The Complete Pistolwhip

Pistolwhip #1-2

by Matt Kindt, Jason Hall

The breakout graphic novel series from MIND MGMT creator Matt Kindt and Beware the Creeper writer Jason Hall returns, in color for the first time and collected in its entirety! The edition includes both Pistolwhip books for the first time in hardcover, along with the Mephisto and the Empty Box one-shot and a story from Dark Horse Happy Endings! Thrill to the twisty, interconnected tales of Mitch Pistolwhip, Charlie Minks, Jack Peril, Captain January, the Human Pretzel, and a monkey!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Noir, Comics Manga, Mystery, Crime

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 9, 2015

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading as Detective Work:

This you gotta read! I can see why some people might dislike the book, and Kindt's work in general: Sometimes he's just too clever for his own good. He loses people, because he's so trying to be so smart and meta. But I really like it: He's a lot of fun . . . he's smart about stories, and he loves pulp crime stories and comics history. Understanding this does take some work, because there are layers and layers and links to links. Images in one story make their way in other stories here. It's complicated. Basically, this is very much like all of Kindt's work in that he likes the twisty turns of crime storytelling, that genre of storytelling, and then he makes commentary on that process and its relationship to fiction generally. And this is fun for him, he likes crime fiction AND showing you cool stuff about the nature of narrative.

Oh, and I should say, this is not just Kindt's work, it is fully collaborative with Jason Hall (Before the Creeper). I don't see a decline in quality when Hall is writing, because they seem to work very closely together on the writing and layouts. Kindt is main writer on at least half of it, but he is the artist throughout, with that signature cartoony noir approach you either like or hate, and there are plenty of the latter who hate it, but I love it. It's closely aligned with Jeff Lemire's aesthetic. Kindt drew some dream sequences for Lemire's Sweet Tooth, and so on. The nostalgia for forties and fifties pulp comics leads one to think of Seth and Chris Ware and others. With dialogue and period costuming I think of his connections to Seth. With the addition of a section, "Curiosities," they share images of fun memorabilia ala Ware such as Pistolwhip trading cards, calendars, paper dolls, a guided tour map of the city Pistolwhip takes place in, and so on. Fun, right? One pamphlet they created is "Understanding Pistolwhip," which is a riff on Scott McCLoud's Understanding Comics, and here you get insight into their playful yet scholarly approach to comics stories. Noir AND highly aware comics theory-in-practice.

Sound too postmodern for ya? Regularly Goodreads reviewers throw up their hands and say they don't know what the hell is going on in the story, and I get that, I have problems with its coherence, too. Kindt and Hall expect you to make thematic links between the Pistolwhip stories and some not so obviously related stories like Mephisto, January and The Yellow Peril, all collected here. Pistolwhip is in much of them, but they also have their own arcs, too. But Kindt and Hall love their 40s and 50s comics. They are writing fun stories that comment artfully on this era's comics. One character, a villain of course, rails against comics as culture corrupting. . . comics-code-era commentary. Plot isn't the point with Kindt; I am mainly just along for the exuberant ride!

I like Pistolwhip, Charlie Minks (who looks a lot like Meru in Kindt's Mind Mgmt) and all the noirish characters! The Yellow Peril! Fun commentary on racist comics. As with Alan Moore and others, they remind you why you started reading comics in the first place, but also make critiques on some of them. Yellow Peril is a fun story weaving a fictional comic book character into the world of Pistolwhip… confusing? And to add another layer, the Pistolwhip stories are being written by the former Human Pretzel, who creates pretzel plots! Periodically Pistolwhip bangs into Pretzel's room to confront him, gun in hand: "All right you old coot! It's time yer schemes come to an end!" Come on, relax, it's fun!

Here's a couple quotes to give you an idea of where they are coming from:

Isla Rose: "You know me, if I was a cat, I'd be dead." (getting that pulp fifties flavor)

Pistolwhip: "Are you saying Yellow Peril's crazy?"

