First Degree: A Crime Anthology

by David F. Walker, Michael Lark (Illustrator)

David F. Walker and David Aja are joined by an array of international talent for an anthology that puts the spotlight on crime noir!

In this anthology, a collective of almost thirty authors from all over the globe propose a collection of short crime noir stories that celebrates the genre as well as boldly leading it into the future.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Mystery, Graphic Novels Comics, Suspense, Short Stories, Crime

148 pages, Hardcover

Published August 3, 2021

About the author

David F. Walker is a writer, filmmaker, and award-winning journalist. He teaches Writing For Comics at Portland State University.

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

While starting strong with a story by David F. Walker about police brutality, most of the short stories here are too short -- four to six pages -- to really develop any of the ideas or characters. Interesting at times but not satisfying overall.

FYI: This was originally published in France as Polar : Shots entre amis à Cognac to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the annual POLAR Festival in Cognac promoting crime and thriller fiction, comics and movies. Polar means "detective novel" or "thriller" in French.

FYI also:

Table of Contents:

• Preface by Olivier Marchal
• Introduction by Bernard Bec

• Encounter - Story by David F. Walker, Art by Michael Lark
• Premeditated - Story by Sydney Duncan, Art & Colors by J.P. Mavinga
• The Game - Story by Thierry Lamy, Art by Pierre Taranzano
• The Raincoat - Story by Brrémaud [Frédéric Brémaud] & Segura [Jean-Yves Segura], Art by Olive Jolivet
• Pigalle - Story by Jean-David Morvan, Art by Borris [Boris Joly]
• A Taste of Salt on the Tongue - Story by Philippe Hauret, Art by Séra
• Curly, On the Wrong Side of the Grass - Story by Jean-François Miniac, Art by Alain Paillou
• A Talent to Die For - Story by Rémy Roubakha, Art by André le Bras
• Theodicy - Story & Art by Éric Liberge
• The Disappearance of Mrs. Fausson - Story by Didier Daeninckx, Art by Mako
• The Comeback Kid - Story by Raule [Raúl Anisa Arsis], Art by David Charrier
• The Text Message - Story & Art by Luc Brahy
• Dark and Deep - Story by Éric Le Pape, Art by Sébastien Corbet
• Born to Draw - Story & Art by David Morancho
• I Knew - Story by Moutch [Cyril Chamboun], Art by Facundo Percio
• Fired Up - Story & Art by Jeanne Puchol
• Leontine - Story by Algésiras, Art by Servain
• Marcel - Story by Nicolas Pothier, Art by Yannick Corboz
• Overdose - Story by Jim MacDonald, Art by d-pi [Ronald Wimberly]
• Rapid Eye Movement - Story by Dan Curtis Johnson, Art by Mark Vigoroux
• Twenty to One - Story by Fred Le Berre, Art by Corentin [Corentin Rouge]

• A Gallery of POLAR Festival Posters - Illustrated by Michel Gourdon, Ludovic Le Goff, LAX, Renaud Garreta, Le Hir, Alexis Chabert, Sébastien Corbet, Griffo, Alain Queireix, Olivier Schwartz, Benoit Sokal, Servain, David Morancho, Christian De Metter

• The Creators

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would love if all the stories were continued in a second volume. Or half as many but twice as long?

[Alican Kunta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting little crime anthology. Unfortunately almost all of the stories are too short to make sense of. That’s too bad because almost every one of them has a good premise. But because each story is 3-4 pages long, there is no character or plot development. Not at all.
That’s such a dumb decision for a book like this.

[Rick Ray · Rating 1 out of 5]

Created as a celebration of the crime noir genre, a collective of roughly thirty creators all contribute short little comics. Stories are typically wrapped up in a few pages, so none of the stories are particularly substantial. Aside from the genre, there is no commonality, so in that respect there is a fair amount of diversity in the types of comics you're getting here. Unfortunately, most of these comics, if not all of them, are far too slight to really enjoy them. It also doesn't really feel like many of these creators really prioritized their contributions since a lot of the artwork has a rushed or incomplete look to them, and the stories themselves are hardly subversive enough to feed the genre's classic tropes. It's an anthology with very few hits for me, so I personally couldn't recommend this to anyone.

[Bino · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one just feels like wasted potential. it has a really cool idea (various different artists telling a different story) but it just felt like so many of these stories were predictable due to being tied to the theme. Since all of these stories are crime based it can only end so many ways; you can predict a solid half of these stories after reading the first panel. Still holds some great art and a couple bangers

[Dan Blackley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good group of short stories from the Polar film festival in France.

[Bill Coffin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starts strong but quickly loses steam as most of the stories are too short and predictable to hold our interest or deliver a worthy payoff.

[Art · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not very impressed by the stories in this anthology. They were okay, but they just didn't grab me.

[Wasif Noor · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 actually. Most of the stories are predictable, some are okay.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting mix. Some stories, like the first one, definitely could have been longer. Uneven in terms of quality of the art too. Not worth buying, IMO, but it was free from KU.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining, nothing special, some of the stories/art sucked. 2.7

[Lautaro Lobo]

not good, read 6 stories liked only one, I left it there, this doesn't deserve my time

[Nazım · Rating 2 out of 5]

Çokça yazar ve çizer bulunduran toplama kitapların garip bir laneti var. Ya hikayede ya çizimde ya da her ikisinde birden saçmalıyorlar. Humanoids etiketi ile çıkınca bu kitaptan beklentilerim açıkçası fazlasıyla yüksekti. Ve halihazırda diğer hikayelere göre suç hikayesi üretmek daha kolay bir süreç gibi geliyor bana.

Ama bu kitap, yine de yukarıda bahsettiğim lanete kurban gidiyor. Müthiş çizimler var, açıkçası çok fazla yeni çizer öğrendim bu derlemeden. Ama hikayeler birkaçını saymazsak gerçekten vasatın altında. Öyle büyük ters köşe anlatılar, vay be dedirtecek suç hikayeleri falan da beklemiyorum üstelik. Başı sonu belli, mantıklı bir akış içerisinde kısa hikayeler üretmek nedense toplama kitaplarda mümkün olmuyor.

Verdiğim puanın tamamı içindeki nitelikli çizer kadrosu ve onların kötü hikayeleri bile güzel gösterebilme yeteneklerine verildi.

[Pelin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Birkaç hikayeye 5 yıldız fakat genel anlamda çok kısa, çarçabuk biten hikaye daha fazla. Çizimlerin bazılarını ise hiç beğenemedim.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay anthology. Some of the shorts are excellent, most are not.