Gun Honey, Vol. 1

Gun Honey #1-4

by Charles Ardai, Ang Hor Kheng (Artist)

Award winning Charles Ardai, co-founder of Hard Case Crime, brings his noir expertise to the fore in his debut graphic novel about a sexy weapons smuggler.

She’ll get you the weapon you need, when you need it, where you need it -- no matter how impossible.

But when a gun smuggled into a high-security prison leads to the death of dozens and the escape of a brutal criminal, Joanna Tan is suddenly forced by the U.S. government to do a job for them: find the man she set loose and bring him down.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Crime, Noir, Fiction, Thriller, Comic Book

109 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 29, 2022

About the author

Charles Ardai is a founder of Hard Case Crime, a pulp crime novel publisher, as well as an editor and author. In 1991 he received the Pearlman Prize for his fiction. He also writes under the pen name Richard Aleas.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gun Honey can be hired to get a gun into any place asked, including prison. She doesn't kill people herself, but she'll put a gun in place, no questions asked. When things go horribly wrong on a job, she has to go after an escaped convict. This has got all the elements you want in a pulp story. Action, betrayal, sex, death. BTW, there is an explicit sex scene within and lots of nudity.

Ang Hor Kheng art has this classic flare to it. Graw Morrow mixed with Mike Deodato Jr. I really enjoyed it. I've never come across their art before and it is really polished.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gun Honey is a graphic novel (don’t call them comic books) featuring a slinky Julie Newmarket cat woman type of rogue who specializes in getting weapons where they need to go. Flipped by law enforcement, Joanna Tan now plays for the hood guys -albeit reluctantly. The point it seems is for our overly endowed comic book princess to cavort around in a bikini and often less in between taking on bad guys all by herself. Great artwork and enough of a storyline to follow.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

A cheesy, cheesecake spy drama where the twists are incredibly predictable and the heroine is empowered to walk around topless just as much as she wants. So much empowerment!

[Mohan Vemulapalli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gun Honey may not be high art, but it is a lot of fun. And I mean a lot. This is hard core pulp noir at it's best. The art is gritty, sexy and dark and reflects the tone of the writing perfectly.

Expect violence, trench coats, cleavage, murder, boobs, prison breaks, massacres, bondage, gratuitous violence, gratuitous nudity, explosions, vigilante justice, etc., etc. . Essentially, everything the comics code tried to eradicate is in this book and it is marvelous!

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got to love a "clothing optional" old school noir, this was fun and I wouldn't mind reading a continuation of Joanna's misadventures.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pleasant surprise. I gambled on this because I saw a few friends had gave high marks and they had an awesome variant cover. Who makes variant covers for trade paperbacks? Had to get it. Anyway, awesome story. We follow Joanna Tan who is the Gun Honey. She gets her nickname because she is the honey you seek if you need a gun. She is not a gun runner but someone who can sneak into anywhere and place a gun for someone else to use. Charles Ardai and company do some cool stuff with that concept. She has a tragic background as her father and brothers were killed when someone blew up their place. She is so good at her job that the government has approached her to work for them. Lots of cool action in this one, a lot of nudity, a graphic sex scene and a few great plot twists that I didn’t see coming. Plus it was great to find out after reading the blurb in the back of this book that this series will be continuing. Had a blast with this one and will be checking out the next volume when it arrives.

[Milen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐

[B.J. Swann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty much the essence of formulaic mediocrity, which is consistent with the state of American comics at the moment

[Manu :] · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,7/5

I do have to admit that I enjoyed my time with this graphic novel, although the story felt a bit rushed and some flashbacks were placed in weird moments resulting in the timeline feeling a bit confusing. I think the plot has good potential, I am a bit disappointed that Joanna(the mc) lacks some character.. sure, she’s got the looks and the guns and the classic childhood trauma, but it’s not evaluated enough for us to get to know her better. With the notes from the author by the end of this book I can see why this looks like it does, because it is visible that the author just had an idea and clumped it together because his writer friend did not really want to write such a novel XD.

What can I say, it was alright, I really appreciate the time put in by the artist to produce such beautiful artwork but you can clearly see that everything was written by a guy. The number of provocative angles is already showing that, but that apparently is not enough and we have to have our mc practically naked in half of the scenes. Was that necessary to make the whole scene happen in a bath house? No. Did the author do it anyway because boobs and women? Yes. The eroticism is just unnecessary in a lot of moments.

It had potential and I’m disappointed it wasn’t put to good use. If I have the opportunity to read the other tomes for free I will, but I don’t think I want to spend my money on it especially with it being this short :(

[Ben A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charles Ardai simply knows what I like and what I want out of a book (even if I don't even know). From the beautifully painted covers to the stories themselves, he always has me hook, line and sinker from start to finish, whether it's his own books or another author's. For Gun Honey, he turns his sights to comics, and just like his novels, he's got me here. It was sexy, action-packed and pure fun.

Special Thanks to Hard Case Crime, Titan Comics and Edelweiss Plus for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.

[Martin Doychinov · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Gun Honey" дава на читателя точно това, което обещава. Мафиотски екшън с доволно надарена (във всякакъв смисъл) главна героиня, която не се свени да покаже (всякакви) умения и прелести. Хареса ми как кървищата и голотиите не са прикрити - все пак не е за деца.
Четенето е като да гледаш деветдесетарски екшън, който макар и съвсем незадълбочен, те радва.
Дано скоро излезе и втори том - "Кръв за кръв".

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gun Honey collects issues 1-4 of the Titan Comics/Hard Case Crime series written by Charles Ardai and art by Ang Hor Kheng.

Joanna Tan is the Gun Honey, a gun smuggler who gets her clients the weapons they need into places where and when they need it. After accepting a gun plant to kill a prisoner, the weapon is used to start a prison riot and Joanna is forced to work for the government to bring the killer back to justice.

This was a fun, sexy, and violent pulp noir story but I wish their was a bit more depth to it. Everything is a bit skimmed over when the author could have easily gone into more detail to flesh out these characters and this world. It was strange seeing the main protagonist nude half the book (usually for no reason), but it is great art thought the book from an up and coming artist. The book is already scheduled for a sequel so I am excited to see the follow-up.

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stephen King's pulp imprint is starting to venture into comics, and "Gun Honey" is as pulpy as it comes. This could be a Tarantino/Rodriguez team-up a la "Grindhouse:" guns, hard-boiled dialogue, insane action, guts, cheesecake nudity and lots of nods to pulp fiction past and present. Is it derivative at times? Yes. Does it stick the landing? Absolutely.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun little pulp crime story. A plus if you like seeing scantily clad and nude women drawn, which works for me.

Although the art is well done, it smacks of an older style that is just fine to me. Not bad by any means but like slightly above average.

Not much depth here but enjoyable.

[Димитър Цолов · Rating 5 out of 5]

Доста добра криминална графична новела (18+) за сексапилна азиатска престъпничка, можеща да внедри оръжие и в най-строго охранявания обект, дори затвор. Разбира се, особа с нейните умения бързо привлече вниманието на съответните правителствени агенции и задейства поредица от кървави събития, а на техния фон съдбовни въпроси от миналото на героинята намериха своите отговори. Общото внушение, докато трескаво разлиствах страниците, беше, че съм се зазяпал в шпионски филм от серията 007. Сценарият на Чарлз Ардаи не блестеше с кой знае каква оригиналност, но пък беше достатъчно плътен и убедителен, а артът на Анг Хор Кенг се оказа наистина жесток. С нетърпение чакам втората част.

[Δημήτρης Μπ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quite entertaining and sexy action graphic novel. Gun Honey is the alias of the strong and sassy female protagonist, an arm's dealer who can import guns wherever they are needed, even in the most heavily guarded places. Obviously the story isn't of Shakespearean quality. However, it's a perfect excuse for some well-drawn, almost cinematic, action scenes with gun fights.

The art is very beautiful and, at times, pretty daring. There are a lot of details especially in the depiction of violence. There's some nudity, too . The colorist has also done a pretty good job.

[Lashaan Balasingam · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.

Writer Charles Ardai delivers a pulpy noir thriller where he introduces readers to Joanna Tan, a professional weapons smuggler known to many as Gun Honey who gets tangled with the U.S. government and is sent on a mission to find a dangerous target before countless lives are lost. Thrilling, fast-paced, and light on words, the core revenge narrative is mostly weak yet addictively fast-paced as it allows its protagonist to utilize her sexual energy quite ostentatiously on readers. At the same time, she employs her deceptive sleight-of-hands tricks to survive her cruel world.

Not your typical weapons smuggler, Joanna Tan can get you the gun you need in the most hard-to-reach places for the right price. When things go awry after effortlessly smuggling a firearm into a high-security prison that leads to mass casualties, she finds herself trapped and forced by the U.S. government. Unwilling to simply let her rot away in prison, she is given an independent contract, more like an obligation honestly, to bring down the very man she innocently helped out. Assigned to her case is Agent Borrow, following her along on this mission, making sure that she fulfills the most minor requirements of her contract but what follows leads them to risky encounters where no life is safe.

