The content of Dry County #1 doesn’t really match the subtitle on the cover: “A Lou Rossi Comic – The EVERYMAN Crime Series.” Not to mention the “M” rating. Because there’s no crime in Dry County. There’s not even a whiff of it. Lead Lou Rossi lives in Little Havana, Miami, but it’s basically empty when he’s outside. Lonely guy living lonely existence.
Lou is a comic strip cartoonist at the paper. Between going to work and doing his daily, three-panel gag strip, he gets drunk. Then he meets a girl. Only she’s got problems with her boyfriend. It’s not noir, but it’s noir. Rich Tommaso’s art is extremely mellow. It’s hard to get agitated, even when Lou chases the girl’s abusive boyfriend away.
Tommaso writes it first-person, with Lou’s journal entries in between panels. The entries are on lined paper with neat handwriting; again, not very noirish. It’s too bright and vivid. Not cheerful, but precious.
As mundane slice of life–vividly rendered–Dry County #1 is all right. As the prelude to EVERYMAN crime… well, it’s slow. Especially since the characters are so thin, even the protagonist. Tommaso writes them for occasional gag humor too. It’s hard to imagine it getting bloody.
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