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Sinister Dexter #3
Sinister Dexter: Slay Per View
Finnigan Sinister and Ramone Dexter are gunsharks: hired killers with chalk outlines around their souls. Need a job done? Removal? Disposal? Deletion? Call the gun-lovin criminals! In SLAY PER VIEW, Ramones got a serious problem: he thinks he might be a notorious serial killer called the Blevmoi Butcher! Can Finnigan find the truth before Ramone puts a bullet in his own head?
Collects:
- London Town (Prog #1084)
- The Big Stiff (Prog #1085)
- Lyrical Bollards (Prog #1086)
- To the Devil a Detour (Prog #1088-#1089)
- Drop Dead Gorgeous (Prog #1090-#1091)
- Mother Lode and the Red Admiral (Prog #1092-#1095)
- Tan Lines (Prog #1097)
- Tax Returns (Prog #1098)
- Bullfighting Days (Prog #1099)
- End of the Line (Prog #1102)
- Slay Per View (Prog #1103-#1107)
- Dead Man Whacking (Prog #1108-#1109)
- Death is a Lonely Donegan (Prog #1111)
- Anatomy of a Throwdown (Prog #1112)
- Unofficial Business (Prog #1113-#1114)
- Sucker Punch (Prog #1115)
- Grey's Allergy (Prog #1123)
- 'Twas the Fight Before Christmas (Prog #1124)
Collects:
- London Town (Prog #1084)
- The Big Stiff (Prog #1085)
- Lyrical Bollards (Prog #1086)
- To the Devil a Detour (Prog #1088-#1089)
- Drop Dead Gorgeous (Prog #1090-#1091)
- Mother Lode and the Red Admiral (Prog #1092-#1095)
- Tan Lines (Prog #1097)
- Tax Returns (Prog #1098)
- Bullfighting Days (Prog #1099)
- End of the Line (Prog #1102)
- Slay Per View (Prog #1103-#1107)
- Dead Man Whacking (Prog #1108-#1109)
- Death is a Lonely Donegan (Prog #1111)
- Anatomy of a Throwdown (Prog #1112)
- Unofficial Business (Prog #1113-#1114)
- Sucker Punch (Prog #1115)
- Grey's Allergy (Prog #1123)
- 'Twas the Fight Before Christmas (Prog #1124)
240 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2005
24 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 2, 2016
It's actually difficult to give the third volume of DS a rating because there's just so much material here -- a few of the worst stories yet, including a shockingly racist voodoo story (and I love voodoo stories). But the collection's titular story is pretty good, with some actual romance and character development, both big left turns for a series that's mainly about killin', shootin', and killin' some more.
I guess this book is sort of like a double-album -- it's really impossible for every song to be a classic. But there are some really beautiful standouts here, mostly due to some weepingly gorgeous art -- Andy Clarke starts to get some facetime, which is excellent, and there's a broad range of painted art, including a devastating one-off by someone named LOL (what?) that does more with flashback and worldbuilding in six-pages than...well, I dunno. Insert something here. Point is, it's good.
Flashbacks and worldbuilding, actually, are probably the real strengths of this volume. Not only does one of our favorite hitmen get a pink-haired girlfriend (cooool) but we learn more about the cops that they're in an uneasy alliance with, as well as their mysterious, scantily-clad boss Demi Octavo. We get some hints of the structure of their Europe of the future (Downlode really is, apparently, somewhere in Russia, which is kind of weird) as well as the history of the city's criminal power imbalance. And we meet a bunch more colorful hitmen (who mostly die) which is kind of cute (even if they mostly die). It's all fairly subtle (except for the death), but on the whole the world is starting to feel much more lived-in.
I guess I would say that this book builds on the strengths of the previous volume's attention to deepening the context of S&D's adventures, while doing a better job of staying story-focused than vol 2 was able to. Its best points are some of the best thus far in the whole series, but the worst -- blecch.
The only strange component here is a tone of general foreboding that's starting to hang over the killers' adventures. Obviously there's always got to be some pretty heavy noir stirring the pot in stories like these, but more than once we're treated to dreams, loose threads, and strange magicks which suggest that something apocalyptic and terrible is about to befall our merry hitmen. Thus far the axe hasn't dropped, and this shadow has been looming on the series' horizon for quite some time. But I'm curious if the series' one real bonafide mega-epic, Eurocrash, will finally pay off on all the idle threats.
There's also a slight problem starting to impact the series as a whole which isn't unique to SD -- we're getting into the age of late 90's digital coloring, which is an overblown gradient shitshow. But in that respect, almost any mainstream comic from this time period is going to be, well, totally garbage-looking. SD (and much of 2000ad in general) has the benefit of fine artists who actually know what the fuck they're doing, so for the time being, things are usually not too bad.
But that voodoo story. What an overblown gradient shitshow. Also, y'know, racist.
I guess this book is sort of like a double-album -- it's really impossible for every song to be a classic. But there are some really beautiful standouts here, mostly due to some weepingly gorgeous art -- Andy Clarke starts to get some facetime, which is excellent, and there's a broad range of painted art, including a devastating one-off by someone named LOL (what?) that does more with flashback and worldbuilding in six-pages than...well, I dunno. Insert something here. Point is, it's good.
Flashbacks and worldbuilding, actually, are probably the real strengths of this volume. Not only does one of our favorite hitmen get a pink-haired girlfriend (cooool) but we learn more about the cops that they're in an uneasy alliance with, as well as their mysterious, scantily-clad boss Demi Octavo. We get some hints of the structure of their Europe of the future (Downlode really is, apparently, somewhere in Russia, which is kind of weird) as well as the history of the city's criminal power imbalance. And we meet a bunch more colorful hitmen (who mostly die) which is kind of cute (even if they mostly die). It's all fairly subtle (except for the death), but on the whole the world is starting to feel much more lived-in.
I guess I would say that this book builds on the strengths of the previous volume's attention to deepening the context of S&D's adventures, while doing a better job of staying story-focused than vol 2 was able to. Its best points are some of the best thus far in the whole series, but the worst -- blecch.
The only strange component here is a tone of general foreboding that's starting to hang over the killers' adventures. Obviously there's always got to be some pretty heavy noir stirring the pot in stories like these, but more than once we're treated to dreams, loose threads, and strange magicks which suggest that something apocalyptic and terrible is about to befall our merry hitmen. Thus far the axe hasn't dropped, and this shadow has been looming on the series' horizon for quite some time. But I'm curious if the series' one real bonafide mega-epic, Eurocrash, will finally pay off on all the idle threats.
There's also a slight problem starting to impact the series as a whole which isn't unique to SD -- we're getting into the age of late 90's digital coloring, which is an overblown gradient shitshow. But in that respect, almost any mainstream comic from this time period is going to be, well, totally garbage-looking. SD (and much of 2000ad in general) has the benefit of fine artists who actually know what the fuck they're doing, so for the time being, things are usually not too bad.
But that voodoo story. What an overblown gradient shitshow. Also, y'know, racist.
August 23, 2021
Sinister Dexter stories are short bursts of fun. But as this collection shows, they are also no good at all.
September 24, 2024
Very dated - Not great but cute enough - just didn't get into it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews