Weird Work

by Jordan Thomas, Shaky Kane (Illustrator)

The hard-boiled noir of LA Confidential mixes with Futurama's bright, alien-filled worlds in WEIRD WORD , a crime epic not to be missed.



After months of gang shootings, Detective Ovra Sawce and his new partner Donut Trustah are given a high-profile triple homicide case. But what were a billionaire’s assistant, a hood-turned-cult leader, and Sawce’s former partner doing in that warehouse?

Collects WEIRD WORK #1-#4

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

120 pages, Paperback

Published February 6, 2024

Reviews

[Rick Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird Work is a bit of an oddity. Featuring the bizarre character designs from the endlessly creative mind of Shaky Kane, the story is a rather conventional crime story otherwise. It features a winding investigation of a triple homicide where a washed up detective takes the lead in solving the case. Given that his partner is amongst the three victims, Detective Di Sawce is assigned a new partner, Donut Trustah, a younger officer who has just returned from a brief suspension for taking a bribe. Their strange names aside, it's there truly ludicrous designs that will keep the reader captivated. The story opens to an assassination attempt on a crooked politician named Vimmy Vinders, who manages to eject out of his limo as it is shot up by a local crime boss' goons. How the politician and the mob boss connect to the murders remains part of the mystery for a while, and the story unfolds like a typical yarn about corruption in a sleazy, crime-infested city.

The story itself didn't blow me away, but the juxtaposition of the conventional crime noir tropes with the sci-fi bend introduced via Kane's artwork was pretty fun. It's a fun setting for a story we've all seen before, and Kane's Kirby-esque designs are always entertaining. His lines are bold but consistent, and the use of a psychedelic color palette is enthralling as always. It's very Mike & Laura Allred in design, but Kane is always ready to push boundaries a little further into the grotesque and Weird Work is no exception. This is a fun comic undoubtedly, even if the story itself has a bit of a worn quality to it.

[Steve Bal4 · Rating 3 out of 5]

True to its title! I can only imagine that the creators — writer Jordan Thomas & artist Shaky Kane — had a blast coming up with this series. An old-school, pulp fiction/film noir crime procedural set in a retro-futuristic city filled with aliens, monsters, mutants, and the most bizarre Silver Age pop culture mash-ups you've ever encountered.

Blue-skinned, troubled & down-on-his-luck Detective Ovra Sawse is given another chance to redeem his somewhat tarnished reputation when the hulking Stellar City Chief of Police offers to team him up with another disgraced cop, the red-hued Donut Trustah, to solve a triple homicide that just happens to involve the murder of Sawse's previous partner, Loocholomew Lewlock. Crime bosses, crooked cops, drug cults, billionaire businessmen, two-headed goons, anthropomorphic henchmen, invisible assassins, killer toucans, and wall-to-wall kooks & weirdos of every shape, size & description you can (but likely haven't) imagined.

The true oddness of this one (aside from the aforementioned) is the juxtaposition of a relatively straightforward murder yarn with the wacky, over-the-top illustrations: James Ellroy or Ed Brubaker meets Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko or Wally Wood at a drug-induced orgy — and then run it all through a Mike Allred filter. On the one hand, the story/plot is simple, but with multiple character tie-ins it does get discombobulating at times. (Especially when every new person has the most outlandish name assigned to them.) The illustration style is also simple, flat, with very little detail rendered, but some of the strangest designs & bastard pop bootlegs Kane could come up with. Silly, unnerving, kitschy, gross, colourful, imperfect, and so very, very weird.

I can't say I loved this — at times I had the impression that they were just doing absurdity for the sake of being absurd (like perennially shitty Bizarro-genre fiction) — and the tabloid narration trope sprinkled throughout was more annoying than enjoyable, imo, but I absolutely appreciated that they went in their own direction, and had fun doing it. So, if you like kooky, crazy, genre-blending comics, this may just be your bag.

*Also includes a gallery of all of the variant covers with wild interpretations of the characters by lots of other wonky artists.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ & 1/2

[Alex Sarll]

If The Man From Maybe was Jordan Thomas and Shaky Kane's take on the Western, this is them doing procedural noir: a washed-up detective and a compromised rookie getting out of their depth as they investigate a killing that turns out to have links to cults, drugs, gang war, and corruption at the highest levels. All very James Ellroy, except that Stellar City makes Mega-City One look like Slough, the degree of ambient oddness being such that a toad capo, a parrotfish cop and one witness who's just an enormous chain-smoking hand almost fade into the background. As for the new narcotic in town, Froth isn't just mind-expanding but head-expanding, leaving addicts who thought they could handle it after grease balls, panda puff, nip-nips and Silly Sally with balloon-like bonces as grotesque as they are hilarious. Yeah, underneath all the strangeness the plot is really pretty familiar – but when Shaky Kane is on art, sometimes a simple chassis is all you need.

[Rahul Nadella · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a tough book to read, which I believe is partly intentional. As awkward, crude, and ugly as the art is, it DOES make an impressive impact on the page. Theres a definite appeal to the series once a readers eyes get used to it but with the story being as familiar as it is there isn't a whole lot of incentive for the reader to get acquainted with Kanes art. It's beyond strange, perhaps too strange to fully enjoy.

[Niche · Rating 1 out of 5]

Brightly colored crime noir

Kind of has an "adult comedy cartoon" vibe. I wouldn't call it "funny" but there's a mordant silliness that feels like it straddles dark comedy and crime noir.

Colorful aliens, weird drugs, murder, corruption, and conspiracies, it's kind of an adult comedy crime noir as two last leg detectives are paired up to investigate a string of murders from politicians to drug lords.

[Mohan Vemulapalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This graphic novel combines truly weird art with a fairly creative and moderately complex police procedural mystery. The characters and plot are not particularly original but generally shine. In addition, the dialogue, which would make Sam Spade go into shock is not to be missed. This book is recommended for anyone who is open to a poly-chromatic approach to classic Noir.

[Dair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shaky Kane’s art is fantastic as always, but the story is lacking. Worth a look for the art alone though.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really fun art and creature designs. Story isn’t all that compelling or entertaining.

[Aaron Baca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird indeed, funny and absurd detective story. Story is a typical noir, but the art really makes this book

[Thomas Rivas · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun detective book ! Art was very Bojack !

[Dylan Earnshaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty bog standard dystopian noir i think but i did enjoy. I thought the end was a bit naff tho. I always love the shaky kane tho

[Chr*s Browning]

two thumbs way down. interesting art can't save a snooze of a story with way too much text on the page. image will really publish anything.