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December 07, 2004
Subway Reading: The Darkness & Detective Comics
David Lapham, writer, artist, and publisher of Stray Bullets, recently had a baby. Well, more specifically, his wife had the baby. Har har. In a perhaps unrelated (but likely very related) development, David Lapham has returned to the world of corporate comics. He scripted a four-issue run of the Top Cow comic The Darkness, a title that I had never heard of before. He is also scripting what I believe to be a 12-issue run of DC's Detective Comics, starring a character who I have heard of once or twice. The first issues of both books hit the stands last week.
It was enlightening to see the similarities between these two books. My understanding is that Lapham not only scripted, but also did the breakdowns for both titles. While most modern comic books strain to squeeze four panels onto a page, Lapham frequently deploys 3 or even 4 tiers of panels per page. This is reminiscent, of course, of the strict 8-panel pages that he uses in Stray Bullets. Both books employed voice-over narration, which was interesting because I don't recall ever seeing this convention in Stray Bullets. In that title, Lapham often relies on visual storytelling to describe the action, and subtleties in the acting and dialogue to convey the mood and tone. Maybe the lack of control over all aspects of these books led him to rely on narration. I am eager to see where he goes with both of these stories, and how he gets there.
The Darkness #17 - I went into this book completely cold. Between the blurb on the inside front cover and Lapham's exposition, however, I had no problems picking up on the premise. Dead Mafia goon Jackie Estacado is brought back to life as the host for some evil demons. These demons climb out of him when it's dark, and kill people in an extremely gory manner. There are some nice horror moments to be found, such as Jackie filling his hotel room with lamps so that he won't have to sleep in the dark. The narration is given in the voice of the possessing demons, and it is supported by an occasional panel of grinning demon jaws. This was also a satisfying touch.
Brian Denham's art in Darkness #17 does not appeal to me. I place most of the blame on the choppy, spotty inking. This style does a nice job of describing small areas of detail, but it does not convey the weight of larger forms. There is not enough visual hierarchy, and as a result everything flattens out on the page. Denham gets points for his character work, which is distinctive and consistent. I think this book would benefit from a separate and more polished inker; this would give Denham more time to focus on his pencils and result in a cleaner and tighter finished product.
This issue was largely set-up for the four-issue arc, so it's hard to evaluate the story itself. The plot seemed to be a little too straightforward. The characterization was of the stock variety. I am going to stick with this arc out of loyalty to Lapham, but if I don't see some improvement in the next issue I will be disappointed. 2 stars.
Detective Comics #801 - After my mild disappointment with The Darkness, I was a bit wary of Lapham's other work-for-hire effort. It turned out to be a pleasant surprise. This issue was also the set-up chapter in a larger arc, but it captured a lot more of my interest. Lapham does a nice job of establishing the tone by presenting Gotham as a festering city, rotted by urban decay. The characterization is deeper in this book, too; note how a couple of extremely minor bad decisions by Bruce Wayne come back to haunt him later. Bruce dwells on them and blames himself for the tragedy that ends this issue.
The hyper-detailed art in this book, by penciller Ramon Bachs and inker Nathan Massengill, did a nice job of communicating the cacophony of grime that is Gotham City. While it lent itself to the tone, however, I don't think it worked well in conjunction with Lapham's small-panel storytelling style. I would like to see this team pull back a little bit and focus on what is important in each scene rather than cover the page with detail.
On the whole I enjoyed this book more than The Darkness, but neither one approached the greatness of Stray Bullets. 3.5 stars.
Posted by jdonelson_nyc at December 7, 2004 01:16 PM