Triggerman Collection: Like a brick through a window

Nearly forty years ago, in 1979, Walter Hill directed the cult classic The Warriors. Less than a decade later, amidst other gigs, he penned the story for Triggerman. In 2015, Rue de Sèvres releases the French language graphic novel Balles Perdues (translated 'Stray Bullets')

• Triggerman (Matz, Hill, Jeff)
• 128 pages
• Titan Comics / Hard Case Crime
• ISBN-10: 178585867X
• ISBN-13: 978-1785858673

Lucky for those of us do not speak French, Hard Case Crime just released the first edition English graphic titled "Triggerman". It is 128 pages of gritty prohibition badass. Individual issues were released last year, but this collection soles the piecemeal problem many of us have with buying singles.

Machine Gun Roy Nash is dead. A fat bloated body attributed with his name was riddled with bullets inside a prison and cremated. Nash is delivered inside a pine box and on opening, Roy Parker is born.

Roy has a knack for locating people and extracting from them anything which requires extracting. Today, he is charged with locating three men who performed a job and then bolted before paying up. It isn't the money that is the problem, it is the disrespect.

Roy is personally invested in this job. Travelling with the three men was lovely Lena, the woman that makes his clock tick and his life meaningful. It doesn't hurt that any cash recovered will remain his, to the tune of half a million dollars.

The art in this novel is solid.. Like a brick through a window.
The writing is amazing, relying on the interplay with imagery, it drags you along at just the right pace.
The tommy guns frequently blurt out 'Budda-Budda-Budda' and everytime, you feel the lead to body 'conversation' is absolutely justified.

A lot was said with few words on this page.

A couple things helped legitimize this story. First, Nash.. I kept making mental comparisons to the similar last name of Elliot Ness, a true life special agent who battled Al Capone. They are no where near mirrors of each other but I was in a prohibitionist state of mind and perhaps needed a beer while reading this. Second, the gangster in Chicago who is offended and pays for this adventure happens to be referred to as Al, regardless of any last name, it FEELs right when reading it.

Hard Case Crime has been releasing solid fiction for a few years now and looks to be continuing the trend.

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Disclosure: This was provided to me for review purposes. While I could choose to murder the reviewed work in it's sleep, I really did like it and will attempt to hide it from our mutual enemies to ensure it doesn't receive cement shoes. If I hated it, I would have written my review in emoticons that are not relevant to the era of the work and would have been a whole lot less fun.