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Tumor #1-8
Tumor
Private investigator Frank Armstrong barely scrapes by in the Los Angeles underbelly until “the big one” hits his desk. Locate and retrieve the daughter of a drug kingpin, and he can finally afford more than the one-dollar meatloaf. Unfortunately, the job offer arrives just as the symptoms of his fatal, late-stage brain tumor intensify. Frank must find the target and keep her safe while time collapses, family turns into foe, and the specter of his murdered wife resurfaces in the eyes of a mobster’s daughter.
248 pages, Hardcover
First published July 24, 2009
6 people are currently reading
250 people want to read
About the author
Joshua Hale Fialkov
444 books141 followersJoshua Hale Fialkov is the creator (or co-creator, depending) of graphic novels, including the Harvey Nominated Elk’s Run, the Harvey and Eisner nominated Tumor, Punks the Comic, and the Harvey Nominated Echoes.
He has written Alibi and Cyblade for Top Cow, Superman/Batman for DC Comics, Rampaging Wolverine for Marvel, and Friday the 13th for Wildstorm. He’s writing the DC relaunch of I,Vampire, as well as debuting the new Marvel character The Monkey King. This fall sees the launch of The Last of the Greats from Image Comics with artist Brent Peeples.
He also served as a writer on the Emmy Award Nominated animated film Afro Samurai: Resurrection, and as Executive Producer of the cult hit LG15: The Resistance web series.
Elk’s Run, Tumor, and Alibi are all currently in development as feature films. He has written comics for companies including Marvel, Wildstorm, IDW, Dark Horse, Image, Tor Books, Seven Seas Entertainment, Del Rey, Random House, Dabel Brothers Productions, and St. Martin’s Press. He has done video game work for THQ, Midway Entertainment, and Gore Verbinski’s Blind Wink Productions. He also wrote a Sci-Fi Channel movie starring Isabella Rossellini and Judd Nelson. Unfortunately, at no point in the film does Judd Nelson punch the sky and freeze frame. Joshua grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, went to college in Boston, where he got a BFA in writing and directing for the stage and screen, and then worked in the New England film industry, until finally deciding to move to Los Angeles to do it properly. He lives with his wife, Christina, daughter, Gable, and their cats, Smokey and the Bandit.
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/joshfialkov
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/joshuahalefia...
Photograph by Heidi Ryder Photography
He has written Alibi and Cyblade for Top Cow, Superman/Batman for DC Comics, Rampaging Wolverine for Marvel, and Friday the 13th for Wildstorm. He’s writing the DC relaunch of I,Vampire, as well as debuting the new Marvel character The Monkey King. This fall sees the launch of The Last of the Greats from Image Comics with artist Brent Peeples.
He also served as a writer on the Emmy Award Nominated animated film Afro Samurai: Resurrection, and as Executive Producer of the cult hit LG15: The Resistance web series.
Elk’s Run, Tumor, and Alibi are all currently in development as feature films. He has written comics for companies including Marvel, Wildstorm, IDW, Dark Horse, Image, Tor Books, Seven Seas Entertainment, Del Rey, Random House, Dabel Brothers Productions, and St. Martin’s Press. He has done video game work for THQ, Midway Entertainment, and Gore Verbinski’s Blind Wink Productions. He also wrote a Sci-Fi Channel movie starring Isabella Rossellini and Judd Nelson. Unfortunately, at no point in the film does Judd Nelson punch the sky and freeze frame. Joshua grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, went to college in Boston, where he got a BFA in writing and directing for the stage and screen, and then worked in the New England film industry, until finally deciding to move to Los Angeles to do it properly. He lives with his wife, Christina, daughter, Gable, and their cats, Smokey and the Bandit.
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/joshfialkov
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/joshuahalefia...
Photograph by Heidi Ryder Photography
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
June 17, 2017
When I first picked this up at the library I thought it was going to be some kind of dark mashup about a guy's cancer and how it feels to have cancer, as if it were some dark murder mystery. I read a lot of graphic memoirs and novels about health issues, and more than a few about cancer. And then, to see that the art is so quick-sketched as to be almost baffling, even ugly. And I was unfamiliar with the author and illustrator. I set it aside for a few days, not sure it would be worth my time.
