time swing, who brings Beth home. We feel his terror as Beth threatens him, blackmails him, and he sees the life he has known possibly being smashed forever. For one mistake!
Quite a ride. I need to take a shower, though, and clean all this grime off me. I keep saying 4 stars for these volumes, but the overall accomplishment, the accumulated effect, of the series might actually lead me to rate them overall higher, not sure.
Volume one of Stray Bullets takes place in Baltimore 1980-82. Volume two takes place Somewhere in the West, in a California desert, 1982-84. The third volume, Other People, shifts to LA, 1984-86, with pomo chapter titles such as “Sex and Violence” and “Live Nude Girls!” We keep adding characters in this expanding canvas, and the tone once again shifts, so how do we avoid the impression of random chaos? Well, we don’t avoid that morally, as these stories are consistently about crazy criminals as well some people making bad choices for the first time.
So the moral compass is spinning everywhere, but the sense of stability in the overall narrative is anchored in a steady, eight panel grid in black and white. There’s some character connections between the stories, though there also some (so far) standalones (so we expect to possibly see these folks again later). What else unites them? There are no happy endings. No bad, misguided deed goes unpunished. Lots and lots of booze, which is never a good thng in these stories. And guns, which go good with mixed drinks.
The primary focus of volume three is about sexual sins: Men cheating on their wives, wives cheating on their husbands, and things going terribly wrong. It’s an almost Calvinist view of what seems now to move up from the gutter to the lower-middle class. And it’s shifted from nineties Pulp Fiction to forties noir tone.
In the first story, “Sex and Violence,” Beth’s sister Amy is sick of her sister bringing home guy after guy, so she runs away and stays in a friend’s basement, where she encounters some Pulp Fiction s/m action. From the frying pan to the fire! Beth rescues her at the last minute, but there are some things you can’t unsee.
In “Two Week Vacation,” a milque-toast kinda guy who is hen-pecked by his wife accidentally kills a guy who is harassing him on his way home from work. The power surge he suddenly feels from the act of violence dramatically transforms him into a Bad Ass doing anything his wife and he himself never imagined him doing, out of control. . . well, for two weeks, anyway.
“When Ricky was Sleeping” happens like the title says, as some fellow drunks follow him home and demand money from Kathy that Ricky owes them. Very realistic nightmarish scene, where threats are ne guy hits on her, and she is sick of Ricky’ s drunken behavior, so it makes perfect sense for her. . . oh, you guessed it! Kathy sure knows how to pick ‘em.
The 4th story is about Amy Racecar, space traveler of the future, engaged as a forties style private shamus. We also learn where these stories come from: Written by the real world Amy, the stories a reflection of what Amy experiences.
“Live Nude Girls,” has a title that will invite voyeurism, but is actually pretty flat and straightforward, depicting Amelia on the road to becoming an exotic dancer.
The sixth story is about an affair gone south: A distinguished college teacher, who can’t stop sleeping with young women, learns that a motel phone in the hands of his young lover just may ruin his relationship with his wife.
The seventh and last story returns us to Beth, a bright young woman, incapable of love, who destroys the heart of every man she sees. She is courted by loser after loser in the bar one night, then finally settles on an—until now--faithful husband, fantasizing a one-time swing, who brings Beth home. We feel his terror as Beth threatens him, blackmails him, and he sees the life he has known possibly being smashed forever. For one mistake!
Quite a ride. I need to take a shower, though, and clean all this grime off me. I keep saying 4 stars for these volumes, but the overall accomplishment, the accumulated effect, of the series might actually lead me to rate them overall higher, not sure.
February 1, 2015
David Lapham takes Stray Bullets in a less crime driven direction towards more romantic ground in Other People. Like the other two volumes, this book is made up of short stories, some of which are connected and some which are standalone.
We catch up with the recurring characters Beth and Amy after their misadventures in the last volume. Beth is fooling around with various guys she picks up in bars while Amy, unable to live in an apartment where this is a regular occurrence, runs away to live in a friend’s basement, which ironically doesn’t prove to be much of an improvement!
Elsewhere, Lapham introduces some new characters. There’s a man called Hank who accidentally murders someone which changes his personality to become completely uninhibited. There’s the drunken idiot Ricky Fish who passes out at his home one night, bringing along a cop called Roger he owes money to and who meets Ricky’s wife Kathy.
