Comic Related - Life in Four Colors

Life In Four Colors: Book Review

The Damned

Shades of Gray. A mingling of black and white. The colors (or lack of) that make up a world caught between right and wrong…..life and death. A world that leaps out at you from the confines of its individualized panels and jumps off you chest with the full beast like fury of a black and white gangster film. The world created by writer and creator Cullen Bunn and artist and co-creator Brian Hurtt. Demons, Tommy Guns…and those caught in the in between.

The world of the Damned.

A story that actually seems to take on a life of its own, breathing in short shallow breaths as you turn each vividly illustrated page. A story that feels like the lost love child of the Untouchables…..and the hit t.v series, Reaper, on the CW.

Unlike Sam…( the main character from that same show)….Eddie, the main character from the Damned, doesn’t find out his parents sold his soul to the devil before his birth. It appears that Eddie himself did that. At least it appears that he has sold his soul to someone….who might even make the devil seem like a cheating card shark from Vegas. They call themselves the Verlochin…and our good buddy Eddie seems to have…bargained with them in the past. The end result….Eddie is now cursed. Damned, if you will.

You see, this book is one of those insanely original, creative and awe-inspiring stories that only comes around every few years or so. Much like J’O Barr’s the Crow or David Mack’s original Kabuki series. The Damned is a period piece in a way. Set in a time and place torn by warring factions of crime lords, or “families” of organized crime that deal with the common vices once pandered by the likes of Al “Scar Face” Capone , “Pretty Boy” Floyd, and “Baby Face” Nelson. But with a twist. As bad as those gentlemen may have been during the blood soaked days of Prohibition…..they were just men.

The organized crime families in the Damned….are demons. And they also trade in souls as well as cheap broads and booze. Sounds good doesn’t it? Trust me….it is…and I’ve only scratched the surface.

Originally a five part limited series with the additional toe tag of “Three Days Dead”…….which I was lucky enough to have read the first two issues of before having trouble finding the rest of the series in my area…. Luckily I recently ran into the Damned artist Brain Hurtt while attending Heroes Convention. And one of the things he had at his table….the Damned trade paperback that collected all five issues of the first series…and as a bonus….a six page prequel that appears at the end of the book called…”Three Days Earlier…” which explains a little more how Eddie found himself caught up in a cross town “cease fire” between the two feuding demon syndicates that’s literally going to Hell in a hand basket.

And Eddie’s the unlucky stiff that gets hand picked to salvage the whole crazy mess. And by stiff …that’s exactly what I mean.

It seems that as an added incentive of his deal with the demon clan he sold his soul to….Eddie has an ability of sorts that is a twisted blessing and a curse. If Eddie gets himself whacked….he only stays dead if you don’t touch his corpse. If you touch him…then you die the exact same way Eddie died….and Eddie comes back to life. How’s that for an original story device?

There’s one scene in the story when Eddie has the misfortune of getting punched by a demon….a “summoned” leg breaker type working for one of the demonic big Bosses. This demon punches Eddie one time……and kills him instantly. But being a demon of the not so bright variety…decides killing Eddie isn’t enough. He attempts to beat Eddie’s now broken and lifeless body into a bloody smear on the docks.

The poor guy doesn’t survive the second punch. Sorry…I love that scene so much I just couldn’t keep it to myself. Believe me there’s plenty more twists and turns to keep you glued to the edge of your seat….like …..what happens to Eddie while he’s dead….that’s pretty interesting, a little spooky, and very thought provoking.

There’s only one or two more things that could make this story better……one would be a sequel. Wait a minute….what’s that on Brian’s table right next to the Damned “Three Days Dead” collected trade……while I’ll be a monkey’s uncle …..it’s issues one and two of the Damned “Prodigal Sons”….a three issue limited series that follows Eddie as he tries to unravel a mystery that he learned about towards the end of the first series. A mystery that can only be solved with the help of his long lost brother, Morgan.

I walked away from Brian’s table with not only a signed copy of the collected first story, but with autographed copies of the first two issues of the second story as well. And I didn’t even have to sell my soul…..thanks to an incredible deal offered to me by Mr. Hurtt…..my soul is still very much in tact and my wallet didn’t have to be sacrificed to the neither-gods.

The second series takes off running and true to his nature, Eddie’s best laid plans start to head south fast….pulling the reluctant Morgan into the mess as well. Cullen’s story is perfectly paced…and Brian’s art is on fire. These two guys just click. They don’t make many creative teams like this anymore.

And as if a second series wasn’t enough, writer Cullen Bunn recently mentioned to Comic Related columnist Bill Love that there is a third story in the works. Check out Bill’s full interview with Cullen in the Comic Related Recap: Podcast # 19…..live from Wizard World in Chicago for even more details and future plans. Good stuff, great interview…..man that means the only thing that could be better than that news would be….I don’t know…how about a the Damned live action motion picture……?

What?

You’re kidding me. That’s already in the works as well?

Just announced this past April….Oni Press….which publishes the Damned have entered into talks with David DiGilio (8 Below) to adapt the story for Dreamworks. Bunn and Hurtt will be involved in the screen writing process and husband and wife team Walter T. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald (both having worked on Sweeny Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street….the Johnny Depp and Helen Bonham Carter film)…are already set to produce the Damned motion picture.

Check this book out…because in no time at all…everybody is going to be talking about it. And you don’t want to be left out of the conversation, do you?