Pretty Deadly, Vol. 3: The Rat

Pretty Deadly

by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Emma Ríos (Artist)

"Grand and majestic storytelling."
-Warren Ellis (TREES, INJECTION, Gun Machine, Red)

KELLY SUE DeCONNICK (CAPTAIN MARVEL, BITCH PLANET) and EMMA R�OS (I.D., MIRROR) plunge back into the Eisner-nominated, New York Times best-selling world of PRETTY DEADLY.

Diving beneath the sun-soaked strips of 1930s Hollywoodland, where the best and brightest are dimmed and broken, the granddaughter of Sara Fields is found dead. Desperate to solve her murder and versed in the ways of the Immortals, her heartbroken uncle calls on the Reaper of Vengeance to aid him. In his obsession, following this twisted path may lead to his undoing.

THE RAT collects issues 1-5.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics, Horror, Westerns, Noir

152 pages, Paperback

First published March 18, 2020

About the author

Kelly Sue DeConnick’s work spans stage, comics, film and television. Ms. DeConnick first came to prominence as a comics writer, where she is best known for reinventing the Carol Danvers as “Captain Marvel” at Marvel and for the Black Label standard-setting Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons at DC. Her independent comics Bitch Planet and Pretty Deadly (both from Image Comics) have ranked as New York Times best-sellers and been honored with Eisner Awards, British Fantasy Awards and Hugo nominations.

Ms. DeConnick’s screen work includes stints on Captain Marvel, a film that earned $1B for Disney worldwide, and 2023’s forthcoming The Marvels with Marvel Studios; in addition to having consulted on features for Skydance and ARRAY, and developed television for NBCUniversal, Legendary Entertainment and HBOMax. Her most recent stage work is the mythic spectacle AWAKENING, which opened at the Wynn Resort Las Vegas in November 2022.

Mission-driven, Ms. DeConnick is also a founding partner at Good Trouble Productions, where she has helped to produce non-fiction and educational comics including the “Hidden Voices” and “Recognized” series for NY Public Schools and Congressman John Lewis’ Run, in partnership with Abrams Comics.

In 2015, Ms. DeConnick founded the #VisibleWomen Project, whose mission is to help women and other marginalized genders find paid work in comics and its related industries. The project continues to this day and recently expanded in partnership with Dani Hedlund of Brink Literacy.

Ms. DeConnick lives in Portland, OR with her husband, writer Matt Fraction, and their two children.

Reviews

[Artemy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty Deadly is back with another arc, and it's magnificent as ever. Kelly Sue, Emma Ríos, Jordie Bellaire and Clayton Cowles once again created a masterpiece of visual storytelling that is unlike anything else out there.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fact that it's been entire years between this volume and the previous two really hurts this story as a whole, because I literally do not have the time to re-read what came before to remember the complex relationships between the characters right now. That said, I can still recall the basics, and that's all you need to realise that this is some good comics.

DeConnick and Rios work perfectly in tandem as the pair weave a tale of intrigue and despair, with a mystery dragging characters from the past stories and a new one across Hollywoodland in search of answers, and instead manage to find answers about themselves instead. It's very cleverly done, and speaks to DeConnick's attempts at deconstructing human emotion and our reaction to everyone around us.

Rios' artwork is phenomenal as always - I wish she did more 'mainstream' stuff, because I love her airy style that flows across the page with apparently no effort at all. And of course Jordie Bellaire's colours just go from strength to strength.

The Rat will likely bump up to five stars once I've managed to re-read The Bear and whatever Volume 1 was retrospectively titled, but for now I think a solid 4 for beautiful art and a story that makes you think about the nature of humans from a different perspective is a pretty good turn out for a series that's been missing for far too long.

[Bridgette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just really, really love this series. The artwork is a dreamy, beautiful nightmare landscape that is both monstrous and lovely.

This moves the overall plot along a little and sets up nicely for the next volume.

[Ianire Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Estos comics son increíbles todos. Dejan un poso brutal.

[Alisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took me a while to get to this volume, I don't know why. It is one of my favorite comics. And volume 3 was just as good as the previous two. With this one in particular I was reminded of Sandman for some reason, maybe it's the myth aspect of it. And now I need the next volume asap.

[floorlemons · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t love the first 2 volumes of this series but wow this one made it so worth it… it may be because I’m more into noir than war or westerns or maybe because I related more to the reapers portrayed in this one. Regardless I unknowingly read this when I needed it the most.

Of course gorgeous art too!

[Dev · Rating 3 out of 5]

actual rating: 3.5

It's been quite awhile since the first two volumes of this series but from what I remember I really enjoyed the first volume and found the second one utterly incomprehensible. This one seems like a welcome return to form, although I have forgotten a lot of the details in the world building at this point. The artwork and character designs are gorgeous though and I really liked the dark fairytale feel to the whole thing. I would definitely like to see more from this series in the same vein.

[Sonic · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book seems more poetic than plot-driven, which combined with this breathtaking illustration hits home deep.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not smart enough to appreciate this series - this is pounded into my head by the inclusion of discussion group questions for every issue, delving into ideas that I didn't pick up on at all during my read. Fortunately, even for those of us who are only picking up the surface level of the book's depth, there's still a lot to appreciate. The art for one; page layout and art design in this book are amazing, with several spreads that were just awe-inspiring.
The story is interesting as well - a noir tale about the Reaper of vengeance and a descendant of Sissy trying to find out how his niece died. The story spends as much time commenting on its format and genre as much as it does telling the story directly. The plot could simply be explained as 'A woman falls' but around that are so many layers of meaning, mythology, madness, and mystery that it fills out five issues. There are multiple levels of story-telling going on at all times. But even if you're not picking up all the different levels, the story is satisfying enough even if only on the shallowest levels, and the art justifies staring at the pages for the time it takes for everything to settle in.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork is so detailed and graphic, stunning as always. However, I felt like this volume was mostly confusing and the storyline really only seemed to make sense at the end. I really struggled to understand what was happening through most of it. There were so many half-told metaphors and sentences left unfinished that the reader has to fill in the blank, which while rewarding was confusing at times. I'm also not sure the artwork really helped with telling the story so much, it was distracting or over-complicated at times.

[Phoenix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still as good as the first time I read this run. A metanarrative about storytelling and being an artist or creator of any kind. The demons you have to grapple with in order to tell stories. Clara is a favourite character of mine, so vulnerable despite having such a strong conviction in her art. Very believable. I forgot how this arc ended for Ginny, however, and it was exciting to re-read this and realize that Pretty Deadly most likely isn’t over yet. Here’s hoping that the third arc is on its way soon. 🤞🏽

There’s a discussion guide written by a Dr. Jeremy Stoll instead of collecting the back-matter of the single issues. I would’ve preferred the latter, but I suppose the reading guide will be useful to some who are not as aware of the language of graphic narratives. I’ll check that out at a later date, but for me at a glance it seemed to state the obvious.

[Alex Sarll]

After the Western and the war story, the tale of Death's daughter wends its way to Hollywood in its tarnished golden age. The spine of the story is an investigation into the death of a young woman who, like so many before and since, was used up and spat out by the system - but whose soul has not arrived in the Garden as it ought. Really, though, I'm here for the sheer poetry of it, the way Rios and Bellaire's visuals make it feel like a shadow play adaptation of Angela Carter, or the best Monument Valley yet.

[Antonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

ÄLSKAR serien Pretty deadly.
Den har precis rätt blandning av creepy, sagoaktigt, mystiskt och allvarligt berättade som jag älskar.
Allt förklaras inte rätt ut, du får fantisera själv.

[Wesley Winters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some pretty cool splash pages throughout but the story was too shallow to hold my interest.

[Garrett M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kelly please write the final two volumes, I'm begging

[Zachariah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man, if this series was published on the reg, it might rival Saga in terms of impact and sales.

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art in this volume was so beautiful and I loved reading about the themes that were explored here, from old Hollywood and the exploitation of POC, to noir and human nature. Very excited to read more in this series.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Reaper of Thirst is a creepy bitch, and the visualisation of her is terrifying. The artwork here, though, is spectacular. So much of this issue is silent, in that there are pages and pages without words or speech bubbles, and it's so effective. Effective in a surrealist sort of way, as Clara coming to Thirst in search of her uncle - and what that says about Frank's life, and his guilt and isolation from her is dreadfully sad - and then coming under the control of another reaper is a nightmare dream sequence. I'm not the biggest comic reader in the world, though clearly I do read some, but there's no one whose comic artwork appeals to me more than Emma Ríos, I think. All credit to her!

[Shevek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Si "El Oso" ya fue un ligero descenso de calidad respecto al primer tomo de Bella Muerte, "La Rata" contribuye aún más a disminuir el nivel de la serie. La gracia de las introducciones fabulescas sigue diluyéndose progresivamente, mientras que la narrativa gráfica pierde la limitada claridad de los arcos argumentales anteriores. Las composiciones de página son innecesariamente enrevesadas y la lectura no fluye nada bien. A pesar de la interesante ambientación hollywoodiense que se plasma en este tomo, el cómic resulta confuso y fallido en su conjunto.

[Marina Vidal · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

Este tomo me ha flipado. Creo que es mi favorito de los tres. En este tomo vamos tras las pistas de lo que le ha sucedido a Clara, con lo que toda la historia tiene un toque Noir reforzado con unas compos de página y un color alucinantes, algo que Ríos y Bellaire ya nos tienen acostumbrados.

Una gozada.

[Amie Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

My fav of the 3 volumes as jt provides the most lore building and explanation....but if I read this one alone I would of been just as confused as I was reading vol 1. Overall I'd love a rework of the concept because its very interesting; while reading I could totally see it being a netflix show I told myself several times. Definitely read the volumes in one hit not the individual comics.

[Juan Fuentes · Rating 4 out of 5]

La historia está muy bien, en la línea de la saga, pero los dibujos de Emma Ríos son algo superior. Que arte el de esta mujer, magnífico.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

The available lexicon to explain or explore the interlocking fragments of mythos that comprise DeConnick and Rios' ongoing comics enterprise is as impossibly wide as it is to fine tune. Narratively, PRETTY DEADLY: THE RAT pulls into frame the dangerous equivocations brought about by loss and one's arrogant assumption of what loss means (or is supposed to mean). Visually, the current volume dually invokes the unearthly beauty and squarely nightmarish splendor of shadow puppetry and its psychosomatic wielding of what one doesn't see as a substitute for what one does.

In the rainy echoes of 1930s Hollywood, a man, the Conjure-Man, playacts the bridge between the living and the dead. What, then, is more appropriate (and devastating) to a man who pretends to speak with the spirits, than to force him to stare down (and reconcile) the quiet, listless death of his beloved niece, Clara Fields?

Frank, the Conjure-Man, summons the assistance of Ginny, the Reaper of Vengeance. Ginny is one hell of a guide. But she helps. Sort of. Frank retraces Clara's final days, her final steps, and must discover for himself what facets of hard labor, fame, drug use, and other trappings of the material world may have consumed his niece. And if not these quandaries of life, then perhaps, one surmises, unilateral bedevilments of the heart are to blame? Ego. Passion. Thirst and hunger for success. Unyielding ambition. Unyielding hurt. "So many pieces," Clara says, in one of many oneiric narrations. "So many pieces I can't hold together."

And while Ginny and Frank play detectives of the supernatural, readers are blessed with the intensely cauterizing gaze of shadow play, silhouettes, keyhole art techniques, and more. To be sure, Rios's work evolves with each volume of the comics series, maneuvering to frame or reframe the tender needs of each story with the imagery best fit to articulate such obsessions. The first volume was spacious, leaving room for action and expression. The second volume was claustrophobic and gave primacy to the specters of the mind. PRETTY DEADLY: THE RAT is one long, cryptic nightmare made real: disjointed memories captured in film reel snippets; hallucinations rendered through frames, props, and puppets; the uncollected sins of bygone woe distinguished in flaring pinks, angry oranges, and succulent greens; and more integrated symbolism than one can fathom as wrought by intersecting panel arrangements, reversed color themes, inverted landscapes, and an insane attention to detail.