No, it wasn't quite what I expected, but was in a way much more. The book was released serially in 2009 on Kindle, and just now in late 2016 in hardcover. It's a noir detective story about a guy, Frank Armstrong, who gets the biggest case of his life--to find the daughter of a mobster and kill her--on the same day he is diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. As Duane Swiercznski points out in his preface, hard-boiled detectives are always getting bonked on the head, and authors are ridiculously describing the effects of such hits. But here our hero, down on his luck, old, a long time drunk, broken from his love, a veritable cliche of a detective, now has to contend with hallucinations, migraines, seizures, and a reality warping twist on time. And it feels real, not just like someone knocked out and "shaking off" a serious concussion as usually happens.
The girl he finds he confuses with his old girlfriend, he thinks he's back in time, he's in the future, he's constantly struggling with saving the girl and trying to maintain some semblance of equilibrium, and it is pretty affecting, I think. This deluxe hardcover edition includes a sketchbook, an interview with the author, an afterword by him, a separate story in the world of our hero, and the original pitch for the series, where the author admits some echoes with stories such as Memento.
The art of Noel Tuazon seems, finally, great, appropriate to the rough and ready noir intention, and a dark and tenuous grip on reality both for him and for us. The girl seems like his girlfriend, it's hard to tell the difference for him, so why should it be any different for us? He loses touch with reality, and we do. This is really an impressive indie comic that all readers of detective fiction should read. And maybe, those who want insights into brain cancer, which Fialkov did his homework about.
No, it wasn't quite what I expected, but was in a way much more. The book was released serially in 2009 on Kindle, and just now in late 2016 in hardcover. It's a noir detective story about a guy, Frank Armstrong, who gets the biggest case of his life--to find the daughter of a mobster and kill her--on the same day he is diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. As Duane Swiercznski points out in his preface, hard-boiled detectives are always getting bonked on the head, and authors are ridiculously describing the effects of such hits. But here our hero, down on his luck, old, a long time drunk, broken from his love, a veritable cliche of a detective, now has to contend with hallucinations, migraines, seizures, and a reality warping twist on time. And it feels real, not just like someone knocked out and "shaking off" a serious concussion as usually happens.
The girl he finds he confuses with his old girlfriend, he thinks he's back in time, he's in the future, he's constantly struggling with saving the girl and trying to maintain some semblance of equilibrium, and it is pretty affecting, I think. This deluxe hardcover edition includes a sketchbook, an interview with the author, an afterword by him, a separate story in the world of our hero, and the original pitch for the series, where the author admits some echoes with stories such as Memento.
The art of Noel Tuazon seems, finally, great, appropriate to the rough and ready noir intention, and a dark and tenuous grip on reality both for him and for us. The girl seems like his girlfriend, it's hard to tell the difference for him, so why should it be any different for us? He loses touch with reality, and we do. This is really an impressive indie comic that all readers of detective fiction should read. And maybe, those who want insights into brain cancer, which Fialkov did his homework about.
August 8, 2019
A modern day noir with a twist. Frank discovers he has a brain tumor on a day where he gets a big case, finding the daughter of a big drug dealer. Frank starts to lose touch with reality and a sense of time, flashing back to a momentous time in his life with his wife. He often confuses the girl he's sent to find with his wife and hallucinates about their time together. It's a trippy read. I didn't care for the art at all though. It's often just quick sketches with little detail sometimes looking like thumbnails.
January 25, 2018
While the premise was interesting enough, the graphic novel itself fell flat for me.
March 20, 2022
Z příběhu jsem byl úplně nadšený. Předmluva slibovala "fresh take on noir" a nezklamala. Asi všechny žánrové konvence, ale tak, že to dává smysl.
March 12, 2019
Kinda hard to review this one... Fialkov's storytelling is really good (totally loved his Echoes) but I struggle with the art. There are graphic novels/comics with art you can call ugly or simple like in Gipi's Land of the Sons, Lemire's and Kindt's self-illustrated stuff etc. But if you don't enjoy it you can at least tell the characters apart and understand what the panels are trying to say. But the art in Tumor is really messy. Luckily there is only a handful of characters and while switching between past and present the artist is using a different technique which is kind of cool btw.
The story itself is really interesting. There is an old PI Frank who is struggling to find a case (probably cause he's old af). On a day when he's hired to find a missing daughter of an LA kingpin, he's also diagnosed with a major brain tumor (you probably guessed that). With days to live he's devoted to finishing his (most likely) last case which will take him down the memory lane as there are some similarities with the situation 20 years ago where his wife was killed.
There are some nasty effects of the tumor, like memory loss, mood swings and seizures and Fialkov obviously did his homework with actual research about it. The problem with noirish/hard-boiled stories like this is that it's really hard to feel sympathetic for any of the characters and you might have the "oh well" kind of reaction after finishing the book like I had.