The stories take in the problems relationships bring. Men cheating on their wives, wives cheating on their husbands; how one woman can destroy relationship after relationship by hooking up with men who take up her offer of no-strings sex; and how relationships begin when you’re least expecting and end when the same people change drastically over the years.
As Beth says to the man who desperately wants to have an affair after being married to the same woman for years, “Learn a lesson: the risk is much higher than the reward… treat your wife a little better.” All of the characters in this book would do well to heed those words.
This is also the book where Lapham reveals the secret behind the Amy Racecar stories. I’m sure more than a few readers at this point have been wondering what these bizarre stories of a futuristic thief blowing up the world has to do with the other down-to-earth stories of crooks, and it turns out to be a fairly mundane explanation. It’s a fine one though that slots that character and her stories perfectly into the rest of the Stray Bullets world, especially as the Amy Racecar story in this book is a reflection of the real world Amy’s recent experiences.
That said, the noir-ish Amy Racecar short was the only part of this book I didn’t love wholeheartedly. I like noir as an idea but whenever I try reading one of those stories I always get bored extremely quickly. The noir approach is also why I couldn’t get very far into Lapham’s other book Murder Me Dead - turns out I just don’t like noir! The story does get funny and farcical towards the end but it’s just a style that doesn’t grab me at all.
Besides that though I really enjoyed this book. Beth and Amy are both terrific female characters - strong-willed, clever, and wily to boot. I’m glad Lapham’s keeping them alive so we can read more of their lives. Monster is as terrifying a figure as ever - Harry’s hitman shows up to enact a kind of Biblical retribution upon a cheating professor in the book’s most exciting sequence, and the one closest to most Stray Bullets tales of gangsters and guns.
I also really liked Kathy and Roger’s stories. We see how they meet in the earlier story with Ricky Fish and then later on we see that they’ve been married for years though the romance has soured and Roger has turned out to be a son of a bitch, beating Kathy. The way Lapham switches between characters, picking some up and continuing their story, leaving others behind, is fantastic - he’s building an amazing world with his ever-expanding cast and it’s extraordinary to see how he alters their lives, writing them just as convincingly at different ages and situations.
Stray Bullets is beautifully written and drawn - Lapham generally uses an eight panel grid in black and white to tell his stories and you’ll not see an artist use this format as masterfully as he does. It’s also hella entertaining and fun, besides being true art - these are outstanding comics for grown-ups. While not as full of car chases and other action story tropes as previous books, this volume’s stories of complicated relationships is just as thrilling and compelling to read. Other People is a fine addition to a remarkable series.
We catch up with the recurring characters Beth and Amy after their misadventures in the last volume. Beth is fooling around with various guys she picks up in bars while Amy, unable to live in an apartment where this is a regular occurrence, runs away to live in a friend’s basement, which ironically doesn’t prove to be much of an improvement!
Elsewhere, Lapham introduces some new characters. There’s a man called Hank who accidentally murders someone which changes his personality to become completely uninhibited. There’s the drunken idiot Ricky Fish who passes out at his home one night, bringing along a cop called Roger he owes money to and who meets Ricky’s wife Kathy.
The stories take in the problems relationships bring. Men cheating on their wives, wives cheating on their husbands; how one woman can destroy relationship after relationship by hooking up with men who take up her offer of no-strings sex; and how relationships begin when you’re least expecting and end when the same people change drastically over the years.
As Beth says to the man who desperately wants to have an affair after being married to the same woman for years, “Learn a lesson: the risk is much higher than the reward… treat your wife a little better.” All of the characters in this book would do well to heed those words.
This is also the book where Lapham reveals the secret behind the Amy Racecar stories. I’m sure more than a few readers at this point have been wondering what these bizarre stories of a futuristic thief blowing up the world has to do with the other down-to-earth stories of crooks, and it turns out to be a fairly mundane explanation. It’s a fine one though that slots that character and her stories perfectly into the rest of the Stray Bullets world, especially as the Amy Racecar story in this book is a reflection of the real world Amy’s recent experiences.
That said, the noir-ish Amy Racecar short was the only part of this book I didn’t love wholeheartedly. I like noir as an idea but whenever I try reading one of those stories I always get bored extremely quickly. The noir approach is also why I couldn’t get very far into Lapham’s other book Murder Me Dead - turns out I just don’t like noir! The story does get funny and farcical towards the end but it’s just a style that doesn’t grab me at all.
