Ed Brubaker - The Fade Out

[andydecker]

The Fade Out - written by Ed Brubaker, artwork by Sean Phillips (Image Comics, 2014, 12 issue mini series)

Not exactly horror, but after watching too many episodes of Better Call Saul in one sitting, I thought why not a crime comic for once.

This graphic novel is by American writer Ed Brubaker and his oftentime collaborator British artist Sean Phillips. Brubaker may be best known for his re-imagining of Marvel's Captain America which translated into the movies, and Phillips has drawn many comics for both sides of the Atlantic from New Statesmen to Marvel Zombies.

The Fade Out is a typical Neon Noir about a murder in period Hollywood. Basically this is a version of many popular Hollywood myths and unpopular facts like the treatment Dashiell Hammett received after WWII, seen through a contemporary lens.

The story is about movie writer Charlie Parish who has lost it due to PTSD, he can't write anymore. So he employs his war buddy Gil as a ghost writer. Because Gil has been blacklisted as a commie sympathiser. After one drunken binge too many Charlie wakes beside the strangled corpse of new rising star Valeria Sommers - the star of the movie he is supposed to write - and can't remember a thing. The studio hushes things up, just another tragic Hollywood suicide. Nobody knows about Charlie's involvement, but he can't let it go and begins to investigate. Unfortunatly his buddy Gil also gets on the case, and Gil wants to bring the studio down.

The cast of characters page may imply that the characters are a bit (too much?) of genre sterotypes. And while it could be argued that the story relies on plot elements which over the time have become their own cliches, on the other hand this is also a play with noir movies and plots. It is a bit Hollywood Babylon, a bit Cornell Woolrich, a bit Sunset Boulevard, a bit The Day of the Locust, with some modern sensibillities thrown in. And some adult take on the art, meaning a sex-scene or two.

As a murder mystery this works surprisingly well. Brubaker manages to make the most of the popular Hollywood narrative of glamorous pictures and corrupt and deviant producers while bringing a few bits of factual history into the play. The downbeat ending isn't exactly a surprise - it's Chinatown, Jake -,  but both writing and artwork are very good, if you like Phillip's style. He manages to make a story which over long stretches is basically nothing but talking heads visually interesting and catching the era.

While this is avaiable in all formats as is usual today, single issues and trade collections, both print and digital, the oversized hardcover is especially nice if you like Phillips art.