Stray Bullets #1

Stray Bullets (Single Issues)

by David Lapham, Janet Jackson (Colorist)

"The Look of Love." The Eisner Award-winning cult-crime series returns.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Crime, Graphic Novels Comics, Sequential Art

33 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 1995

Reviews

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great B&W artwork

Not bad. Good artwork, I love the black and white sketches, but a bit too short and somewhat predictable. Trying #2

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, that was QT movie in comic book form.

I don't like QT movies.

[Stergios · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two guys drive at night with a body in the trunk of the car on their way to dump it. They have done it several more times for their boss but it seems that all this blood on their hands has taken it's toll on one of them.
It is bloody and builds up. With every try to cover up the mess, things get worse. Fitting art.

[Simon Mendoza-Agostini · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it!, it is like a pulp comic book, It felt like a Quentin Tarantino's work. The drawing is excellent black and white ink, the best.

[Cybernex007 · Rating 4 out of 5]

What the hell did I just read? That was straight awful, and not in the sense that it was written badly, but those were truly awful disgusting characters. This is legit my first interpretation of the series, reading this because of a challenge of league, lol, so I had 0 idea what to expect and that was sick in the worst possible sense. Aside from how terrible of people these characters art, the story was enthralling and the black and white art style is so well used. The story follows two guys, Frank and Joey and they have a body in their trunk. It’s not explicitly said what happened, but they know a guy named Harry who probably killed her but also let Joey have sex with her a few times either before or after death. Now these two guys are disposing of the body, not their first time, and wouldn’t ya know it…their tire popped. Frank had Joey get the spare tire and Jack from the trunk, moving the body to the woods to hide it in the process, while Frank replaced the tire. As Joey dragged the body to the woods it left a blood trail on the road and as Joey went back out into the woods to pee…a cop rolled up. He didn’t see anything off at first and Frank was almost done, but he did notice all the beer cans in the back of the car. Frank made up a story about dropping his friend, who had the drinks, off at home and he may have had 1 or 2 but he is perfectly sober. The cop ran his details and everything came back clean, but as he went back to his car and waved Frank off…he saw the trail of blood…and Joey saw him notice it. Joey ran out of the woods blasting his revolver and killing the cop on the spot. They proceeded to load him into the truck as well to dispose of him. On the car ride Joey, who has a few screws loose, asks if he is a bad person. Frank laughs it off, he justifies their actions by comparing their killing to his father’s time in Korea, killing people to save the USA. If the cop found the body they would be caught and there would be a lot of ruckus and media coverage. Harry would be in trouble and the whole country would be in chaos so in a sense they were protecting their country. While that really makes me question who Harry may be, it’s also a small glimpse into how sick these people are. Additionally Joey is starting to get through to about how Harry treated the girl they have in the truck before she died. But the thing is Joey still has to pee, he couldn’t do it with the girl looking, so Frank pulls them over to a diner/restaurant stop. As Joey rushes to the back, Frank makes small talk with the gas station attendant. But as Joey comes out he sees the attendant opening the trunk to a car, he immediately freaks out. He runs to the door yelling for him to stop and to get his hands off of her as he pulls out his revolver and shoots the man as he runs outside. Frank is freaking out and trying to get him to stop. The attendant runs for the woods, only for Joey to gun him down as well. Once Joey finally stopped, Frank pointed out that the open trunk…was from the car parked next to them. Frank begins to usher Joey into the car so they can leave…and then a shotgun blast stops them as the cook in the diner, who was in Nam, stops them cold as they drop to their knees. Joey tries to peek his head out from behind the car and ends up catching some in the air of his arm. Joey looks at all the shotgun pellets that went into the trunk of their car and he has the gall to call the cook a murderer. He suddenly rushes out and aims his revolver at the cook…only to find it empty when he fires it. The cook is about to blow Joey away…until Frank shoots him from his own pistol I. The car. Frank is really trying to get Joey to hurry out of there now…instead Joey picks up the shotgun and proceeds to kill everyone else in the diner. Frank is really worried now, they couldn’t have witnesses and now they have to get rid of the bodies. The load all of them into the car wherever they can find, the trunk, the backseat, and even the front seat next to Joey and then they proceed to light the building on fire. As they drive, Frank proceeds to drink a lot more. He has a plan, they will get rid of all the evidence alongside the car. He looks over and Joey doesn’t look so hot, so Frank decides to tell him a story. About a preacher in his old neighborhood who would preach the gospel to everyone. He would go around getting people to cleanse themselves of sin and ask Jesus for forgiveness as that’s all that really matters. But then people started turning up dead, turns out the preacher killed 18 people. He would save them and then he would kill them and send them off to heaven before they could sin again. It’s all about timing is the point of his story, they can still get into heaven and all that. What Frank is really worried about is if Harry finds out, Joey still hates Frank for the way he hurt and talked to the girl and Frank can’t help but call nuts. After all, Harry and his boys are killers not working stiffs like the two of them finally they reach a lake where they plan to dump the car and everything inside. But then Joey starts talking about how he was going to be married, how he has to kill Harry now because he killed his girl. He explains that he was in love with her and she was going to have his baby. Frank tries to talk him down, he explains this was the first time he has seen this girl and just because he had sex with her doesn’t mean she is going to have a baby. Frank suddenly realizes that was the first time Joey had sex, and gets a big grin with the idea of taking Joey to a place to get laid. But Joey doesn’t want to…then he would be cheating. Frank can’t help but pound his head against the glass for how stupid he thinks Joey sounds. They have a trunk full of dead bodies and he isn’t thinking straight. Suddenly Frank pulls the girl in the body bag out of the front seat where Joey has been sitting with her, he yells out that he doesn’t even know her name and she was just a whore…and suddenly Joey blows Frank’s brains out for cursing in front of her. He says her name is Janice, and he suddenly grabs her body and apologizes and promises to treat her like a princess and to be better. And that starts by making Harry pay. The issue ends with a car full of bodies sitting next to a small pier. What kind of manically mind did this pop out of?! That was insane but I couldn’t help but keep reading.

[Aldo Haegemans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit of a mess

[Adam Spanos · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story started right in the middle of the action, a little slow but that's I stayed with it. I'm glad I did because the action picked up and didn't let up. Now I am curious how these characters came to know each other through their back stories. Love, Murder, Mental Challenges and Law Enforcement are all represented in this "trunk" full of a story. Good storytelling...

[Colby Fitzsimmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.3 stars. I didn't know what to expect from this one, the art is in black and white and at first I wasn't a fan. But then the events started happening and I was like, If this is not black and white I would be horrified;) It is worth the first issue at least considering it is free on kindle.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

A crime drama.

Black and white. Sort of reminds me of Elmore Leonard. Though on second thought, maybe Quentin Tarantino would be a more accurate comparison.

[Tom O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't normally list single issues but Stray Bullets doesn't comfortably fit the Trade Paperback arc. There are links between the stories but they stand well as short stories. This one is a chilling crime story about vulnerability and cruelty. Strong.

[Leaysia Lampkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book

This is a good comic book for adults I don't recommend this for children there is a lot of strong language.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imagine Rain Man gone psycho with a gun..this kid has some serious issues along with a paranoid itchy trigger finger

[Tim Beyers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just not my style of book. Otherwise, Lapham is a talented creator. The facial expressions are particularly well-done.

[Kayla Vanderlinden · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay art, but just felt bored.

[Celtic · Rating 2 out of 5]

My rating is for the first issue only. Decent artwork and competent storytelling but a premise/character I've no interest in finding out any more about. Psychopaths and slaughter are simply not that interesting.