Besides that though I really enjoyed this book. Beth and Amy are both terrific female characters - strong-willed, clever, and wily to boot. I’m glad Lapham’s keeping them alive so we can read more of their lives. Monster is as terrifying a figure as ever - Harry’s hitman shows up to enact a kind of Biblical retribution upon a cheating professor in the book’s most exciting sequence, and the one closest to most Stray Bullets tales of gangsters and guns.
I also really liked Kathy and Roger’s stories. We see how they meet in the earlier story with Ricky Fish and then later on we see that they’ve been married for years though the romance has soured and Roger has turned out to be a son of a bitch, beating Kathy. The way Lapham switches between characters, picking some up and continuing their story, leaving others behind, is fantastic - he’s building an amazing world with his ever-expanding cast and it’s extraordinary to see how he alters their lives, writing them just as convincingly at different ages and situations.
Stray Bullets is beautifully written and drawn - Lapham generally uses an eight panel grid in black and white to tell his stories and you’ll not see an artist use this format as masterfully as he does. It’s also hella entertaining and fun, besides being true art - these are outstanding comics for grown-ups. While not as full of car chases and other action story tropes as previous books, this volume’s stories of complicated relationships is just as thrilling and compelling to read. Other People is a fine addition to a remarkable series.
October 11, 2016
Even though i can no longer keep track of the characters, i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Even though i don't buy the epiphany in "Two-Week Vacation," i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Even though the ostensible motivation for the late-night visit in "While Ricky Fish Was Sleeping" proved as flimsy as i initially thought, i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Even though Amelia's character arc seems to be intended as a misguided cautionary tale, i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Even though the latest Amy Racecar story is paradoxically a comedy noir crime drama as well as a depressing lesson in sexual morality, i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Even though i seriously disliked the last page of "Little Love Tragedy," i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Even though i have a completely different outlook on the world, i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Even though i cannot be as cynical about relationships as Lapham's stories seem to want me to be, i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Even though people can't possibly be as drastically maleable as Lapham's stories seem to want me to believe they are, i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Even though i don't want to believe there's as much violence waiting just below the surface of almost everyone, i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Because i had to sit and think about the differences between reality and Lapham's characters and their world. That's why i'm rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Because that cogitation led me to realize i obviously have lived and continue to live in a much different kind of world than the one inhabited by Lapham's characters. That's why i'm rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Because that insight seems far more important than any idiosyncratic grievances i might have with Lapham, the world he describes, and the characters he creates. That's why i'm rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
But i'm still quite angry about that last page of "Little Love Tragedy"! Seriously, wtf? The answer it provides does not improve the story. The question could have remained open. Therefore, Mr Lapham, it better relate to something in a later story or i'm gonna come back here and explain why i had to round down from 3.5 to 3.
Even though i don't buy the epiphany in "Two-Week Vacation," i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Even though the ostensible motivation for the late-night visit in "While Ricky Fish Was Sleeping" proved as flimsy as i initially thought, i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Even though Amelia's character arc seems to be intended as a misguided cautionary tale, i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Even though the latest Amy Racecar story is paradoxically a comedy noir crime drama as well as a depressing lesson in sexual morality, i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Even though i seriously disliked the last page of "Little Love Tragedy," i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Even though i have a completely different outlook on the world, i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Even though i cannot be as cynical about relationships as Lapham's stories seem to want me to be, i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Even though people can't possibly be as drastically maleable as Lapham's stories seem to want me to believe they are, i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Even though i don't want to believe there's as much violence waiting just below the surface of almost everyone, i'm still rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Because i had to sit and think about the differences between reality and Lapham's characters and their world. That's why i'm rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Because that cogitation led me to realize i obviously have lived and continue to live in a much different kind of world than the one inhabited by Lapham's characters. That's why i'm rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
Because that insight seems far more important than any idiosyncratic grievances i might have with Lapham, the world he describes, and the characters he creates. That's why i'm rounding up from 3.5 to 4 stars.
But i'm still quite angry about that last page of "Little Love Tragedy"! Seriously, wtf? The answer it provides does not improve the story. The question could have remained open. Therefore, Mr Lapham, it better relate to something in a later story or i'm gonna come back here and explain why i had to round down from 3.5 to 3.
July 12, 2019
Lapham takes a hard run at infidelity in v3.