Charlie Minks: "Of course not, Pistolwhip. He's fictional. Now the guy running around in the Halloween outfit? He's nutty as a fruitcake." :)

And another central one for you, their dear readers:

Yellow Peril to Mitch, or Pistolwhip: "Mitch, if you're going to be a good detective, you've got to be aware of your surroundings at all times. It's really about observation. . . paying attention to detail, always alert. That means keeping your eyes and ears open. . . especially to the little things."

To be a good reader, as Kindt, Hall and Scott McCloud remind us, you have to read closely to understand everything that is going on. They encourage us as readers to have fun, sure, but to not just read for escape, to pay attention. Being a good reader is like being a good detective. The more you pay attention the more fun it is. It makes you smarter to read like that.

Maybe Kind's Mind Mgmt is more elaborate, "better" as storytelling, but this stuff is a lot of fun. Maybe in some sense this is a four star comic compared to MM. But the hardcover book, just out now, is gorgeous, and now colored by Marie Enger, it's just beautiful, so the heck with it, 5 stars.

[Valéria. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Má to na sebe meno Matt Kindt? Berem. Pistolwhip je ďalšia jeho úžasná záležitosť, ktorá ma veľmi bavila. Kresba je tu na jeho pomery celkom dobrá a o dosť jednoduchšia, než som u neho zvyknutá, a to je už čo povedať, keď jeho kresba je jednoduchá sama o sebe. Každopádne som jeden z tých ľudí, ktorí žerú ako jeho komplikované, pre niektorých zbytočne moc (ako tvrdia) smart príbehy a nápady, tak žerem jeho kresbu, ktorá je fakt jedinečná (pozn. niektorí by toto sovo vymenili za "hnusná a špatná"). Pistolwhip má fakt úžasný formát, velká tučná bichla, ktorá ale váhovo pripomína tenučký paperback. 5 z 5 jednoznačne.

[Donovan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like a Sunday afternoon movie, it’s something to look at, and the characters pass before your eyes. But the next day you’ve forgotten everything.

[Michael Doane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of darkly comic, noir, private eye and quasi superhero stories loosely connected by their gritty urban world. Includes a healthy dose of meta fiction which seems to beg the question: "Does art influence life, or does life imitate art?"

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matt Kindt's art and writing are always so good. I don't know how I forget this between reading his books, but I do. Every time. And then I am pleasantly surprised to find myself in a Kindt-created world. Every time.

There are a few things going on here that I don't 100% understand - the decoder ring in the back may be of some help in the future. I'm excited to re-read it with a bit more of an idea about what I should be looking for/paying attention to, and with decoder ring (er, photocopy of decoder ring, I suppose) handy.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe I'm not cool enough to get this. I kept waiting for it to be good, but it never got there for me. The art didn't bother me, but the multiple storylines never seemed to go anywhere. I kept going back and scrutinizing things in the background to see if there was some hidden message that I wasn't getting. If there was something there, I didn't find it.

It wasn't awful, but it was a book where I spent the first 2/3 hoping it would get better, and the last third wishing it would end.

[Peter Derk · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't follow this one. I mean, I sorta could, sorta couldn't. I think maybe there's more happening here than I got, but maybe not. Or at least, not enough that I care to give it another shot. I read it in bed on Saturday morning, not at a desk with a pad of paper and shit. Pre-coffee and everything. So I gave it a shot, but, feh, I'm good.

[E.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the things I love about Matt Kindt's work, that also appeared in Red Handed: The Fine Art of Strange Crime, is the connections between characters and story threads. These connections are not always deep, and in some cases tangential, but his exploration of the way people in cities are (often unwittingly) connected, lives colliding in strange and small ways, is a wonderfully subtle subversion of the isolation and loneliness that are hallmarks of the noir genre. Mitch Pistolwhip has a small circle of friends and acquaintances, although none of the characters are truly intimate with each other, and hold each other at arm's length. And yet, they are connected, they seek each other out. Kindt's art style is so good at expressing the loneliness and sadness these characters feel, and even though they do not end up in positive, hopeful places, they all get answers and closure to their tragedies.