Now, I totally understand that award-winning writer Charles Ardai, also the co-founder of the imprint Hard Case Crime, wanted to produce a new line of comic books encapsulating the very heart of pulp noir crime fiction and that’s what he does with the solid penciling by artist Ang Hor Kheng and colours by Asifur Rahman. This does require loads of suspension of disbelief, but once you’re set and ready to believe in anything, things move quickly and smoothly. You will, however, quickly notice that a lot of the story’s success lies upon the insane curves of our female protagonist. Notwithstanding the blatant no-top-on-the-busty-femme-fatale rule that was clearly achieved from the beginning until the very end, never really explaining why she liked to showcase her frontal assets so much too, the revenge thriller isn’t unfortunately as voluptuous as the main character, quickly rushing to a resolution that felt unwarranted. There was an attempt to give her character more edge than the usual temptress who can handle her guns, but this reads more like a pervy guilty pleasure comic book than anything else.

Gun Honey (Vol. 1) is an unexceptional pulp noir thriller introducing the world to Joanna Tan and her valuable and pronounced assets.

[Judah Radd · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ll start with the positive; truly incredible artwork and some really nice boobs.

The negative? A lot. The premise is pretty dumb. She sneaks guns into places? Ok. I guess we can make that a cool outlaw job… but it comes across as really silly. Not to mention the fact that the plot was incomprehensible.

The worst thing about this was the actual nuts and bolts of the sequential storytelling. It’s like the pages didn’t connect. You’d turn a page and find out that there was a development in the otherworldly off panel abyss. It just didn’t flow. I had to play catchup and try to use the context clues to put this picture together, and I don’t think that was on purpose.

Also, our hot and sexy lead with the huge tits had almost no distinctive personality traits beyond some very general archetypes. I still don’t know her.

I fucking love big titty pulp stuff, but I still need it to be a good comic book, and this wasn’t.

[Mohammed Abdikhader Firdhiye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this series out of respect for Charles Ardai, the great work with Hard Case Crime. I finished the series, enjoyed the issues i read because the artist Ang Hor Kheng has great potential with noir comics.

[Rae likes books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short and sweet, don’t really have anything more to say about it. It’s a typical spy? crime? book like James Bond but she doesn’t kill people and barely wears clothes

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Action-packed, fast paced, and a page-turner. Joanna Tan is the titular “Gun Honey” who can get a gun anywhere, no matter the security. After what was supposed to be a simple job turns into a bloodbath, Joanna is forced to cooperate with the government to uncover the mysterious scarred man who massacred countless people to escape.

This is the start of a pulp noir comic series that doesn’t pull any punches. But while I had hopes for this book in terms of not being from the male gaze, that hope died just as quickly as the first casualty in this comic. It’s very obvious that a man wrote this but I will say this, the art is spectacular. Maybe it was the fifth nipple shot but at a certain point the nudity does nothing for the plot. I found the plot and the twists to be highly predictable and there was nil complexity in the characterization or backstory. This wasn’t particularly unique but it was a fairly entertaining read.

Thank you NetGalley and Titan Books for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[Malum · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a fairly fun ride until Ardai stretched the plot beyond reasonable believability. For example: the cops catch a notorious criminal but tell her "We won't put you in prison because you'll just escape anyway" (yeah, that's not how the law works) and then they make her do their job by catching a notorious bad guy instead of actually having police officers catch him (again, not at all how the law actually works).

[Phrique · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t think I’ve ever had to use the term “male gaze” before in a book/comic review, but c’mon mannnn. Was there a quota on pointless nudity that had nothing to do with the story whatsoever? I keep seeing the phrase “classic noir” thrown around but for the sake of comparison, maybe just say exploitation. Just call it a B movie comic: decent story, decent action, and titties titties titties. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a bible study to get to.

[David Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume collects issues 1-4 of a comic following the adventures of Joanna Tan, the arms dealer and smuggler to whom the title refers.

The story occupies a murky territory between espionage, thriller and crime: Tan is actively supplying weapons for nefarious purposes (whether or not she has any scruples about what she does is one of the central questions here - one which for me wasn't, quite, answered in this volume). That brings her into touch with criminal gangs, terrorists and corrupt politicians and indeed these blend into one another in a manner familiar in pulp.

As was the central premise here - when a law enforcement agency reaches out for help, it seems to be making an offer Joanna can't refuse. So the story gets darker, moving from the daring set up of the opening pages, where she poses on a beach to catch the eye of a tycoon as part of a job, to an attempted infiltration of a crime syndicate.

