Paradigm Shift: Equilibrium

by Dirk I. Tiede

A pair of wisecracking Chicago detectives decides to single-handedly take down a gun racket. Only things don't quite go as planned, and a screw-up earns them a reassignment to a new case investigating the bizarre murder of a man found in an alleyway. Little do they know that this mysterious body will soon plunge them in a world far bigger and more dangerous than they could ever imagine.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

100 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2003

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a local artist’s graphic novel that was a little hard to find. It came up in a list of detective graphic novels. While this book is a detective story it’s all over the place. There is the original case where the detectives are trying to find a man named Chow in Chinatown. Then the second story is about a dead man who was mauled and what kind of animal mauled them. The story is way too short. It’s one of three books, but nothing happens other than a lot of gunplay. There are no clues, or no real anything to the mystery. I think the illustrations are well done and I would like to see more from this illustrator but as a story writer, they need a little help, a little practice

[Cornerofmadness · Rating 4 out of 5]

I met the author of this American “manga” at Tsubasacon this year, listening to him talk to another would-be artist about his process which was fascinating. Take that and couple it with the quality of the matted art he had on sale (one of which I recognized as inspired by The Ridges, the old Athens (Ohio) Lunatic Asylum), I bought all three of the graphic novels in the series without hesitation. It didn’t hurt that one of the main leads was a lady cop and there would be shapeshifters.

In part one, the idea of there being something supernatural is only hinted at. Kathryn “Kate” McAllister and her somewhat older partner, Michael Stuart are detectives in Chicago. When they track down Alfonse, one of their usual informants, he sends them on the track of something big in Chicago’s Chinatown. In the meantime bodies are popping up, mauled as if by a large animal, making people wonder if someone’s exotic large cat pet has gotten loose in the city. Even though she is injured, Kate bounces back – rather quickly in fact. What’s harder for her to escape are her terrifying dreams.

While part one is rather brief, it sets up the series nicely. Kate and Michael are fun characters and a bit of an odd couple (She’s a dedicated junk food eater and he’s a “the body is a temple” sort for example). The art is very nice, though I’m not fond of Kate’s big anime bangs (but I’m never fond of those even if they are manga standards).

However, brief or not, there is a wonderfully large chunk of extras that include the artistic process and character studies. I think those would interest a lot of readers. It’s definitely fun and I’m looking forward to moving onto part two.