There is a griminess to the world of Pretty Deadly, often in as many ways as one can imagine. One does not recommend this comics series lightly, if at all, because it's narrative and philosophical perspective is deliberately ethically unstable. But that doesn't mean the creative team does not know what it's doing, or that it isn't capable of doing what it does, extraordinarily well.

[RubiGiráldez RubiGiráldez · Rating 4 out of 5]

He llegado a este tomo de Bella Muerte no sin tener que admitir que me he quedado sobre todo por gusto visual con el exquisito trabajo de Emma Ríos. Sí que me embarqué con ganas en su presentación en forma de un Weird Western totalmente sensorial y en su curiosa continuación con el trasfondo de la guerra de trincheras. Pero la propuesta narrativa de Kelly Sue DeConnick se me antojaba lejana y dispersa de más aún reconociendo su punto de referencia y total inspiración en la The Sandman de Gaiman. El universo de Bella Muerte es una interesante contraparte, y sus Segadores y demás personajes hacen totales méritos de ser coetáneos ideales de la familia de Eternos de Morfeo. Pero mi experiencia lectora con la saga de Gaiman no resultaba en la de total extrañeza y desconexión como con esta propuesta. Me alivia poder decir que esta La Rata, por fin me concilia a nivel visual (Ríos sigue marcándose unas composiciones de quitar el hipo) y narrativo. Con un nuevo salto temático que nos lleva a los primeros tiempos de Hollywood, se presenta un misterio e investigación de reconocible sabor noir clasicón que, junto con el contar con el protagonista del anterior tomo nuevamente como eje central para la historia, logran no perder al lector ni cuando la parte de onírica metafísica vuelve a imponerse. Se antoja como que las anteriores entregas eran en realidad presentaciones dilatadas al exceso para llegar a este arco argumental que fascina que pueda servir tanto como un final o más inicio que punto a parte (Kelly aborda muy bien las cuestiones metanarrativas internas).

El universo propuesto por DeConnick y mostrado por Ríos logra funcionar totalmente con este final de "trilogía" que convierte a Bella Muerte como una lectura comiquera indie a la que no perder la pista.

[harper☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this book twice to really feel like I could review it it’s such a cool comic I love all of the imagery and the commentary it makes on noir and society in general. I love the visual motif of obsession with butterflies because butterflies generally represent hope, and that mislead is soooo good I love it so much. The butterflies swarm the characters, swarm them with hope, making them obsessed. I also love the nature of obsession’s reaper as self-defeating. It’s quite cool how the reaper’s spell their own destruction. This definitely makes me think of the noir genre and the last bit at the end is fascinating. Forgiveness as a tool that can only be useful and truly exist in the face or in opposition of treachery. It’s so hard to think about forgiving something treacherous as not absolving them. I like how forgiveness frees the person, but not the one who hurt them. Or I guess maybe it does in a way. It doesn’t free them, but it opens a door, you can’t free someone without them wanting it too. Really cool stuff to think about as a whole. Also the line, “there’s no defeating shadows, there’s only walking towards the light”. gosh i love that. also ginny makes me sad, there’s two instances right after each other saying that rest and forgiveness are not “what she’s for” but i also see that ginny escapes the traditional bounds of her own identity as a reaper a bit in helping the guy (albeit for absolution of a sort). cool characters.

[Karissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Series Info/Source: This is the third volume in the Pretty Deadly graphic novel series. I got this book as a Christmas present.

