Goldfish by Brian Michael Bendis

Jinxworld

by Brian Michael Bendis

Goldfish is the story of an enigmatic grifter with a heart of gold, who returns to his old haunts to find his old flame, Lauren, practically running the city's underbelly, and his oldest friend and ex-partner in crime, Izzy, now a police detective. But David Goldfish has come back for one reason, and one reason only—for his son. This beautiful volume features a brand new GOLDFISH prose story written especially for this collection. A complete crime fiction novel in a film noir art style. Fans of Raymond Chandler books, Humphry Bogart films, and crime drama will be delighted.

Author Biography: Brian Michael Bendis is the EISNER award-winning creator (The Comic Industry s Oscar) of several crime graphic novels published by Image Comics. His other Image works include TORSO, GOLDFISH, JINX, and FIRE. Fortune And Glory, his Hollywood tell all from Oni Press, was given an ""A"" by Entertainment Weekly. He is also the recipient of the Cleveland Press Excellence in Journalism Award.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Crime, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Noir, Comic Book

Hardcover

First published July 15, 2001

About the author

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

These old Jinxworld novels display why first Marvel and now DC both handed the keys to the kingdom to this man. The dialogue crackles in these early crime dramas by Bendis. This is one of the things that drew me to Bendis's work early on. He has an ear for dialogue like no one I've ever read before. It's like eavesdropping on two actual people having a conversation. Bendis is a master at writing character flaws that ultimately doom them. Bendis also handles the art in these early books.
He's adept at using negative space.

[Toby · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's something positively David Mackian about the way Bendis assaults your eyes with his page layout in neo-noir in graphic novel form, Goldfish. As with Mack the real pleasure of the work lies not in the story or the characters or even the individual panels but in the way each panel is presented as part of a whole. Don't get me wrong, conman, trickster, hustler with a heart of gold protagonist David Gold AKA Goldfish is an interesting character and his quest to gain custody of his son from underworld queenpin and former girlfriend Lauren Bacall (true story that's her name) is the stuff that Thompson-esque dreams are made of but on its own it would fail to truly satisfy thanks to the very nature of graphic novels as a storytelling medium; the book would need to be double the length to really capture the depth of the story, the subtleties and nuances, in the same way a traditional novel would. It's good, but not great but still a must read for fans of the crime genre within the graphic novel world.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. So Goldfish is back ( you learn from where in the Jinx book) and is looking for revenge on Lauren, his ex, and to get something back from her. The “something” he wants back is a crazy new wrinkle. The place has changed some, people he used to run with are now cops and his ex Lauren is kind of running things now. Goldy slowly puts his plan into action only for everything to come to come to a very tragic end. I mean, it was pretty F’d up. Anyway, another solid entry from Bendis in his Jinxworld.

[John Elbe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing my complete Bendis Jinxworld reading. This is a great throwback to when I first read Bendis at Caliber Press during the great indie comics boom of the early 90's. What holds up well are the things that make Bendis great when it comes to dialogue and character. What doesn't work as well are some of the very weak plot points hiding in the shadows. The art is pulp and noir dripping black & white. Works great here in a crime drama but limits as an artist show with challenges of keeping up with who's who, especially toward the end.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I told myself to stop reading new Bendis, but I didn't listen to myself regarding old Bendis. I should have listened. Goldfish is a sloppy con man story with an explosive(ly confusing) ending. The dialogue is dense in the worst Bendis way. The art is thick and shadowed - very 90s, very "I just loved Sin City!" This new edition looks handsome enough, but I encourage you to skip it unless you really want to experience Mallrats again.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Long before someone at DC said "Hey Bendis, want to ruin the best thing that's happened to Superman in the last twenty years?" and he responded with "Sure do!" he wrote and drew this cool little crime story.

He's a surprisingly good artist, surprising because I'm so used to seeing him as a writer only, but he has a nice noir style, steeped in shadows that fit the gritty crime drama playing out here.

The story follows Dave "Goldfish" Gold as he returns to his home after a long time away, finds his old girlfriend is now a crime lord and his buddy is now a cop. It takes awhile to build up to why he's back and what he wants, but it's a pretty enjoyable ride getting there.

There is a bit of a pacing issue, the whole thing feels a chapter too long and the conclusion happens really quickly, but aside from that it's a fun book.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Goldfish” plays out like a Tarantino flick—dialogue sharp as my knife drawer—but the rough, overexposed Xerox-style art drags it down. Stylish noir ambitions meet a production that feels more like a photocopied zine. Difficult to read but immersive for sure.