--Fractal runaway Virginia/Amy gets trapped in a basement with an adulterous dominatrix, her gimp, and her rage-monster husband. (And we finally learn how the left-field Amy Racecar stories fit into the otherwise coherent Stray Bullets world.)
--A near-death experience turns a timid pansy into a self-destructive hyperconfident studmonster.
--A useless drunk of a husband makes a bet that drives his wife into the arms of a random stranger at a bar.
--Lapham tries his hand at noir with Amy Racecar in the PI role. It's a solid homage to the genre until it devolves into a farcical fount of fornication.
--A waitress chain-seduces married men to validate her conviction that all males are treacherous pigs. Including the ones who aren't.
--An adulterous couple trysting at a seedy hotel find themselves in the hands of a psychotic drug gang.
--A woman's choking scare gives her one-star husband a morbid five-star hero fantasy which ends with his best friend's wife in his bed.
--A woman leaves town to care for her cancer stricken mother and her husband sets out to have a one-night stand while she's gone. To his eternal woe he picks up recurring character Beth and learns what turns out to be the volume's thesis: "the risk is greater than the reward".
All of these affairs are punished; none has a happy ending. But then I don't think any of the Stray Bullets stories do.
--Fractal runaway Virginia/Amy gets trapped in a basement with an adulterous dominatrix, her gimp, and her rage-monster husband. (And we finally learn how the left-field Amy Racecar stories fit into the otherwise coherent Stray Bullets world.)
--A near-death experience turns a timid pansy into a self-destructive hyperconfident studmonster.
--A useless drunk of a husband makes a bet that drives his wife into the arms of a random stranger at a bar.
--Lapham tries his hand at noir with Amy Racecar in the PI role. It's a solid homage to the genre until it devolves into a farcical fount of fornication.
--A waitress chain-seduces married men to validate her conviction that all males are treacherous pigs. Including the ones who aren't.
--An adulterous couple trysting at a seedy hotel find themselves in the hands of a psychotic drug gang.
--A woman's choking scare gives her one-star husband a morbid five-star hero fantasy which ends with his best friend's wife in his bed.
--A woman leaves town to care for her cancer stricken mother and her husband sets out to have a one-night stand while she's gone. To his eternal woe he picks up recurring character Beth and learns what turns out to be the volume's thesis: "the risk is greater than the reward".
All of these affairs are punished; none has a happy ending. But then I don't think any of the Stray Bullets stories do.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 4, 2018
Other People mostly steps away from the stories of Beth and Ginny to instead circle through the romantic lives of a number of characters in Los Angeles, California. These stories don't have the heft of the more crime-oriented Stray Bullet narratives (though there's still a murder and some abuse here and there), but they're nonetheless intriguing, especially for how they interconnect both narratively and chronologically. (And of course a few of these characters will return for Stray Bullets, Vol. 4: Dark Days.)
We also get a story ("Sex and Violence", #15) that provides some depth to Beth and Ginny's relationship (and may be the best in the book) while setting up another major character for Dark Days and a future look at what Beth will be doing a few years down the road ("Bring Home the Devil", #22). It's pretty delightful too, mainly thanks to Beth's character.
However the most intriguing story in this volume is likely "Motel" (#20), set hundreds of miles from the LA scene of the rest (and also afterward, in 1986). We learn that Harry has some mathematical code he's trying to crack ... and everyone ends in fleeing cars full of dying men. Here's another plot thread we need to get back to!
Overall, not the best Stray Bullets, but an interesting digression that gives Dark Days some depth.
We also get a story ("Sex and Violence", #15) that provides some depth to Beth and Ginny's relationship (and may be the best in the book) while setting up another major character for Dark Days and a future look at what Beth will be doing a few years down the road ("Bring Home the Devil", #22). It's pretty delightful too, mainly thanks to Beth's character.
However the most intriguing story in this volume is likely "Motel" (#20), set hundreds of miles from the LA scene of the rest (and also afterward, in 1986). We learn that Harry has some mathematical code he's trying to crack ... and everyone ends in fleeing cars full of dying men. Here's another plot thread we need to get back to!
Overall, not the best Stray Bullets, but an interesting digression that gives Dark Days some depth.