Through all this we're introduced to Joanna's past, and (perhaps) to the events which still motivate her now. It seems the world she's moving in now isn't so far from where she grew up, and she has motives which may mean that consequences and ethics take second place.

Or she may not. As I said, there is an atmosphere of amorality here which feels as though it fits a world of super yachts, remote island dens of pleasure and general lawlessness.

This uncertainty, and the twists and turns of the plot, keep the story readable throughout and the atmospheric drawings - using both a clear realist style a degree of grainy murk - contribute to that, especially when capturing the seedier locations and events. In relation to the latter, I would warn that there are some very explicit scenes here - both of killings, and also of Tan, as she picks her way through an exploitative, male-dominated world (or at least, it was till she took a stand).

Further episodes of Gun Honey are promised, so if you missed the originals, this would be a good place to catch up on the story so far.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gun Honey, Vol. 1 is the first volume in the Gun Honey (Joanna Tan) Hard Case graphic novel series by Charles Ardai. Ardai is a pseudonym for Richard Aleas who wrote hard boiled mysteries like Little Girl Lost.

Joanna Tan sells weapons. She knows how to get a weapon into a place so that it can then be used for a killing. She got into this business when, as a child, her family was killed in a bombing in Malaysia. Now an expert, while she also tries to find the people who killed her father, she supplies guns.

In one case, a gun is used to kill many people, both in prison and outside. A secret government organization brings her in to try to get her to work for them. She is assigned a handler, Brook Barrow, and they try to find out who was the man in prison who received her most recent gun.

Suffice it to say, there is lots and lots of action, lots of shooting as Joanna and Brook run down the killer. There will be a surprise as well as Joanna ultimately discovers who was behind the bombing.

The characters are drawn larger than life in this graphic novel, especially Joanna who is, let's just say, buxom. There is some nudity, one sex scene. The colors are bright, rich. It fits into the Hard Case mold and is pure comic book entertainment. (Warning: There is violence) 3.0 stars.

[Samuel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writers and artist are definitely GOONERS, for sure. Joanna was half-naked or fully naked for like more than half of this shit😭 they were coming up with every excuse in the book to make her strip. Just kinda went into the direction of objectification I think.

The story started off okay with a decent premise, but for some reason they decided to veer away from the main thing that made Joanna interesting - the fact that she sneaks guns into extremely secure facilities - and move into a predictable ahh revenge plot. There was only like maybe two instances where we see her do the main thing that she’s famously known for. The ending was just plain asf too - Joanna had no chemistry with the cop guy at all.

Had potential for the first couple issues, but kinda loses the thing that made it interesting as it continues, sadly.

[Shazne · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a classic pulp noir tale with an original character. It was a very good Vol. 1, it hits all the marks it's setting out to do. The art definitely enhances the experience. It feels like a breath of fresh air amongst the current state of Comic Book art. Gun Honey is a very likable character that is also very badass, tough and easy to root for. She's definitely very easy on the eyes but it's her character that excels this classic trop. Looking forward to more stories with her. One thing I hope to see in the future is a detailed visual representation of how she does what she's good at. It doesn't need to be explained everytime, there's a charm to that mystery but I'd love to see a scene where we get to see the full walkthrough and her thought process. Overall, a very satisfying book.

[Romulus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sam nie wiem. W polecance okładkowej Ed Brubaker napisał, że to kryminał noir najwyższej próby. On akurat coś o tym wie. Ale chyba przesadził. Nie jestem ekspertem, co najwyżej oglądam regularnie kryminały noir, te klasyczne i te z tzw. neo noir. Z doskoku czytam teraz książkę poświęconą temu gatunkowi. Ale ekspertem nie jestem. Mimo to nie zgadzam się z tym marketingowym tekstem Brubakera. To raczej przygodowa, trochę szpiegowska, akcyjna fabuła. I to wszystko. Zgrabna, ale niezbyt skomplikowana fabuła. Pierwsza część to dobry pilot tej krótkiej serii. Graficznie bez zarzutu, pieści oczy. Jednak ta szybka i przez to trochę po łebkach fabuła… Fakt, dzięki temu akcja jest dynamiczna a dużo się dzieje jak na skromną objętość. Ale dla mnie trochę za szybko. Fajna rozrywka.

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sexy femme-fatale protagonist, lots of crime and violence, nice story, decent artwork.

Not a lot to say about this one, it is not challenging but a lot of fun to read. Characters with a bit more depth and backstory than one often sees in the big-tit-and-big-guns type crime stories.

That artwork by Ang Hor Khengreally is pretty good; it fits the story perfectly and tells it's own story very competently. I will probably come back to this one for the artwork alone.

[William O’Pomegranate · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars