Bullet Gal #8 (If? Commix)
Written by: Andrez Bergen
Art by: Andrez Bergen
Once again, Bullet Gal pulls me away from the capes and tights to show me why I love comic books. I am a huge fan of art, any form ranging from a personal interpretation that you are supposed to derive the meaning of the work, or simply a beautiful landscape in pencil or paint or whatever it is. This comic made me relapse to a different tone of comics. If you are like me, you will love the way a creator of art can tell a story through imagery or how words can paint that picture for you. This issue was broken up into three methods of story telling; art alone, descriptive narration and combined.
The narration is straight out of a classic noir or detective novel, with the relationship between the feature of the chapter and the city they will die for. As exhausted as the noir subject can seem with the same focal point usually being touched upon (including banter with partner or close friend) this had a different feeling to it as there was no great inner turmoil, just the facts and some spent bullets. If you want to enjoy a story through pictures that literally tell the tale, then you should Bullet Gal #8. If you want to read a great teaser narration that will keep you turning the pages, than you should Bullet Gal #8.
As a single issue, there may not be a lot of information or much recapping of why we are following this memorable detective (if you want to make a hero or villain stick out, give them some kind of unique feature, I.e. An eye patch). As a collection (see other Bullet Gal issues) this story keeps the action and intrigue building, trying to get you to fall in love with not only this city like our detective is, but also to get you to see the noir style imagery and sell the scenes how you imagine them. The panels do a great job of setting the scenes, but I felt engaged as a reader to complete the action from frame to frame (which I hope is the goal of this project). Not just because the opening narration was worded in a way that warped my mind to a place and time where they would talk as such, nor because the images were dark or thrilling, but I felt like this comic was something that didn’t show or tell me the answer to the rhetorical “what does this painting mean” but instead let me interpret it for myself. Then again each person who read this comic may have a different point if view as well.