Story (5/5): This was really well done and I enjoyed it a lot. In this volume the Conjure-man finds out his niece Clara has been killed and summons Ginny (the Reaper of Vengeance) to help track down Clara’s killer. The two get caught up with the Reaper of Obsession and Ginny tries to help the Conjure-man escape but this calls Sissy (the Reaper of Death) from her Garden. Between the noir style story of the Conjure-man’s hunt for Clara’s killer we see Sissy tending her Garden and trying to understand things.

Characters (4/5): I continue to love the characters in this series, they are all very “grey”...really not good or bad. I enjoyed meeting more Reapers and always love spending time with Ginny and Sissy and learning more about them.

Setting (4/5): This whole novel is set in 1930’s Hollywoodland and is done in a very dark noir type of style. It was well done and matched the whole murder mystery theme the story had very well. The sections with Sissy in her garden are drawn much differently and reflect that setting beautifully too.

Writing/Drawing Style (4/5): I thought this was one of the most well written volumes to date, the story was very cohesive and easy to follow. I loved that each chapter starts out with a synopsis in a poetic format to remind readers of what is happening. The illustration style always blows me away, it is so beautiful, moody, and unique and has amazing detail. I absolutely love the drawing style here and that, paired with the intriguing idea of the Reapers, keeps me coming back to this series again and again.

My Summary (4.5/5): Overall I really loved this third volume in the Pretty Deadly series!!! This is so beautifully drawn and I am loving the storyline. This was my favorite volume of this series yet!

[Václav · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3,9 of 5 for this Noir-ish detective kind of story from the garden of Death)
First I must say, I liked it. The story was nice, it was kind of something else than before (the same set and actors but a different genre). But I felt like Kelly Sue had more ideas for Pretty Deadly stories, but this should be the last book, so it sometimes feels a bit dense, rushed and jumping forward to reach the end, which even doesn't give the satisfying ending like the previous two books. Still, all thosethings are not in any mean show stopper, I enjoyed the story and loved it.
The art is in the same style, I realized here I like it when in this style of ink and colouring there is added fine "film grain". But for the story, which was hurling forward, there were too much of too complex scenes. They made sense for the story, but they slowed down the reading pace in places where the scene was rather fast-paced. And there is plenty of that, so for one reading, it felt a bit exhausting. And rushing the "reading of the picture" is not good, because there is plenty of information and usually the content of the scene is important for "being on the same page" with the story.
And again, I still like it. But I can understand that some can object to this.

[Pablo Gaona Olivares · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woh, in this volume pretty deadly really find what was missing.
Here the main story is told in a kind of noir thriller on the hollywood golden age, what sueprisingly match much better with the argument than the previous locations.
I really loved the drawing of this time and places really stuning.

On the other hand paying attention to the story told I think that this os bu far the best one of the series, and argubly on of the best modern thriller I have read.
The authors told us a story of drug, ambition, mental health and the consecuencies of our acts and it is amazing! The mix between this themes and the oniric world that is becoming more interesting in each page make it a top serie for me!

[Bill Coffin · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the third volume of Kelly Sue DeCormick's saga of a new Death fixing all the problems the old Death left behind, things are finally starting to click more than in the previous volumes. An effort to find more renegade Reapers takes form in a man's quest to understand what happened to his vanished niece. The story and art balance each other better, and the story's gaps are only small enough for a car to fit through rather than a truck. But there are still fundamental issues with how this thing plays out, and either you're going to like this kind of existential sketchiness or you won't. Some will see this as a tale drawn minimally and trading more on reference than revelation. Others will see this as a tale that simply needs more skill and precision in its execution.

[Mitchell Hahn-Branson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here we are, back inside one of the most beautiful, strange, heartbreaking, moral comics of the twenty-first century. I had no idea (and maybe DeConnick and Rios didn't know either, at first) that this book was going to change time periods and genres with every volume: western, war, noir; Old West, World War I, Old Hollywood. This newest story feels painfully appropriate for 2020, with racism and exploitation a little cl0ser to the surface than before. I can't think what form the next volume will take— science fiction? sword and sorcery? the kind of pure, dread-enriched horror that the comic has been flirting with since the beginning?—but I do know I'll be here for it.