![]() ![]() It’s kind of nice to see a creator deliberately eschew exploitation. Tiede all but apologizes in his notes for a mildly revealing shower scene. Tiede’s characters are so determinedly likeable that they tip right over into bland -not to mention unbelievable (I mean, these are supposed to be *Chicago* cops, y’know?) Similarly, though the story has a fair amount of blood (including some very nicely-rendered mauling victims) it lacks the moral ambiguity, the sex, and even the seediness one usually expects from police procedurals. And while the plot is predictable enough that even the werewolf surprise isn’t especially surprising, that’s hardly a cardinal sin in this sort of endeavor. ![]() The book’s action is brisk and engaging, especially in the fight-scene set pieces. His craftsmanship is very impressive - the Chicago architecture is painstakingly rendered, and he even uses actual Mandarin calligraphy for some of the dialogue. Tiede assimilates manga visuals - complex layouts, cartoony characters, even stylized hair-dos -with as much grace as any westerner I’ve seen. and Marvel aren’t run by complete fucking idiots. ![]() A police procedural/horror amalgam, it’s exactly the sort of professional, entertaining American genre comic that is flying off the shelves in some alternate universe where D.C. Not that there aren’t creators trying to fill the gap. As a result, when readers want romance or action (as most of them do) they import it from Japan. The bread-and-butter genre work that fills most of the market in other mediums is AWOL. As Kim Thompson, Steven Grant, and others have noted, American comics have long been split between snooty literary art and bottom-drawer super-hero fare. ![]()
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