Book Review 2024 #8 - Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips's Where the Body Was
Where the Body Was by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, and Jacob Phillips
Published by: Image Comics
Publication Date: January 16th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 144 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy
It's summer 1984 on Pelican Road. Right where the street ends there's a boarding house. It's mostly filled with junkies and the neighbors eye it with suspicion. Everything kicks off one day when Tommy Brandt stands up for Karina Lane. Tommy's been in love with Karina for awhile and seeing her with an abusive prick like Sid, something inside him snaps. And if their neighbor Palmer Sneed hadn't stepped in waving his badge something inside of Tommy really would have snapped. A rib most likely. Palmer's intervention catches the eye of lonely housewife Toni Melville. Her husband is a well regarded clinical psychiatrist but he's apparently more concerned with his patients than his own wife. Well, two can play that game and she's happy to welcome Palmer into her bed. But the real hero of the neighborhood is eleven year old Lila Nguyen, AKA The Roller Derby Kid. Earlier in the summer Tommy was clearing out the garage of the boarding house and gave Lila a box of comics. Ever since that day she has been obsessed with being a superhero. Cape, domino mask, roller skates, the works. She's the eyes and ears of Pelican Road. And she's the first to see the private eye. She's doing her rounds before going to her lookout when she sees him. And she knows he brings trouble. She immediately goes to the homeless vet Ranko who she's befriended. She brings him food while he's been living rough behind the 7-11 while seeing Dr. Melville. Lila is worried he could get in trouble. She's worried a lot of people could get in trouble, especially Tommy and Karina. They've been robbing the houses in the neighborhood for drug money while also taking a dip in the houses' pools. Lila even confronts Tommy that he needs to cut it out. But Tommy knows that he's not the reason the PI is in the neighborhood. Jack Foster is there for Karina. He's been sent by her family to find her. She skipped out on court ordered rehab and needs to go home. But Tommy doesn't want her to go home. He wants this imperfect but somehow perfect summer to never end. Though that's impossible. While Palmer waving his badge at Sid might have been the start of things, the match that lit the fire, it's the PI's arrival that is the fuel. Because everyone has secrets, the affairs and the petty larceny are nothing when you learn that Palmer isn't even a cop, he's just waving his father's badge around. And the PI knows it. The PI knows all. And then Lila finds the body. A body that isn't there once the police arrive and shatter the taut atmosphere of Pelican Road, a place where murder lurks just below the surface.
When I was younger I read the expected comics, Archie, Richie Rich, The Family Circus, and once I developed taste, Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes. Then there was the darkages, and yes, that is a Philomena Cunk reference. I didn't pick up any comics. For years and years I went to Westfield Comics to buy my Red Dwarf magazines and trading cards. Because you can never have enough Red Dwarf or trading cards in your life she says as she tries to offload a whole bunch of trading cards to anyone who wants to buy them. What got me back into comics was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Firstly, because they had tie-in editions, and eventually because that's how the series continued. But being exposed to comics again meant I started to pay attention and started picking up series that other people recommended. And if I ever remember who told me to read The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen I'm coming for you! Thanks to my library, which has a stunning collection, I started to find creators I really connected to, Bill Willingham, Marjorie M. Liu, Sana Takeda, Cullen Bunn, Tyler Crook, James Tynion IV, and Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. A decade ago I picked up Fatale, Book 1: Death Chases Me and I was hooked. It's noir, it's eldritch, it's got amazing art! I devoured the whole series in a matter of days, actually having to go to Westfield Comics to buy the final arc because the wait at the library was too long. After that I was an acolyte. The writing and the art just can't be beat. Though I do like the stories that tend to veer towards the supernatural, like Fatale and Kill or be Killed, but you can't fault their Noir Old Hollywood vibe either. In 2018 though an interesting thing happened. They released My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies, an original graphic novel instead of issues on an approximately monthly basis. This was so successful, along with the expanded arc from Criminal, Bad Weekend, that starting in 2020 with the first Ethan Reckless book all their joint projects are now graphic novels. Continuous stories that aren't serialized. Though Covid did also play into this decision with supply chain issues. There have been five Ethan Reckless books to date, and other deservedly lauded books like Pulp and Night Fever. But for me it's all about Where the Body Was. This 2024 release was the hit of nostalgia that I'd been craving. Focusing on a dead end road in the summer of 1984 it tracks an intersecting cast of characters over what ends up being a rather momentous summer. I mean there's a dead body, and then there isn't! One of my favorite films of all time is The 'Burbs and this tapped into the same suburban vibe that tilts to the ominous. But there's also a fluid narration that gives us past and present. And most importantly of all, it namechecks one of the greatest episode of The Twilight Zone ever, so says my Dad, "Walking Distance." For those sentimentalists among us who love intrigue and art and human connections, even if you've never picked up a graphic novel, let me say, try this one. It really is for you.
There are some people out there who would say that as a show Lovecraft Country is too all over the place, never settling on one style or even one genre, to them I say, that's the point! It is so fun and invigorating to have so many pulp genres in one show. We have haunted houses, epic adventures, ghost stories, space odysseys, and curses, with homages to everything from The Goonies to Indiana Jones to The Evil Dead! The Evil Dead one being a fabulous deep dive because the franchise deals with the Necronomicon, a book create by the writer H.P. Lovecraft, and what with the name of the show, when Leti is running through the woods in the first episode and takes shelter in the exact cabin from the franchise, my geeky heart did sing! Lovecraft Country also does an epic job of giving you unforgettable scenes that are simple but you know will stick with you forever for how haunting they are. The malevolent spirits Topsy and Bopsy who haunt Diana will forever haunt you. How can simple choreography be that terrifying!?! Though the first episode chase scene will now forever after be for me the most gut-wrenching I've ever witnessed. It's not the speed, it's not the action, it's what's at stake. Tic, George, and Leti have to get out of a sundown county with the police on their tales. If they fail to escape, they are surely dead. But if they speed, they will be pulled over. They are fighting the setting sun while crawling along the highway in the most nail-biting scene ever. That something so simple could be so compelling just shows what this show was capable of. But what makes this show work on a higher level is that despite being a period piece set in the 1950s that even had an episode all in Korean about a kumiho, a nine-tailed fox creature, it felt so relevant. The inability to get a job not because you lack the qualifications but because of the color of your skin. The constant police brutality and intimidation. The death of poor Emmett Till. This show encapsulated the Black Lives Matter movement in the most unique way possible. We need more shows out there willing to tell the truth, willing to take the risks, and willing to break the rules.
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
