Ruby Falls #1

Ruby Falls

by Ann Nocenti, Flavia Biondi (Cover Art), Lee Loughridge (Colorist)

Ruby Falls: "In Her Own Eyes"

Kill Time, Till Time Kills You! Ruby Falls is a sleepy town. But sleep brings nightmares, and Lana is about to wake up in the middle of her hometown's biggest secret: the ''disappearance'' of infamously progressive Betty Gallagher during the mobster-ruled heyday of the old mining town. When details of the cold-case murder start to come out through her grandmother Clara's foggy, dementia-jumbled memories, Lana becomes obsessed with cracking the case, even if it splinters the peaceful town—and endangers everything she loves. From Ann Nocenti (The Seeds, Daredevil) and rising talent Flavia Biondi (Italian artist of La Generazione making her American comics debut) comes Ruby Falls: a neo-noir tale of love, memory, and murder mysteriously woven through three generations of women, and hinging on their individual, intertwined fights for freedom.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Mystery, Fiction, LGBT, Crime

28 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 2, 2019

About the author

Ann Nocenti is most noted as an editor for Marvel Comics, for whom she edited New Mutants and The Uncanny X-Men. She made her comics writing debut on a brief run of Spider-Woman (#47-50) and subsequently wrote a long run of Daredevil (1st series) #236-291 (minus #237) from 1986 to 1991, directly following on from Frank Miller's definitive Born Again storyline. She also wrote the 1986 Longshot limited series for Marvel, and in the same year produced the Someplace Strange graphic novel in collaboration with artist John Bolton. She wrote "the Inhumans Graphic Novel" in 1988. In 1993, she wrote the 16-issue run of Kid Eternity for the DC Comics imprint Vertigo.

In Incredible Hulk #291, published in September 1983 (cover date January 1984), Ann Nocenti made a cameo appearance, talking to Dr. Bruce Banner, in a history written by Bill Mantlo, drawn by Sal Buscema and inked by Carlos Garzón and Joe Sinnot. That time Ann Nocenti was Assistant Editor for Larry Hama on Incredible Hulk and X-Men.

She is noted for her left-wing political views which, particularly during her run on Daredevil, caused some controversy among some fans who didn't agree with her politics.

She created several popular characters, including Typhoid Mary, Blackheart, Longshot and Mojo, and wrote the 1998 X-Men novel Prisoner X.

Although Nocenti left comic books in the '90s after the industry sales collapsed, she later returned to the field, penning stories such as 2004's Batman & Poison Ivy: Cast Shadows.

In Ultimate X-Men, a reimagination of the X-Men comic, the character Longshot, who was invented by her, has the civil name Arthur Centino. His last name, Centino, is an anagram of Nocenti and a homage to Nocenti. The name Arthur is for the co-creator of Longshot Arthur Adams who was Ann Nocenti's artist on the Longshot Mini Series.

She edited High Times magazine for one year (2004) under the name Annie Nocenti and is the former editor of the screenwriting magazine Scenario.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting start. I like the characters.

[Blue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Want to see more...
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Website

Brilliannntttt

[This Kooky Wildflower Loves a Little Tea and Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's potential in this series. 3.5/5

[✿ Mika ✿ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful art. Might continue the series(?) hopefully the plot gets better in the second issue

[luce (cry bebè's back from hiatus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

★★★| | blog | tumblr | ko-fi | |

✰ 3 stars

Flavia Biondi is a brilliant artist and makes Ruby Falls into something more than a mediocre comic. I'm afraid that the noir-inspired story seems not to know whether to be taken seriously or as some sort of modern Nancy Drew. As much as I love Biondi's art, the story isn't all that interesting or cohesive. The ending in particular is incredibly clichéd.

[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid opening, will continue.

[Bug · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved loved the art and story in this, and I felt like the framing of the story was extremely interesting and worked well thematically.

(Spoiler)
I didn't love that she became a cop at the end, -1 star for that. It doesn't feel fitting to her characterization at all and it feels like a huge 180 after how the cops are framed during the story.

[It'sBrynanas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this story, but I wish it was longer. There were a bunch of points where I felt like it jumped too quickly from one thought to the next, and it would’ve made more sense to stretch it out a bit more.

Still really fun though.

[M Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Graphic novel - a little noir, a little cold case. Everything about it is pretty good, but nothing really grabs. Still, it's a quick read and told from a few interesting angles. Worth a look for those in the mood for a crime comic.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Small town murder mystery

Ruby falls is a small town girl who is bored senseless. Sort of like Nancy drew or trixie belden. Not suitable for all ages? Could be a tv property.

[Francesca Giardiello · Rating 3 out of 5]

E' l'inizio di una storia interessante ma i disegni (per quanto stimi artisticamente la disegnatrice) non credo che in questo caso rendano la giusta atmosfera, tendendo purtroppo a stemperare tutto.

[Dee · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lacklustre plot and honestly, not very likeable or relatable characters. The art was okay I guess?

[Niche · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part teen malaise/ennui and part small mob-town crime noir. I liked the start well enough, but not enough for the forewarned love triangle so I won't be going for the next one.

[Courtenay]

DNF. Got to page 22 and put it down. Not my thing.

[Maria Popescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

first comic series I'm going to read through! excited for issue 2!

[Keisha Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Will continue the series