The story itself is really interesting. There is an old PI Frank who is struggling to find a case (probably cause he's old af). On a day when he's hired to find a missing daughter of an LA kingpin, he's also diagnosed with a major brain tumor (you probably guessed that). With days to live he's devoted to finishing his (most likely) last case which will take him down the memory lane as there are some similarities with the situation 20 years ago where his wife was killed.
There are some nasty effects of the tumor, like memory loss, mood swings and seizures and Fialkov obviously did his homework with actual research about it. The problem with noirish/hard-boiled stories like this is that it's really hard to feel sympathetic for any of the characters and you might have the "oh well" kind of reaction after finishing the book like I had.
October 31, 2018
Decent noir detective story with serviceable artwork.
January 19, 2021
I'm always happy to try out a crime graphic novel, and picked up this LA-based one to check out. I didn't realize its claim to fame was that it was the first graphic series commissioned for the Kindle. This collects the entire storyline, which revolves around the somewhat novel premise of its protagonist detective dying from a brain tumor. The author apparently did some significant research into the effects of a terminal brain tumor, and used that as a key device in the story.
The basic plot is pretty run of the mill stuff -- a gangster throws a lot of money at the all-but-retired Frank to find his missing daughter and then a lot of stuff goes sideways, including the involvement of a crooked cop from Frank's past. In classic noir "you can't escape the past" style, It turns out that Frank used to be married to a different mobster's daughter, and she was killed. And so finding this young woman -- who happens to resemble his dead wife -- is his last hope at redemption.
Unfortunately, Frank's tumor is causing seizures, and he fades in and out consciousness with episodes of extreme disorientation in which he mixes up the young woman for his wife, and the present reality for what happened twenty years ago. This is nicely handled visually, with the present in stark and strong back and white ink, and the past in grey swashes of brushwork. Beyond that visual solution, the artwork isn't particularly interesting or distinctive. The story hops around LA, visiting Hollywood, the main public library, the metro system, and a few other familiar sites. All in all, I didn't love it -- beyond the high concept premise, it just felt too assembled from scraps of noir and crime tropes and Frank's redemption arc just felt too paint-by-numbers.
The basic plot is pretty run of the mill stuff -- a gangster throws a lot of money at the all-but-retired Frank to find his missing daughter and then a lot of stuff goes sideways, including the involvement of a crooked cop from Frank's past. In classic noir "you can't escape the past" style, It turns out that Frank used to be married to a different mobster's daughter, and she was killed. And so finding this young woman -- who happens to resemble his dead wife -- is his last hope at redemption.
Unfortunately, Frank's tumor is causing seizures, and he fades in and out consciousness with episodes of extreme disorientation in which he mixes up the young woman for his wife, and the present reality for what happened twenty years ago. This is nicely handled visually, with the present in stark and strong back and white ink, and the past in grey swashes of brushwork. Beyond that visual solution, the artwork isn't particularly interesting or distinctive. The story hops around LA, visiting Hollywood, the main public library, the metro system, and a few other familiar sites. All in all, I didn't love it -- beyond the high concept premise, it just felt too assembled from scraps of noir and crime tropes and Frank's redemption arc just felt too paint-by-numbers.
December 26, 2020
A while ago I read Darwyn Cooke's / Ed brubaker's catwoman which I felt could have been on the lines of what Brian Michael Bendis did to daredevil if not for the batman event shenanigans towards the end of volume 4. But unexpectedly I was introduced to Slam Bradley , who I liked very much, to a point where I was rather skeptical to read stories of his other adventures beyond Catwoman series .
But then I picked up tumor by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Noel Tuazon. Frank Armstrong being very similar to Slam Bradley maybe the sole reason I enjoyed it as much as I did. The story follows a PI Frank Armstrong who gets the biggest case of his life but also is diagnosed with a brain tumor the same day. The tumor thing apparently began only as a reasoning for noir troupes ( like getting hit in the head and the protagonist forgetting everything etc ) but this evolved very much on its own and became the driving factor for the storyline pushing it to new places. Like how Frank loses his sense of reality/ time - past and present are simultaneous for him. And with that comes forgotten things from the past that he shouldn't be reminded of. All while frank is on the run for his life for doing the right thing. With all this comes a lot of narration that jumps forward and backward so yeah right up my alley.
