> Which prompts a mention a hard-boiled mid-80s book
called Grimjack which
> stretched _my_ conception of violence in the genre.
Somebody died, often
> horribly, in every issue. Published by First Comics
and created, I
believe,
> by Timothy Truman, it featured a PI named John Gaunt,
nicknamed Grimjack
on
> account of his murderous disposition and nasty smile.
He wandered
through a
> city called Cynosure that exists in every dimension
at once, which
allowed the
> writers to change the laws of physics/nature at will.
Fortunately, a
blade
> works everywhere. There were femme fatales, corrupt
politicians, missing
> persons, robberies gone wrong, illegal blood-sports,
a seedy bar and
haunted
> pasts. Great stuff for a young teen and still loads
of fun, though the
> arbitrary use of the cityscape started to annoy after
a couple of hours.
If my memory is accurate (never a safe assumption) Grimjack
was co-created
and scripted by John Ostrander. Truman did the art and in one
issue drew
in a bookstore owner friend of mine as a tough, alien
gorilla. Grimjack
was a good series, but Mike Grell's Jon Sable, Freelance was
better--and
Grell was a more hardboiled writer.
James Reasoner
(skirting dangerously close to off-topic with this comics
stuff)
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