Balles Perdues

Walter Hill's Triggerman #1-5

by Walter Hill, Matz (Adaptator), Jef (Illustrator)

Tout juste exfiltré de taule, Roy Nash a une mission à remplir : éliminer 3 hommes qui sont partis avec le magot d’un fourgon blindé. Un polar pur et dur, qui sent bon le soufre, les balles qui sifflent et les femmes bien carrossées.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Crime, Bande Dessinée, Noir, Fiction, Historical Fiction

122 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2015

About the author

Walter Hill is a legendary American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is widely known for his action films including The Warriors, Hard Times, The Driver, Southern Comfort, 48 Hours and its sequel Another 48 Hours, Red Heat, Last Man Standing, Undisputed, and Bullet To The Head, as well as writing the Steve McQueen crime drama The Getaway. Recently branching out into the comics world, Hill's debut title is the Prohibition era crime epic, Triggerman.

Walter Hill's IMDB page »

Reviews

[Kemper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Filmmaker Walter Hill has written a comic. Can you dig it? CAN YOU DIG IT?!!? CAAAANNNNN YOUUUU DIGGGGG ITTT??!!!??

Unfortunately there’s not that much here to dig.

In 1932 professional gun man Roy Nash gets creatively sprung from prison by the mob in order to track down three hoodlums who double crossed them after a bank heist and killed the boss’s nephew in the process. After Roy tracks them down and kills them he can keep any money left from the robbery he comes across in the process, but his main motivation is finding the old girlfriend who ran off with one of the thieves. When his desire to find her conflicts with his mob mission Roy runs afoul of all kinds of gangsters and crooked cops.

This is a perfectly fine set up for a crime comic, and it’s done well enough. But you’d think the guy who came up with movies like The Warriors and Streets of Fire would have done something with some visual flare and memorable characters. Really, it’s just a series of bland panels in which guys with fedoras and trench coats punch and shoot each other. It’s not entirely fair to blame Hill for this since he didn’t draw it, but on the other hand it all looks very much like his lackluster Bruce Willis Prohibition-era shoot-em-up Last Man Standing so it seems like he just gave some of those old storyboards to the artist and called it a day. Plus, the story is just your standard anti-hero tough-guy killing people for personal reasons rather than for money.

It’s not terrible, but it’s not anything particularly great either.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Triggerman is adapted from an unproduced screenplay by famed screenwriter and director Walter Hill. Hill made films like The Warriors, 48 Hrs, Red Heat and Last Man Standing.

Triggerman has got everything you want to see in a noir story. An enforcer newly out of prison, sent to find three gentlemen who skipped Chicago with Al Capone's money. These guys took his ex-girlfriend with them when they headed out to California. It's got some great gun battles and lots of heavies going at it. The art is solid too.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roy Nash is a hitman fresh from the pen, commissioned by the mob’s top brass to take out a crew who messed with the wrong people.

Set during the prohibition era, Triggerman offers everything a fan of the crime-infused, fedora wearing personalities of the 1920’s could want – yet it doesn’t convey that distinct Chicago place setting. Rather, Triggerman is an ode to the common violence and easy-sway of police corruption of the time where mob was rule and blood spattered the pavement like rain drops.

My rating: 5/5 stars. The linear plot is centered around the systematic execution of the outlawed crew with a former love interest of Nash’s thrown in for a bit of character development. The art is moody and evocative, and complements the story to perfection; I enjoyed every panel of this graphic novel.

[Craig Childs · Rating 2 out of 5]

In 1932, Machine Gun Roy is broken out of prison by the mob and given an assignment to track down three men who stoke $500,000 from Al Capone. It also just so happens he may be able to rescue his long-lost girlfriend from those same men. Roy is given guns, a fast car, and a driver and sets out west to wreak his vengeance.

The graphic novel (based on an unproduced screenplay by Walter Hill) has all the earmarks of a good pulp action story: gangsters, gorgeous dames, crooked cops, gunfights, and double-crosses. Unfortunately, there is not enough characterization or plot to sustain it over five issues (128 pages). The characters are cardboard cut-outs. They show up, they get killed. Move on.