June 27, 2018
Other than Alan Moore, David Lapham is my favourite comic book writer. The fact that Lapham is an exceptionally talented minimalist artist, he is a profoundly skilled writer. Stray Bullets is a collection of one off stories that loosely connect. Lapham writes about a group of losers, misfits, incompetent cheats and violent personalities.
There is more tension and suspense in these tales of cheating spouses than there is of a twelve issue intergalatic alien invasion story done by Marvel or DC. These simple tales of deception carry this immense feeling of consequence draw you in and endear you to the flawed characters. If I was to give a graphic novel to any non comic book reader to try and draw them into the genre it would be Stray Bullets. I love everything about this series, Stray Bullets represents all of the potential that comics present.
There is more tension and suspense in these tales of cheating spouses than there is of a twelve issue intergalatic alien invasion story done by Marvel or DC. These simple tales of deception carry this immense feeling of consequence draw you in and endear you to the flawed characters. If I was to give a graphic novel to any non comic book reader to try and draw them into the genre it would be Stray Bullets. I love everything about this series, Stray Bullets represents all of the potential that comics present.
July 22, 2007
vol. 3 of the best graphic novel.
February 27, 2021
(Zero spoiler review) See previous reviews for greater context.
How on earth does this book just keep getting better and better? Even when it takes a little detour from the more established regulars, to introduce an almost wholly original cast, a new location, a new set of problems, Lapham just can' help but write some of the most enthrallingly twisted tales of suburbia that have ever graved the medium. A few days ago, I had Stray Bullets sitting on my shelf. Sure, I knew it was a much lauded series, but I never could have guessed just how captivated I would be with it, a few days later, halfway through the series. No matter what this guy serves up, he knocks it out of the park in a way that should have modern comic book creators taking vast scores of notes, just to see what real writing looks like. When your soul duty is to entertain, rather than to preach and prothetelies. It really is so sad to see some of the amazing comic stories of yesteryear. To see what the medium used to churn out, and on a fairly regular basis. My how far we've fallen. Sure, Brubaker is still doing great work within the noir genre, although how many classics of this ilk are coming out these days. I refuse to believe their aren't writers out there who can't revive the slumbering beast, which is mainstream comics. I know because (if I may be so bold) I'm a writer who could shame the big names kicking about today, but enough of my nostalgic navel gazing. How on earth this series hasn't been turned into a monumentally popular television show is beyond me. Can someone toss me a few million so I can buy the TV rights, and then proceed to, with absolute ease, create one of the greatest television shows there has ever been, all with barely lifting a finger. Lapham has already done all the heavy lifting with his characters and writing. But on second thoughts, they do revel in taking once amazing IP's and grinding them into PC dust these days. Maybe this series is best left as a spectacular slice of the comic lexicon. Are you a fool? READ IT NOW! 5/5
OmniBen.
How on earth does this book just keep getting better and better? Even when it takes a little detour from the more established regulars, to introduce an almost wholly original cast, a new location, a new set of problems, Lapham just can' help but write some of the most enthrallingly twisted tales of suburbia that have ever graved the medium. A few days ago, I had Stray Bullets sitting on my shelf. Sure, I knew it was a much lauded series, but I never could have guessed just how captivated I would be with it, a few days later, halfway through the series. No matter what this guy serves up, he knocks it out of the park in a way that should have modern comic book creators taking vast scores of notes, just to see what real writing looks like. When your soul duty is to entertain, rather than to preach and prothetelies. It really is so sad to see some of the amazing comic stories of yesteryear. To see what the medium used to churn out, and on a fairly regular basis. My how far we've fallen. Sure, Brubaker is still doing great work within the noir genre, although how many classics of this ilk are coming out these days. I refuse to believe their aren't writers out there who can't revive the slumbering beast, which is mainstream comics. I know because (if I may be so bold) I'm a writer who could shame the big names kicking about today, but enough of my nostalgic navel gazing. How on earth this series hasn't been turned into a monumentally popular television show is beyond me. Can someone toss me a few million so I can buy the TV rights, and then proceed to, with absolute ease, create one of the greatest television shows there has ever been, all with barely lifting a finger. Lapham has already done all the heavy lifting with his characters and writing. But on second thoughts, they do revel in taking once amazing IP's and grinding them into PC dust these days. Maybe this series is best left as a spectacular slice of the comic lexicon. Are you a fool? READ IT NOW! 5/5
OmniBen.
