The One Trick Rip-Off isn’t a failed heist story. Paul Pope plays a lot with that genre, updating it to Los Angeles street gangs. Pope’s Los Angeles setting is an entirely different subject, one I’ll get out of the way. One Trick’s setting is lush–both in Pope’s lines and the colors–always urban, but still somehow organic. Pope’s use of the stars and the city skyline are both great ways to make it breath, especially the stars. The first star scene has the protagonists talking about constellations. They obviously aren’t visible, but Pope convinces the reader to look anyway.
All right, setting out of the way. Back to the genre. One Trick was originally serialized; some of the chapters are more obvious than others, but it also shows how Pope’s unveiling events. It opens with a classic heist planning scene and then Pope does whatever he can do make that scene impossible in the narrative. He later brings it back, which is something of a genre standard. But then Pope breaks One Trick out of the genre with the finish. It’s like he acknowledges what the genre’s limits and bypasses it.
Pope deftly prepares the protagonists for the transition. He spends a lot of time on his characters; the protagonists are actually the least jazzy. They’ve got a good story, especially with the genre shift, but Pope saves the flash for the supporting cast.
As for the art? It’s concurrently sublime and frantic.
It’s a great book.
CREDITS
Writer and artist, Paul Pope; colorists, Jamie Grant and Dominic Regan; letterer, Michael Neno; editor, Bob Schreck; publisher, Image Comics.
One Trick Rip-Off finishes here, the first story in the issue too. It’s pretty clear Pope was thinking, especially here—it has a multi-page wordless sequence for dramatic effect—of a single sitting read, not a one-year one. Some very nice art; some weak sentiment. The finish might read better as a single piece.
I was expecting The Ninth Gland to be creepier this issue, but I guess French has to save something for the finish. While it’s disturbing, it’s just disturbing imagery. The story itself is rather tame—though I imagine the payoff next issue will be something awful.
The issue opens with Egg, which is a well-intentioned look at child abuse. The narrator’s father is beating him and the school officials aren’t doing anything to help, even though some are well-intentioned. Lovece’s writing is better in dialogue. Dealing with the narrator’s Stockholm Syndrome, he fails. Also, introducing a giant creature into the situation seems a little cheap. Schenck’s art is fine.
I can’t believe I’m about to make this statement—I liked Milgrom’s story the best. It’s some charming little thing about a guy treating his roaches as pets (after all other attempts at pet owning in New York fail). Milgrom’s style is more comic strip than I’ve seen and it works. Even if the protagonist does look like Peter Parker with a receding hairline.
Ninth Gland is fairly gross this issue, though French still hasn’t done anything to tell the reader what the story’s about. There’s something growing in the alien horse and the two girls who brought it to the hospital maintenance man will be affected somehow. It’s creepy.