The fight scenes are just plain silly. For example, in one key sequence Roy gets in a gunfight against four men at point-blank range. Somehow, he drops all of them with one bullet each while their automatic rifle fire rains down on him without a single solid hit.

I usually enjoy a shoot-em-up pulp adventure, but this is not one of Hard Case Crime’s better outings. Skip it.

[Michael J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read TRIGGERMAN #1-5 (Titan Comics, October 2016- March 2017).
This began as a French graphic novel, an adaptation of an never-produced movie script by famed writer/filmmaker Walter Hill. Titan picked up the English rights and released it as a five-issue mini-series under their Hard Case crime comics imprint.
The art is gorgeous, with a European flavor, and absolutely appropriate for the atmosphere and tone of the story.
Triggerman is a period piece, a time capsule of 1932 Prohibition-era American gangsterism. “Serving a life sentence for his violent criminal past, Mafia gunman Roy “Triggerman” Nash finds himself abruptly freed from his prison cell and tasked with one final job. But all this straight-shooting mobster really cares about is Lena Dorsey — the woman he was forced to leave behind.”
Crooked gangsters with cross purposes. Crooked cops. Plenty of gun fights, wherein Nash displays a Punisher-like ability to avoid fatal bullets. Not too emotionally deep, Triggerman goes for the jugular and entertains as well as the best escapist crime B-movies.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walter Hill directed 48 Hours, Another 48 Hours, and a host of other films. In Triggerman Hill has penned a gangster rich story full of action and violence with Prohibition as a backdrop. Our protagonist looks a lot like Billy Drago from 1987's The Untouchables-the art is fantastic. There are no heroes here, though is a lost love at the heart of it all. A nice dose of noir for a Saturday afternoon.

[Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard Case Crime comes through again with another very good graphic novel, Triggerman. Our protagonist Roy Hill has just surprisingly(!) been released from prison and is sent to what he knows and is good at, hit man, or, Triggerman.

Prohibition in Chicago sets the stage as Roy makes his way through the speakeasys, bars, gangsters, and corrupt cops to carry out his orders. All the while he holds a torch for Lena Dorsey, the woman left behind when he was tosssed in the pen.

This is a good story, and I found the drawing impressive, capturing the Prohibition era perfectly. There are plenty of gun battles, albeit some over the top, along with some nudity and sexual situations (comes with the territory with adult graphic novels).

Recommended.

[Ripley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tommy guns, dames, and fedoras! This is the quintessential gangster story. Roy Parker is a triggerman on a job trying to save the woman he's in love with. I highly recommend this comic.

[Elfo-oscuro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una grata sorpresa. Guión de Marzo muy bien elaborado. Dibujo más que adecuado

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this is my first Hard Case Crime graphic novel and I have to say I really enjoyed it- I have been reading Hard Case Crime novels off and on ever since I discovered a number of the early Michael Crichton books were published under the Lange pseudonym.

Anyway I have to compliments the editors of the series on the quality of both the publishing and the story it was really fun to read. Now as usual no spoilers but I will admit that the end notes did explain a few things I noted from the fact that the story flowed very visually - not surprising considering the length of time the story had been in development to the fact that the author had spent some of his career in the film business.

Yes the story was predictable in places but you know what there are only so many options available in this genre and as such the enjoyment was more in the journey than the destination. Great book and I will certainly be keeping my eye out for more of them

[Scott Rhee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Action film lovers will recognize the name Walter Hill as director of such classics as “The Warriors”, “48 Hours”, “Southern Comfort”, and “Red Heat”, among many others. He has produced and scripted several dozen films throughout his extensive Hollywood career, and he has recently turned his sights toward graphic novels.

“Triggerman” is based on a script that Hill has been sitting on for roughly 30 years, one of several stories that he hasn’t, for whatever reason, been able to translate to film. Adapted by Matz and drawn by Jef, “Triggerman” is a cinematic masterpiece which just happens to be in a comic book format.