February 17, 2024
Returning back towards doing standalone stories, Stray Bullets continues to expand its violent canvas in Vol. 3 - "Other People". The stories in this volume take place primarily in LA between 1984-1986 with most of these one-offs focusing on things like lust and adultery. Starting with "Sex and Violence", a girl runs away from home after getting tired of her sister bringing in too many men to sleep with. She unfortunately finds herself in the thick of it when she is trapped in a basement that acts as a makeshift BDSM dungeon. Other stories include "When Ricky Was Sleeping" and "Live Nude Girls" which involve a lot of poor choices regarding themes like alcoholism and adultery as well. There's another Amy Racecar interlude story here as well, and it still feels a bit out of place.
I liked most of these standalone tales for the most part, but they didn't have the same poignancy I felt with the earlier stories. Lapham does a good job making the stories feel realistic enough, but with a touch of heightened surrealism to provide an off-kilter feeling that works really well. The artwork is as sharp as it has always been.
I liked most of these standalone tales for the most part, but they didn't have the same poignancy I felt with the earlier stories. Lapham does a good job making the stories feel realistic enough, but with a touch of heightened surrealism to provide an off-kilter feeling that works really well. The artwork is as sharp as it has always been.
March 4, 2020
This installment of Stray Bullets occurs in Los Angeles, and all of its stories ate tied together - literally and figuratively - by the themes of lurid sex and romantic infidelity. We don't get the sense that in this narrative universe there are no good people; we just don't get to see their stories. As a result, while each of these stories is well told, the utter griminess and filth of the characters and their arcs makes you want to sanitize your hands.
October 27, 2024
Not as good/enjoyable as Sunshine and Roses story, but it was cool to see the original works by Lapham and see some of the older tales for the characters in the universe. Can be a bit timey wimey and hard to follow after reading Sunshine and Roses first, so it's probably a good start here. But if you're only going to read one of the Stray Bullets titles, make sure it's Sunshine and Roses!
September 21, 2018
This installment was a little more in the vein of those "classic" and tawdry romance comics from the '50s and '60s and a bit less violent and noirish. I realize that it's all building up to something bigger, but still these 8 issues were a wee bit heavy on the melodrama side of things.
March 19, 2019
A masterful selection of interwoven short stories, as Beth and Ginny/Amy settle in Los Angeles and Lapham takes us through a series of tales about the tawdry love lives of people who intersect our heroines' precarious LA lives.
September 30, 2019
Lapham just continues to be so completely unpredictable in every issue of this series. You never know what you're going to get and what you get is sometimes funny, sometimes shocking, and sometimes terrifically touching and sometimes all 3 in one.
May 22, 2022
Been a long time since I read these. I like this volume better than Vol. 2, which I felt was a bit more silly than absurd, if that makes sense. This one returns to the (largely) unconnected short-story format of Vol. 1, and is more successful, IMHO.
October 21, 2025
This went in a different direction with more relationship drama. I liked the story about the man who accidentally kills one guy and then becomes a complete uninhibited daredevil, but the ending went limp. There is one about Beth going with different men, a montage like sad story.
February 25, 2020
Eight somewhat intertwined stories of unsexy sex and love gone wrong, or dirty, or hurtful, or occasionally right. Though that last one is rare.
August 24, 2020
Favourite one in the series
March 12, 2022
Still really love the art and the panel-to-panel pacing. Didn’t care so much for the romance noir stuff.
September 24, 2023
After the one sustained story from Vol 2, we're back to mostly a self-contained tales. But they do add up establish a new status-quo. It was needed since Lapham killed off most of the characters at the end of volume 2.
December 3, 2009
Having killed off or abandoned most of the characters that populated his earlier 'Stray Bullets' comix, Lapham here sprouts a new garden of disturbed stereotypes, including a dull kink couple, a twitchy romantic cop, boozy dirtbag, and the whore with a heart of gold. They pop in and out of these self-contained stories -- all of them about infidelity and the futility of "love" -- and needless to say all hell breaks loose in every case. My favorites are the two Amy Racecar stories, one of which is an over-the-top parody of Raymond Chandler (with Amy in the Philip Marlowe role!). This is of the most astonishing short story collections I've ever read, and one of the most wonderfully rendered comics too -- totally worth reading independently of the whole 'Stray Bullets' arc.
January 9, 2010
Not quite transcendent, but these nasty little stories about flawed relationships are the best work Lapham has ever done.
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