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Written in 1958, Ed McBain's The Gutter and the Grave is a classic PI crime drama from this period. Matt Cordell is as seedy as they come. He's at a particularly low end; a drunk, his reputation shattered and licence revoked, he still hasn't gotten over his wife leaving him. He's a bum, unshaven and living in a slum in the Bowery in New York, but a friend comes there looking for him. Jonny Bridges, a tailor, is concerned that someone has been dipping into the till, and he since he only has one full time employee Dom Archese, he doesn't really need a PI to work it out. Reluctantly however, Cordell is persuaded to look into the matter, but he no sooner turns up at the shop than they find Archese shot dead but not apparently before he was able to chalk the initials JB on the wall beside him. Despite his misgivings about the timing of this, Cordell knows he can't afford to let himself get involved with the police, so he lets Bridges handle the inevitable charge alo...

As you might have expect, there’s a nice balance and symmetry of all the elements of Carole Johnstone’s thriller Mirrorland , a balance between real life and fantasy, a balance between love and loss, and it’s intriguing that this whole balance is maintained in the relationship between two twin sisters, Ellice and Catriona Morgan Nonetheless something has happened to knock all those elements out of balance, an event that took place 20 years ago, separating the sisters El and Cat on either side of the Atlantic. Even more serious, it’s been reported that El has disappeared on a boat at sea, and putting aside their difficulties Cat goes back to Scotland to look for her sister, certain that despite the evidence, she is not dead. As a twin, she’s sure she would have felt something, but it’s not just that. Someone is sending Cat emails and messages, clues that reveal things that only the twins would know about that set her on a kind of bizarre treasure hunt. El’s distraught husband, Ross MacA...

It’s not every graphic novel that has a script writer of the stature of Alexandre Dumas, but if you are going to tell us something about the eventful life of Eugène Delacroix, one of the most important painters from French Romantic school, you can’t do much better than get the first-hand account written in 1864, a year after the artist’s death, from someone who knew him as a good friend. As the painter of Liberty Leading the People in 1830, capturing an iconic image that depicts the national values it stands for, Delacroix remains one of the major figures of French painting, and Dumas’ entertaining account does much to consolidate that reputation. Having Alexandre Dumas relate the story of Delacroix’s life is as authentic as you can get, but evidently if you’re going to create a graphic novel about Delacroix you’d need an artist of great ability to get across the power of his work, and fortunately, and most impressively, you have that in Catherine Meurisse. Although the larger part of...

Although it’s set in 1948, The Other Side of the Border comes at an opportune time, a thriller set on the US border with Mexico showing how life, the problems and crime in the region probably haven’t changed a lot over the years. Other than efforts at hardening the border under the most recent US administration, the issues and inequalities remain much the same for people living on either side of the border, and in such a place crime is not just inevitable, for some it’s a necessity, a way of life. The 2020 graphic novel one-shot The Other Side of the Border  scripted by Jean-Luc Fromental with art by Philippe Berthet highlights the discrepancy between the two cultures immediately, bringing in a French/Belgian perspective through an author of detective novels living in the Santa Cruz valley. Known as “the French Edgar Wallace”, François Combe lives a free and somewhat reckless lifestyle at the Stallion Farm. Although married with a young child, it’s common knowledge that he also ha...

Dreams and autobiographical elements feature heavily in the books of David B to such an extent that the dreams are in a way autobiographical of the author's fascinating inner life. Not that the two are separate, dreams and reality merge, two sides, one illuminating or drawing from and feeding off the other, the exchange going both two ways. Dreams are as real as everyday life for David B, presenting an extraordinary, almost alternative life that features recurrent images and figures, one that elevates life closer to great mysteries and secrets, tied in with mythology, power and evil. Babel , published in France in 2004 by Coconino Press/Vertige Graphics is just such a blend of dreams and childhood reflection. As a child living with his family in Orléans, the narrator sees his ancestors, an old couple, who live on the ceiling of their dining room. Also related here is the occurrence of the first epileptic seizure of his brother Jean-Christophe (who would become the main subject of h...