The story is as noir as one can get: Set in 1932, the novel follows mob hitman Roy Nash, recently given a reprieve from prison by the Chicago mob. Apparently, Mr. Capone has heard about Roy’s reputation, and he wants Roy to find and dispatch three men who took off for the West Coast after an armored car heist that left Capone’s 19-year-old nephew dead.

Roy accepts the assignment, but only because he has an agenda of his own. His motivation isn’t revenge, though. It’s love. The one that got away.

Visually, “Triggerman” is beautiful in every way, highly detailled and precisely drawn and colored. Each panel is like a storyboard scene from a film that never was, even replete with an old sepia tone, like classic old movies. One can get lost just admiring the artwork.

Hill’s story is excellent, too. He knows when to build tension and create pathos. He borrows liberally from some of his own films, taking the best parts of films like “Last Man Standing” (a mediocre Bruce Willis actioner set in the same time period) and “Wild Bill”, while also giving subtle nods to film noir classics like William Wellman’s 1931 “Public Enemy” (and I’ll be damned if Nash isn’t based on James Cagney) and Robert Towne’s 1974 “Chinatown”.

I’m amazed at what graphic novels can achieve nowadays, considering just twenty years ago, very few people would have considered using “comic books” as a medium for creating such fantastic art.

[Ricardo Nuno Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great noir story, bursting with gangsters, shoot-outs, dames, foggy and night scenes, corruption and... money, of course. Lots of it.
A man pulled out of prison for one last job, which isn't particularly aligned with his own intentions...

I really liked the charisma of the main protagonist, the cinematic scenes, the intriguing storyline and all those twists and surprises, up till the end.

The art is a bit irregular, I should say, with some exaggerated facial expressions at times, but the strong story and some epic scenes and perspectives make it all worthwhile.

Definitely one of the best noir graphic novels I have ever read.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 3 out of 5]

Way too many "I woulda done it this-aways" in an example the genreiest type of genre fiction- luckily it's one that I love...

and the art is excellent!

[Juan Fuentes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tiene sus momentos pero también excesivos tópicos. Se deja leer.

[Jacob Dzik · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really entertaining and fun gangster graphic novel. Very cinematic which is no surprise since Walter Hill is the creator.

[Kevin Mann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhat generic film noir gangster tropes, but i like that, so it worked for me. The art is strange enough to hold attention, also liked that, and the coloring was just as unusual as the art and the combination of all hit the spot for me.

[Jason Brown (Toastx2) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nearly forty years ago, in 1979, Walter Hill directed the cult classic The Warriors. Less than a decade later, amidst other gigs, he penned the story for Triggerman. In 2015, Rue de Sèvres releases the French language graphic novel Balles Perdues (translated 'Stray Bullets')

Lucky for those of us do not speak french, Hard Case Crime just released the first edition English graphic titled "Triggerman". It is 124 pages of gritty prohibition badass. Individual issues were released last year, but this collection soles the piecemeal problem many of us have with buying singles.

Machine Gun Roy Nash is dead. A fat bloated body attributed with his name was riddled with bullets inside a prison and cremated. Nash is delivered inside a pine box and on opening, Roy Parker is born.

Roy has a knack for locating people and extracting from them anything which requires extracting. Today, he is charged with locating three men who performed a job and then bolted before paying up. It isn't the money that is the problem, it is the disrespect.

Roy is personally invested in this job. Travelling with the three men was lovely Lena, the woman that makes his clock tick and his life meaningful. It doesn't hurt that any cash recovered will remain his, to the tune of half a million dollars.

The art in this novel is solid.. Like a brick rock through a window.
The writing is amazing, relying on the interplay with imagery, it drags you along at just the right pace.
The tommy guns frequently blurt out 'Budda-Budda-Budda' and everytime, you feel the lead to body 'conversation' is absolutely justified.