[Dominick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent neo-noir graphic novel. I know Bendis as a writer, but I didn't realize he was an artist early on, so it was interesting to see his illustrations. He has decent chops--hints (occasionally more than hints) of Frank Miller's Sin City-style art, but without seeming to be a copy or "homage," so much as an influence. Heavy on the blacks makes for some nicely stark pages and also (probably) goes some way towards concealing limitations with anatomy and so on, though Bendis nevertheless shows some difficulty in drafting women, especially their faces, and with page layout--at times, it's difficult to figure out how to proceed through a page, and occasionally dialogue balloons disappear off the edge of the page or into the spine of the book. The writing errors don't help either, especially when a correct and an incorrect usage--e.g. your vs you're--occur literally on the same page. As for the story, it has some interesting twists on the standard noir tropes--femme fatale, crook with a heart of gold (not to mention being named Gold--bit on the nose) coming back to town years later for vengeance, corrupt cops, pervasive cynicism, etc--by making the protagonist's primary motive reclaiming his son (and by making him learn, by the end, that if he'd just aimed for that and let the vengeance thing go, events might well have worked out much better), and by making the climax turn on a minor character stepping up and radically altering events. Nevertheless, despite being solid enough, it doesn't really break new ground. Noir fans will find a lot to like here, probably. Non-noir fans will probably just be confused.

[Clay · Rating 2 out of 5]

With the enthusiastic introduction to this book, I was expecting a plot like the movie "Lucky Number Slevin" with twists and turns and explanations from flashbacks. Nope.

It started well, but at the midpoint, when our eponymous protagonist reveals his objective, I figured it was all part of the game this self-professed con man was trying to pull and he had his sights on something bigger that had drawn him back to Cleveland. Unfortunately, it wasn't. That was what he really wanted all along. This felt so out of character that this plot device seemed to come from all the way out of left field in Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. What Goldfish had to "settle for" at the end felt a little more real.

I like moody, dark, noir art work, especially in crime comics. However, I often felt that Bendis could use it as a crutch to not draw faces on his characters, which made it tough for me to immediately figure out who was saying/doing what at times. Overall this had some good sequences, good bits of dialog, but unbelievable and cliched motivations for most of the characters.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first step into the early works of Brian Michael Bendis was, unfortunately, a disappointing one. The characters in Goldfish never feel very well-defined, the art and lettering are incredibly hard to follow, and the plot is very basic crime/noir of the sort I've never been a fan of. Luckily, Bendis' trademark snappy dialogue was very much present, which made this intimidatingly long trade paperback a quick read, and there were several tiny moments of conceptual brilliance and a few neat twists. Still, I'm very glad that Bendis has improved since the days of Goldfish -- and, selfishly, I'm glad he's now writing things that are more to my taste.

(On a side note, I'm also thankful that Bendis now has conscientious, well-paid editors to look over his work. The typos and grammar issues in this book were too numerous to count, particularly in the prose story at the end, which couldn't even manage to stay in the same tense for more than two sentences.)

[William Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

however shoddy the art may seem at first glance, the layout is fabulously cinematic and will be a quick read for anyone remotely interested in the crime genre. note i say crime genre because it is not a detective novel and it is not a thriller in the vein of jd robb or robert parker, hack stuff. it is a beautiful noir book crafted by a master for fans of raymond chandler, jim thompson and cornell woolrich. it is beautiful. it reads like a well-made movie flows, magnificent editing and quentin tarantino type dialogue, it is dead on.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, I can snippets in here of how Brian Michael Bendis became a star but this is pretty rough. First off, Bendis handles the art chores and they're rough. Many times it was difficult to tell who was speaking or what was transpiring in each panel. The story about a con-man returning to Cleveland to get his son back from his mob boss ex was weak. The son, who barely gets an page time until the finale, is an afterthought. The book does a poor job of showing how Lauren became who she is. It all felt pretty random. Overall, I'm glad I finally read this but not thrilled with the experience.

[Travis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Remember around '94 - '95 when we got a fucking deluge of terrible Tarantino-influenced straight-to-video crime movies that were so desperate to be hip and cool and ironic and talky they forgot little things like characterisation, forward momentum, and engaging narrative? Goldfish is the comic book version of all of those movies, but even more tedious. Vaguely interesting for some of the formal experiments and flourishes, but not enough to justify the investment of your time. Bendis got *a lot* better later on.

[Peter Goutis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe it's lazy or whatever, but this is the same review I gave his book Jinx. They are both con type stories. I loved them both for the same reasons. So the review is perfect for both.

What can I say about this? Bendis can write. He's my favorite comic writer. His stuff isn't just super heroes saving the day (even when he's writing about super heroes saving the day), it's pieces of life captured on paper.

It's good solid writing, with good solid well rounded characters. Once I got into this, I hated putting it down. It's a good con story. It's got all the twist and seedy characters the add tons of color to this black and white tale.

Bendis is really known for his dialogue and it really shines in this one. I love that when his characters are sitting around smoking or eating with eachother, they're telling stories. They're not always thinking plot plot plot. They're real. They get sidetracked. They tell jokes to each other.

If you like David Mamet's movies, or maybe Confidence or Pulp Fiction even, you'll probably really like this graphic novel. I loved it.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s kind of great in a messed up sort of way.

[Vincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

This early Bendis is very Bendis-y for good and bad.

It has his "naturalistic" dialog style, which gives the impression of being the way real people speak without excessive use of dialect. But the way he includes all the hems and haws and interruptions and back and forth can make it infuriating to follow the word bubbles and remember who is speaking. There are pages where he even reduced the dialog to prose in order to escape drawing talking heads or two people just standing around.