But then I picked up tumor by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Noel Tuazon. Frank Armstrong being very similar to Slam Bradley maybe the sole reason I enjoyed it as much as I did. The story follows a PI Frank Armstrong who gets the biggest case of his life but also is diagnosed with a brain tumor the same day. The tumor thing apparently began only as a reasoning for noir troupes ( like getting hit in the head and the protagonist forgetting everything etc ) but this evolved very much on its own and became the driving factor for the storyline pushing it to new places. Like how Frank loses his sense of reality/ time - past and present are simultaneous for him. And with that comes forgotten things from the past that he shouldn't be reminded of. All while frank is on the run for his life for doing the right thing. With all this comes a lot of narration that jumps forward and backward so yeah right up my alley.
August 9, 2017
An intriguing noir and a compelling graphic novel read.
December 24, 2017
this comic was amazing
December 3, 2018
Pretty good story, but so depressing.
April 21, 2023
A good graphic novel with a great plot, so-so prose, and excellent illustrations.
July 27, 2017
The story, narrated in first person, jumps between different moments in time to march the protagonist's thoughts. Frank Armstrong has brain cancer, causing temporal confusion, even visions. This would be enough of a complication by itself, but things get worse when he takes a job for Gibson, a mob boss, to recover his daughter Evelyn. Adding to the stress is a police detective called Polish that usually pops out of nowhere, advising Frank to give the girl up.
Frank's thoughts are often emotional, especially the ones about his wife and her death which affected him profoundly. He got in with the wrong crowd in the past, but tries to redeem himself now. The artwork is simplistic, black and white, but pretty dynamic. It switches to a slightly different style when flashbacks are shown. Bottom line is: this is a great comic that's easy to get into and enjoy if you don't mind a bit of violence.
Frank's thoughts are often emotional, especially the ones about his wife and her death which affected him profoundly. He got in with the wrong crowd in the past, but tries to redeem himself now. The artwork is simplistic, black and white, but pretty dynamic. It switches to a slightly different style when flashbacks are shown. Bottom line is: this is a great comic that's easy to get into and enjoy if you don't mind a bit of violence.
November 4, 2017
Using a noir detective theme, the story is about a detective named Frank, suffering from a brain tumor. At the same time, he takes a job from underworld criminal boss that involves finding his missing daughter, who reminds of his deceased wife. This situation plays out like the situation he found himself in with his deceased wife; Frank worked for his wife’s father, which involved carrying out illegal activities. Frank’s past and current predicament is told interchangeable throughout the book, which I thought was done okay. Also, he sometimes falls into a coma and the scene suddenly switches to another setting, illustrating the time fluidity that occurs as a symptom of a brain tumor. The plot sounded interested to me, but I found a bit boring and predictable. Plus, the artwork to the book wasn’t really that appealing. It’s in black and white, and uses the scratched illustration style, with an occasional watercolour. Overall, I found the book monotonous.
July 10, 2018
A fancy blend of neo-noir and medical drama. Not much emphasis on light and shadow, more black ink and white paper. No suave double crosses or femme fatales. More violence, crime, surliness, and identity crisis in this one.
At first, I was critical of Armstrong's heroics when he's so broken (in many ways). As the story goes on, I felt a bit bad for the poor sap as he goes on his private redemption quest. What amused and touched me is that every time Armstrong's brain tumor causes him to keel over, even the meanest-looking gangster goes through a moment that's like, "Man, are you okay?" By the ending, I wasn't exactly cheering for anyone (they're all kinda silly to me), but at least Armstrong made peace with himself.
If you should read Tumor, aim for reading the entire story. Individual parts are weak by themselves to me, more so than usual for comics. Probably because it was planned to be that way.
At first, I was critical of Armstrong's heroics when he's so broken (in many ways). As the story goes on, I felt a bit bad for the poor sap as he goes on his private redemption quest. What amused and touched me is that every time Armstrong's brain tumor causes him to keel over, even the meanest-looking gangster goes through a moment that's like, "Man, are you okay?" By the ending, I wasn't exactly cheering for anyone (they're all kinda silly to me), but at least Armstrong made peace with himself.
If you should read Tumor, aim for reading the entire story. Individual parts are weak by themselves to me, more so than usual for comics. Probably because it was planned to be that way.
December 22, 2017
A dreamlike story about a private detective dying of a brain tumor trying to get one last thing right. The story is taken from the P.I.s perspective, so time and space change around him in a way he can't control, trying to protect a young woman who happens to resemble his own late wife. A truly great graphic novel.
January 6, 2018
It is getting harder and harder to find novel twists on the noir genre but the seemingly well researched medical component provides a veracity to the angle that enables a compelling exploitation of the primary narratives.