A couple things helped legitimize this story. First, Nash.. I kept making mental comparisons to the similar last name of Elliot Ness, a true life special agent who battled Al Capone. They are no where near mirrors of each other but I was in a prohibitionist state of mind and perhaps needed a beer while reading this. Second, the gangster in Chicago who is offended and pays for this adventure happens to be referred to as Al, regardless of any last name, it FEELs right when reading it.

Hard Case Crime has been releasing solid fiction for a few years now and looks to be continuing the trend.

--
Disclosure: This was provided to me for review purposes. While I could choose to murder the reviewed work in it's sleep, I really did like it and will attempt to hide it from our mutual enemies to ensure it doesn't receive cement shoes. If I hated it, I would have written my review in emoticons that are not relevant to the era of the work and would have been a whole lot less fun.

[Yosef Shapiro · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story starts out well, with an escape from Jail and the set up for several hits. But, the plot sort of plods on after that. The main character is not very well developed. We don't really know too much about what motivates him. It would have been a better story if the backstory had been developed. I rate it 2.5

[Dávid Novotný · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Classic' noir story with a romance twist, but well executed. There is nothing you didn't see anywhere else in genre, but it's nicely put together, keeping the pace so you eager to turn another page. Only downside is, that some characters look very much alike so I got lost a little sometimes.

[Matt Graupman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not every story has to reinvent the wheel. There's a lot to be said for a fairly unoriginal story being told competently and compellingly. "Triggerman," the long-gestating crime noir comic by filmmaker Walter Hill ("48 Hours," "Bullet To The Head," etc.), is just such a story. Gangster Roy Nash's bloody rampage through the underworld of Prohibition-era Los Angeles in pursuit of two hoods who stole half a million dollars isn't anything that hasn't been done before; that said, though, it's well-written, beautifully drawn, and gritty enough to rise above its peers.

Reading "Triggerman," I kept comparing it to another noir comic: the masterful "100 Bullets" by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso. Both have copious amounts of gunfights, nudity, and morally compromised protagonists but what separates them is their tones; "100 Bullets" felt like a prestige cable television series compared to "Triggerman," which has the feeling of a slick big budget summer movie. The pencils, coloring, plotting, and dialogue in "Triggerman" all have a glossy sheen, which is appropriate I suppose, considering Hill is a Hollywood veteran. Anyone who's watched or read even a little of the cops-and-gangsters genre knows how "Triggerman" is going to end but, when the journey is this much fun, the destination doesn't matter quite as much.

So, if you like your revenge cold, your dames hot, and your jazz smooth, you could do a lot worse than "Triggerman."

NOTE: My only gripe with the book - and it's a big one - is the totally unnecessary use of the n-word in one scene. Yes, racism was blatant in those days, but the use of that word was glaring in its inclusion and I think there were several better ways to get that point across. Bad form.

[Bulent · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hikaye, çok klasik bir macera. Ayrıntılar onu zenginleştirmiş, aksiyon dolu çatışma sahneleri oldukça keyifli hale getiriyor, sürpriz finali atmosferin iyice karanlık olmasını sağlıyor. Ancak Roy Nash dışındaki karakterlerin tipleri o kadar çok birbirine benziyor ki, sürekli bu kim, bu hangisi diye düşünüyor okur.

Bir diğer nokta da hikayenin orjinalliği... Last Man Standing filminin yazarlarından ve yönetmeni olan Walter Hill, filmin hikayesini Akira Kurosawa'nın Yojimbo filminden uyarlamıştı. 2004 yılında Triggerman hikayesiyle ilgili olarak yapılan (ve kitapta da yer alan) bir röportajda Walter Hill, Thomas Handson'a "İncil ve Homeros dışında hiç bir hikayenin orjinal olduğunu düşünmüyorum" diyerek küçük bir ipucu veriyor aslında.

**********************

The story is a very classic adventure.The details make it enriching, the action-packed battle scenes quite enjoyable, the surprise final makes the atmosphere darker.But the images of characters outside of Roy Nash are so much alike that they constantly read who thinks this is which.

