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Algernon (Darth Anyan)'s Reviews > Hard Boiled
Hard Boiled
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In retrospect, it was a good decision on my part to go from “Ghost in the Shell� and the future worlds of Moebius to this three issue series by Frank Miller and Geof Darrow.
The theme is similar to that of Masamune Shirow: a dystopian future where androids enforce ‘peace� in a crowded, crime-ridden metropolis. Instead of a pin-up anime heroine we have a regular American guy:
His name is either Carl Seltz or Carl Burns [he has memory/identity problems and trouble sleeping], he is either a tax collector or an insurance investigator, has a wife and two kids and a nice house in suburban Burbank. Or so he believes ...
Also, Carl has a slight flaw in his character: a tendency to go berserk and create bloody chaos in busy parts of the metropolis, leaving behind collateral damage in the higher range of three figures dead and maimed.
Carl’s handlers refer to him as Unit four , a deadly robot in frequent need of readjustment to his malfunctioning circuits, but to important for the corporate entity that built it to scrap.
Over these three issues we get to explore the nature of Carl’s dual personality, as he takes out his frustrations with guns blazing and with a car used as a wrecking ball.
I am not going to spoil the outcome. Readers familiar with Miller know that he dances on a very thin tightrope between gratuitous violence and true ‘hard-boiled / noir� traditions. Here, Miller surpasses his signature series ‘Sin City� in terms of gore, wholesale destruction and body-count but, once the reader gets over personal squeamishness, the plot makes a sort of deviant sense (view spoiler)
The main appeal of the short series, at least for me, is the truly amazing talent of Geof Darrow, a protegee and major fan of Giraud/Moebius, whose influence can be clearly seen in this early series from Geof. The jury of the prestigious Eisner award recognized the effort of both Miller and Darrow with a prize for ‘Hard-Boiled� in 1991. As a further reference to a popular and well-drawn series, Darrow reminds me of the style of Darick Robertson in Transmetropolitan.
I find it very easy to praise Darrow after stating some misgivings about Miller’s penchant for violent stories : amazing details, huge, panoramic, multi-layered cityscapes with plenty of tongue-in-cheek details that makes you linger over each page in order to discover something else the artist has dared to put into his pictures, great sense of perspective with the top down views familiar to readers of Moebius, great character expressions, both for humans and robots.
I am tempted to check out in 2023 another series by the same artist, even as I am aware that it is just as violent, if not even worse, than this one : Shaolin Cowboy , purely for the pleasure of poring over more of Darrow’s artwork.
by
In retrospect, it was a good decision on my part to go from “Ghost in the Shell� and the future worlds of Moebius to this three issue series by Frank Miller and Geof Darrow.
The theme is similar to that of Masamune Shirow: a dystopian future where androids enforce ‘peace� in a crowded, crime-ridden metropolis. Instead of a pin-up anime heroine we have a regular American guy:
His name is either Carl Seltz or Carl Burns [he has memory/identity problems and trouble sleeping], he is either a tax collector or an insurance investigator, has a wife and two kids and a nice house in suburban Burbank. Or so he believes ...
Also, Carl has a slight flaw in his character: a tendency to go berserk and create bloody chaos in busy parts of the metropolis, leaving behind collateral damage in the higher range of three figures dead and maimed.
Carl’s handlers refer to him as Unit four , a deadly robot in frequent need of readjustment to his malfunctioning circuits, but to important for the corporate entity that built it to scrap.
Over these three issues we get to explore the nature of Carl’s dual personality, as he takes out his frustrations with guns blazing and with a car used as a wrecking ball.
I am not going to spoil the outcome. Readers familiar with Miller know that he dances on a very thin tightrope between gratuitous violence and true ‘hard-boiled / noir� traditions. Here, Miller surpasses his signature series ‘Sin City� in terms of gore, wholesale destruction and body-count but, once the reader gets over personal squeamishness, the plot makes a sort of deviant sense (view spoiler)
The main appeal of the short series, at least for me, is the truly amazing talent of Geof Darrow, a protegee and major fan of Giraud/Moebius, whose influence can be clearly seen in this early series from Geof. The jury of the prestigious Eisner award recognized the effort of both Miller and Darrow with a prize for ‘Hard-Boiled� in 1991. As a further reference to a popular and well-drawn series, Darrow reminds me of the style of Darick Robertson in Transmetropolitan.
I find it very easy to praise Darrow after stating some misgivings about Miller’s penchant for violent stories : amazing details, huge, panoramic, multi-layered cityscapes with plenty of tongue-in-cheek details that makes you linger over each page in order to discover something else the artist has dared to put into his pictures, great sense of perspective with the top down views familiar to readers of Moebius, great character expressions, both for humans and robots.
I am tempted to check out in 2023 another series by the same artist, even as I am aware that it is just as violent, if not even worse, than this one : Shaolin Cowboy , purely for the pleasure of poring over more of Darrow’s artwork.
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