HARDBOILED-PULP NOIR ACTION IN, “TRISTA AND HOLT #11” (REVIEW)

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Trista and Holt #11
IF? Comics

Story and Art by: Andrez Bergen

It’s been all funerals, no wedding, and this issue’s service is held for a key character.

Having survived a harrowing attempted hit on her own life and a mad car-chase, Trista needs to use every skill Governal passed on to her, the one person whom she can trust in this violent criminal fraternity — yet now there’s Issy beside her, offering support, and surprisingly offbeat young love is in the air. The hard-boiled pulp tale seriously hits its stride — and nothing shall be the same.

Throughout the series by Andrez Bergen, I have come to love this new artistic style of comic book imagery. This isn’t the traditional ink and pen artwork. But photography masterfully altered to have a noir feel complete with a grainy film layer that adds time and depth. The medium being used to convey this story of a forbidden love is a fresh new take. This is an updated version of the Tristan and Iseult epic from the Middle Ages, that has it’s own roots further back into even earlier romantic legends.

Trista and Holt is the ageless story about rival groups with a serious blood feud between the two families, and how two of their members fall for each other, even with all the blood shed falling around them. If you haven’t been reading the previous issues, your in luck. This issue is a very good jumping on point, complete with a detailed roster list of all the characters in the drama.

This story that is being told, is done so primarily through the edited photos that make up the panels. When there is dialogue, it feels like a secondary method of telling the story, which is a good thing. I love when the art (photography or illustrations) are so well planned and executed that the story and emotions that are meant to be felt are freely activated by viewing the panels and you don’t have to read and be told what the characters are going through.

By the end of this issue, from start to finish you get a feeling that if these two can survive the chaos and gun fights, then they can make it through anything. A metaphorical meaning to many relationships, but this time Trista and Holt physically dodge bullets and kept trusting in each other. Again, you don’t need to go back to understand this issue, but if you want to get the full experience of this photography-as-panels comic, then you should read the photography school’s artistic-noir comic from issue one. Not to mention this comic kicks off at a funeral for one of the family’s fallen and you can be assured this is the calm before another bloody storm.