Another point is the originality of the story ... Walter Hill, the writer and director of Last Man Standing, adapted his story from Yojimbo from Akira Kurosawa. In an interview (and in the book) about the story of Triggerman in 2004, Walter Hill gives Thomas Handson a little hint saying, "I do not think any story except the Bible and Homer is original."

[Zare · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is combination of "Red Harvest" and "Road to Perdition" .... as a matter of fact it is your standard gangster novel about lone wolf fighting in the end for the right cause.

Our protagonist is hired gun that gets sprung out from the jail by the Chicago mafia because he is the man with skills to find people that have double crossed the Chicago mobsters.

Of course what starts as a rather simple task evolves into situation where blackmail, back stabbing and betrayal flourishes. Soon our hero will find himself fighting the uphill battle and in the end losing more than he expected.

You might say all of the above is seen in many movies and read in many crime novels and I have to agree. This one is not aiming towards the originality but to tell the story of a man seeking redemption while doing some pretty nasty deeds.

Art is very good and our hero looks very much like Alain Delon in his appearance.

Recommended to fans of the crime stories.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, strong beginning! And a good tale overall! Roy Nash is a hard-driving gunman in LA in the 1930's, a man who does what he has to do. Tough, cold, and deadly! His is a violent tale, and a good one! It's funny, the beginning reminded me so much of the “Last Man Standing" starring Bruce Willis, and I was tickled when I found out this author also wrote that movie! It also reminded me a lot of "Road to Perdition", a story written by fellow Hard Case Crime writer Max Allan Collins! I'm not writing that to criticize, just something I noticed. I liked "Triggerman" on it's own, connections or not!

[Rick Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in the backdrop of the tail end of Prohibition, professional hitter Roy Nash is sprung from prison by old mob contacts to hunt and kill a group of bank robbers who got the boss' nephew killed during a botched job. But Nash has personal skin in the game, which results in some murky circumstances. This reads like a pretty milquetoast crime thriller that was taken from an unused film script, and as a result makes for a fairly bland comic. The artwork by Jef is pretty pleasing, but there isn't really anything interesting in terms of action or layouts. The net result is a comic that is serviceably entertaining, but overall forgettable.

[Gonzalo Oyanedel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un guion inédito de Walter Hill servido por dos veteranos del panorama europeo, quienes arman un relato de serie negra que combina los clichés del hard-boiled con lugares comunes al cine del director: antihéroes de halo romántico, amores malditos, ambientes y villanos sórdidos... El regreso a las calles del sicario Roy Nash para que recupere el botín que tres ladrones no entregaron a la mafia de Chicago, su búsqueda personal y el trágico saldo de ésta homenajean al género sin engaños ni pretensiones, resultando una grata lectura para todos los aficionados del noir. Recomendable.

[William Stanger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I borrowed this graphic novel from the library as it looked kind of interesting. It was pretty good, although quite dark. Set in the 1930s, during prohibition, it was the story of gun-for-hire taken on to find a couple of gangsters who had double-crossed one of his friends. Added to this assignment was the opportunity to rescue his lost beloved. It was well-drawn and moved at a good pace. It would have probably made a good crime drama movie as well.

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this up from the library while I was waiting on a tyre change. If you like the gangster genre you'll probably like this. Good visuals to suit the mood. The edition I read (I think it's this one) had a hilarious (to my mind) interview with Mr Hill, in full "grumpy old man who can't be bothered" mode.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Various cover blurbs describe this as an archetypal gangster story, which I suppose is a way of saying that it might be familiar. There isn't much of a hook to it to make it feel fresh, it's just a prohibition-era mob tale punctuated by hails of tommy-gun fire. Solid, don't get me wrong, but nothing to really sink your teeth into.

[Murray Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Triggerman is pretty good, I have a great interest in the prohibtion era. I read the books from hard case crime this is the first graphic novel from them I've read. Not a masterpiece but enjoyable for what it is.

[Timo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts with a high note, then grinds to halt and draaaaaaags oooooooooon until action bit comes and things pick up again.
Really, really nice art. Truly beautiful so that saves a lot. Could've been better story.