February 28, 2018
This would have been a 2 star if not for the ending. I really liked the art work but I found the story just a bit too simple. I thought that is could have had a little bit more in the way of plot to fill out what could have been a really meaty story. Ok not great.
December 22, 2024
"Medical noir" set in LA. Could have been made into a film with Harry Dean Stanton if he were still alive. Slightly corny redemption arc but overall I enjoyed this with its rapid-fire squiggly drawings and washy flashback drawings.
September 10, 2018
I'm not typically a graphic novel kind of guy but I enjoyed this one. Gonna call it my first. Good noir story, really enjoyed it.
October 3, 2021
Great graphic novel, the black and white illustrations perfectly match and enhance the underlying story.
5 stars, a must-read for fans of noir and graphic novels.
5 stars, a must-read for fans of noir and graphic novels.
August 9, 2025
The art does the story no favors.
December 24, 2025
Amazing how the scenes transition from hospital bed to the past and then seamlessly to the present. Great book benefits from the sketch like artwork and great story.
January 23, 2015
Jenai Coleman
PAP/IB English II
Prd.7
1/22/15
In Tumor Frank, the main character, is a former detective who now has terminal brain cancer. He has been given a job to find the daughter of a drug dealing criminal he used to connive with. In addition to hunting for this girl, Evelyn, Frank tries to manage chronic headaches, blackouts, and random flashbacks making it exceptionally difficult for him to keep straight in his mind where he really is in his own history. Contrary to the wishes of his employer Frank’s intentions change when he meets Evelyn and realizes that she is the spitting image of his late love. He instead helps her get away from her abusive father in an attempt to relieve himself of the guilt from Rosa’s, his deceased girlfriend's, death.
I enjoyed and indulged in this book immensely because of the characters, the incredible, detailed artwork, and the authenticity of the characters. I admired Evelyn because I felt she showed herself to be a strong woman by realizing what reputation her father had and leaving that to build a life of her own. Characters like Evelyn and Frank are very authentic in that they have real goals yet they also have real problems and that followed by phenomenal backstories make them very well written. I was also very fond of the artwork in the book because it was greatly narrative. Frank’s flashbacks were portrayed in drippy, black water color giving the scenes a fluid and obscure essence. This accurately conveyed not only the confusion Frank felt when he would have random flashbacks but also the haziness of his memories.
Although I found this to be a wonderful book i didn’t like the cliffhanger at the end, and the story was a bit gloomy for my taste. The fact that Frank, in his disoriented state, kept mistaking Evelyn for his girlfriend made their journey together very morose. My investment in these characters made the sad parts of the book, like Frank’s flashbacks, difficult to endure. I loved that he felt gratified by all the help he had given Evelyn however i was disappointed i didn’t get to see what happened to her when they went their separate ways. I suppose it might have been the connection i developed with the story that clouds my judgement and made me not want it to end even though the theme was conveyed and the story was over.
I gave this book four stars because i feel like it was well structured, heartfelt, and the artwork beautifully portrayed what the story was putting forth. I deeply relished the book and i would most definately recommend it.
PAP/IB English II
Prd.7
1/22/15
In Tumor Frank, the main character, is a former detective who now has terminal brain cancer. He has been given a job to find the daughter of a drug dealing criminal he used to connive with. In addition to hunting for this girl, Evelyn, Frank tries to manage chronic headaches, blackouts, and random flashbacks making it exceptionally difficult for him to keep straight in his mind where he really is in his own history. Contrary to the wishes of his employer Frank’s intentions change when he meets Evelyn and realizes that she is the spitting image of his late love. He instead helps her get away from her abusive father in an attempt to relieve himself of the guilt from Rosa’s, his deceased girlfriend's, death.
I enjoyed and indulged in this book immensely because of the characters, the incredible, detailed artwork, and the authenticity of the characters. I admired Evelyn because I felt she showed herself to be a strong woman by realizing what reputation her father had and leaving that to build a life of her own. Characters like Evelyn and Frank are very authentic in that they have real goals yet they also have real problems and that followed by phenomenal backstories make them very well written. I was also very fond of the artwork in the book because it was greatly narrative. Frank’s flashbacks were portrayed in drippy, black water color giving the scenes a fluid and obscure essence. This accurately conveyed not only the confusion Frank felt when he would have random flashbacks but also the haziness of his memories.