Another intriguing aspect is the backwards storytelling in the first set of Pistolwhip comics/episodes. I really liked the way the narrative unfolded in reverse, each segment walking me back through the timeline to set up the otherwise inexplicable climax at the start.

[Rumi Bossche · Rating 3 out of 5]

i want to like this book more. but i dont, love the style and feel of the book, and also i really dig the crazy detective type of stories with alot if weirdness ( pirates) magicians, and so on. but the most important is still the story, and thats kind of a mess, maby a reread in the future, maby i will like it better then.

[Burcu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt a bit lost reading this one at times. The Complete Pistolwhip brings together many storylines (some of which are extremely meta) that sometimes do and don't exactly follow each other. It's weird, and obviously the creators of it love noir, put a lot of love into this. All in all, super fun to read, even though I felt like it didn't really have that big of an effect on me.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matt Kindt's art is very distinctive and one of my favorite parts of his books, but the stories are even better. The ending of this one was a little tough to figure out. I'm not quite sure I got it, though I still enjoyed the book as a whole.

[Tmhau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like running into a friend of a friend who you’ve heard so much about but you can never quite make a connection with them. Strong art and creative design but something kept it from coming together for me. A precursor to other superior works by Kindt and Hall.

[Nate]

I didn’t really care for this. On paper, it’s up my alley: a pulp homage. But the stilted, distant storytelling made Pistolwhip difficult for me the enjoy, let alone follow. Yet another Matt Kindt book that failed to grab me.

[Jefferson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The non-traditional artwork takes a little getting used to, but Matt Kindt is one of the most original comics creators to come along in years.

[Tetsuo · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little confusing at times. I wish I had more time to spend with it.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy Lemires Essex County, I think you'll enjoy this story. It has a very similar feel and storytelling elements.

[Matt Sears · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great, but just a little bit too tricky for me.

[Andrew Guttridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art work was glorious, but I found the stories hard going and confusing to follow.at times.

Has that lovely quality paper smell.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still Not Sure What Happened…

But I loved this deep-dive into pulp fiction, comics, OTR, private eye stuff and pop culture, and all the blurry lines between them.

[Tim Shepard · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was okay. Honestly it didn't hold my attention well. While the characters may have been well drawn, they were all kind of one note and without development. Definitely not a book for me.

[John Mihelic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ultimately, I liked this book.

The problem here is that I can’t talk with my hands.

I want to speak of the noire character of the book, the dark and unknown that stays there through the end. What really is interesting is how the book can both probe deep and stay on the surface of things so that it is hard to get close to the characters, but you care deeply about them.

And here’s the hands-y part. I want to take both of my hands to describe a place in space that takes both hands in parallel facing you, and then weave them through each other. When I do it in space it feels like one of those dances someone on ecstasy does. I’ve never done ecstasy. It makes me think of that two-bits critical word I learned in grad school: “entrelacement”. But I think it is just making me drop pseudo-French and not being real. I hart that.

So, to look back, this is a book about a private eye and a dame and a radio superhero. And about none of that. And totally worth it.

[Pat Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

"But here I am,
With smoke in the air
and blood on the floor."
- Pistol Whip

[Larry C · Rating 2 out of 5]

Matt Kindt loves a mystery. He would have added some interesting storyline a if he had written for LOST. Unfortunately, I did feel lost while reading Pistolwhip. Since this was a joint venture with Jason Hall, I don't feel as if we heard Kindt's voice as we have with his other books.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find Matt Kindt's stories a little tricky to follow but his characters and drawings always captivate me.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feel like I missed a lot of the connections in the crossover plots, but all-in-all twas fun.

[Lukas Holmes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kindt is just such an amazing talent. As soon as you finish, you'll need (want) to go through it again.

[Salimbol · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3 and 1/2 stars]

[SA · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish it were slightly less oblique, but still a masterwork.