I like the crime and film noir feeling; this is Bendis' best genre in my opinion. And the shading and moodiness of his art supports that.

IBendis started out drawing his own comics but this is the first time I've seen the work and it is far better than I anticipated. But it does look like he relied on photo reference (and possibly outright photo reproduction) too much and he has not mastered graphical story telling yet here. Compare this to early Powers where it is usually much easier to follow the panel flow and dialogue. Also, the more realistic style Bendis has gone for here saps a great deal of energy from the action sequences. Finally, because it is more relistic and less charicature, along with the heavy use of inks, it can be difficult to tell the cast apart, especially near the beginning.

[Rick Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goldfish is an early Brian Michael Bendis venture that depicts master con man David Gold dipping back into his past as he goes for one last job. It's a conventional setup for a crime thriller, but Bendis' plotting is pretty strong and the naturalistic dialogue is as potent here as it ever has been. There's some clever twists and turns here to make this a strong crime comic, but I did feel a lot of my enjoyment here was mired by Bendis' limited abilities as an artist. There are strong moments with respect to the artwork to be found for sure, particularly with Bendis' ability to cultivate striking contrasts with the negative space of the page. But a lot of the linework seems pretty haphazardly finished, with the better pieces coming off as entirely photo-referenced. I don't know if Bendis is a strong freehand artist, but it does seem like he lacks the confidence here to pull it off. It makes for a rather unpleasing look for significant chunks of the book, but not altogether disqualifying for my enjoyment. It's still a fun heist story and features some subversive use of crime tropes throughout.

[L J Field · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goldfish is one of the four Crime-Noir graphic novels written by Bendis. I read this one last, delaying because I liked the character of Goldfish from his previous appearance in the graphic novel Jinx. The payoff for me was the last dozen pages. Bendis must have geared up for the soliloquy that wraps up the story for quite some time. It is very effective. Otherwise, this tale was a bit jerky, changing scenes often, with many characters that one has to remember by facial characteristics as names are infrequent. This made it a bit hard-going at times. I also had a bit of difficulty in discerning why particular actions were taken by a few of the players. They didn't seem realistic, or acts that would be performed by right thinking people. Still, I enjoyed this novel of some 300 pages and wish Bendis had written more in this series.

[Terry Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bendis' adoration of Mamet is never more apparent than within the pages of this book.

The problem is, how tough-guy-dialogue comes off as toxic masculinity, and the book is never better than when Bendis relies on a simpler, more Tarantino-esque pop culture infused banter.

He is obviously a gifted storyteller, and his work is generally engaging, but something about this story irks me. It might be the ham-fistedcanted angles he draws everything in. It might be the pig's breakfast of a conclusion.

Or it might just be that the story simply isn't interesting for large swatches. When it shines, it absolutely sparkles. And then you have to suffer through 15 pages of trite posturing.

The talent was there, but I'm thankful he found a voice of his own years later.

[Eule Luftschloss]

trigger warning
gun violence

Ten years after his mysterious disappearance, a conman is back in town.

Dnf-ed this because I could not get into it. Had problems with the reading flow, the panels are full of chains of speech bubbles and it is not really clear where to continue.
It's a re-issue of a graphic novel from the 90-ies, and I felt like I had seen this so many times and felt no curiosity towards characters or plot. Had problems to motivate myself to pick this up again, and then realised that I won't be reading this many pages of this story.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

[Ozro Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bendis's early work is so much more interesting than the thousands of superhero comics that followed. His aggressively repetitive dialogue feels much more earnest in a grounded noir story like this. And while he's far from an all-start artist, his work is still extremely interesting and takes big swings. The design of the book is fascinating, especially when you compare it to much of what was coming out at the time.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first Bendis book I've read; his dialogue is fantastic. It reads like listening to someone talk, fluid and real and full of half-finished words and awkward stops.

The story I could give or take, and it's fairly forgettable, but the art is interesting and the overall experience was worth two days of my time.

[Kat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointed by the frequent typos in this which put me off. Also found the flow of the panels hard to follow. Not fussed by the art either. I don't mind black and white - I love Sin City, but this wasn't doing it for me.

[Anthony · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was very close to being a DNF

I’ve read the other Jinxworld Bendis stuff and I liked them a lot more than this. I just struggled to get into it from the start, so then it took longer to read, and ended up feeling like a chore to get through

[Will Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little long and wordy in places, but I guess a con man would be pretty wordy. Fun story and satisfying ending.

[Jared Bird · Rating 3 out of 5]

not on comicbookroundup

[Chris W · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent set up. Sloppy end. 2.5 stars
It is a mix of the good and bad of Bendis style. Its overly wordy for no reason at times as well.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't get the love for it.
It's muddy, indistinct, and overly long.
Maybe if I read it a quarter century ago?
Maybe.
But not today.

[Cameron Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was just so much potential here, and it falls flat in a lot of ways. The writing is decent though, and it’s an interesting story, but just misses the mark altogether.

[Robert C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than Fire, but still frustratingly muddled. The spark of Bendis' future writing is all here though.