Although I found this to be a wonderful book i didn’t like the cliffhanger at the end, and the story was a bit gloomy for my taste. The fact that Frank, in his disoriented state, kept mistaking Evelyn for his girlfriend made their journey together very morose. My investment in these characters made the sad parts of the book, like Frank’s flashbacks, difficult to endure. I loved that he felt gratified by all the help he had given Evelyn however i was disappointed i didn’t get to see what happened to her when they went their separate ways. I suppose it might have been the connection i developed with the story that clouds my judgement and made me not want it to end even though the theme was conveyed and the story was over.
I gave this book four stars because i feel like it was well structured, heartfelt, and the artwork beautifully portrayed what the story was putting forth. I deeply relished the book and i would most definately recommend it.
August 14, 2010
A very strong noir-ish thriller done in graphic novel form, with lots of nods to Chandler as well as the great BBC series the Singing Detective. Frank Armstrong is an aging tough guy PI who gets caught up in a case involving a drug lord's runaway daughter who may or may not have stolen a large sum of money from her father. The big twist is that Amstrong has a brain tumor, causing him to have painful migraines, disorienting seizures and even frightening time slips into his own past. The narrative is a little confusing at points, but quick moving and largely entertaining. The artwork, however, is fantastic. Sketchy, chunky lines, gritty shadows and grimy, smudged surfaces make a perfect match for this modern send up of the classic noir detective story. Don't see a lot of appeal for teens in this one, unless they are extreme fans of the genre.
April 26, 2013
Despite some opinion, reading a graphic novel via the Kindle reader on a tablet is enjoyable (imho).
From Goodreads: From the Harvey Award-nominated creative team of Elk's Run comes Tumor, the critically acclaimed sensation that was the first graphic novel to debut exclusively on the Kindle E-Book Reader! Tumor is the story of Frank Armstrong, a man at the boot heel of the world, barely scraping up a living as a private investigator in modern day Los Angeles. He finally lands a big case, finding the missing daughter of a drug kingpin, just as he's taken by the symptoms of a late-stage brain tumor. Memories blend with reality, as the missing girl case starts to seep into the memory of his own missing wife from 20 years prior. Now, with days, maybe even hours, left to live, he must save this girl, while the one thing he's relied on all of his life fails him - his mind!
From Goodreads: From the Harvey Award-nominated creative team of Elk's Run comes Tumor, the critically acclaimed sensation that was the first graphic novel to debut exclusively on the Kindle E-Book Reader! Tumor is the story of Frank Armstrong, a man at the boot heel of the world, barely scraping up a living as a private investigator in modern day Los Angeles. He finally lands a big case, finding the missing daughter of a drug kingpin, just as he's taken by the symptoms of a late-stage brain tumor. Memories blend with reality, as the missing girl case starts to seep into the memory of his own missing wife from 20 years prior. Now, with days, maybe even hours, left to live, he must save this girl, while the one thing he's relied on all of his life fails him - his mind!
February 27, 2011
I'm of two minds about the art. On the one hand, the scratchy, unfinished quality is the perfect match for this gritty detective story. On the other hand, I tend to have a lot of problems keeping characters straight, which is only exacerbated by the way the story jumps through time.
The art aside, however, this is a great story and character piece. Fialkov uses Frank's brain tumor as more than just a gimmick, but rather as a tool to peel away the layers of his guilt and cynicism, finally exposing a guy who just wants to do the right thing.
The art aside, however, this is a great story and character piece. Fialkov uses Frank's brain tumor as more than just a gimmick, but rather as a tool to peel away the layers of his guilt and cynicism, finally exposing a guy who just wants to do the right thing.
August 22, 2010
This is how a crime story should evolve. Time has a bit of a meaning, but with fantastic art that clearly denoted the present and the past, the changes in periods was not confusing at all. In fact, it was seemless. I knew the ending of the story, as I suppose we all are supposed to when we start the story, but how the main character, a down on his luck and end of the road PI, gets there is phenomenal. This is the best crime graphic novel I have read in quite some time.
August 24, 2010
Tumor has a great premise and a dreamlike rhythm that really puts you in the mindset of a man loosing his grip on reality. Tuazon's art is very effective for the blurry, subjective reality of our man Frank. Fialkov's story is tight -- maybe a little too tight. I suppose with a lead character who is so unhinged, the familiar noir tropes are needed to keep things grounded.
August 29, 2010
Despite its quality production and an interesting introduction about the "time honored" tradition in crime fiction of the cosh to the brainpan (when I was a kid reading the Hardy Boys, Joe and Frank got knocked out at least once in every volume!), there isn't much to like about Tumor. Heavy bond paper can't make up for a weak story with dull characters.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews