Something is changing in Lapham’s art. His figures and faces are getting more streamlined, less thorough and there are a lot of almost all black panels. Perhaps he’s rushing. But only on the art. He’s still working hard on the story. This issue has a woman whose drunk husband comes home, followed by a bunch…

Lapham starts fresh this issue, set a few years before the Virginia and Beth storyline; this time the protagonist is a hen-pecked husband who breaks down and kills someone. The experience proves a boon for his ego and he changes his life. Actually, he mostly starts drinking, sleeping with some other guy’s wife, hangs out…

It’s another great issue. Lapham’s uneven overall, but when he does a great issue, it’s truly great. No surprise, Virginia is the center of the issue. Lapham sets it a year later than the previous issue with its cliffhanger, with Virginia and Beth living in California. Beth’s trying to make deals, usually with guys, upsetting…

A lot of stuff comes to a head this issue, which is double-sized, and even has some backstory on how the characters ended up in Seaside. Maybe it was during that first party issue. At least it seems to be the result of it. I think. If it’s so important, Lapham should have included CliffsNotes.…

Lapham does integrate Virginia (who called her Ginny, I can't remember) into the Seaside cast. And all of a sudden, if it weren't for the meth heads or whatever they are trying to rape a thirteen year-old girl (they're the comic relief, actually), Stray Bullets would be almost a sitcom. A quirky one, sure, but…

Ginny finally gets to Seaside and truly meets the cast there. Havoc ensues. Madcap havoc. There’s violence and there’s a little bit of evil, but Lapham plays it all for humor. Not even surreal humor. He’s got a cast of supporting characters he mocks and mock them he does. The evil comes in the form…

It’s back to reality, but Lapham keeps his new formula for figuring in interconnected exposition. Maybe Beth and her friend are the girls from the night of the first party. I kind of hope not, because it makes her meeting Orson–who thankfully doesn’t appear this issue–way too contrived. The issue has Beth and the friend…

It’s the best issue of Stray Bullets so far and it’s an Amy Racecar issue. I’ll pause for a moment and let that situation sink in. The fictional character of one of Lapham’s fictional characters has the best issue in ten. Okay, here we go. Amy, or little Ginny, ends up in Seaside. Seaside is…

I don't know if I'd say Bullets is back on track, as Lapham's been relatively uneven so it's hard to know what kind of track he's trying to keep the series on. But this issue's definitely an improvement, just in terms with how tightly he tells the story. It's set in the trailer park from…

The interconnected thing is exhausting because Lapham has to take time out from the story to fill the reader in on the connection. For example, Orson the high school kid is now on the run with the girl he met at the end of his first issue for stealing coke from crime boss Harry. At…

It’s more adventures of Ginny, the girl with the terrible mother–not like “ha ha” terrible, but like abused one. Her dad gets cancer. Her dad who literally has to protect her from her mother and her sister. So the scary part is his leaving her, which Lapham sort of ignores. Instead, he goes through day…

Lapham calls back big time to the original Stray Bullets this issue. He works it in as background, very, very discreet background. His expository dialogue is good enough a new reader could walk right in. The neat part of not going overboard with a callback is it doesn’t make the comic seem too forced. It…

And here we get the first Amy Racecar story. Amy’s probably a stand-in for the little girl with the scars, given how silly some of the details of the story get. Amy’s a thirty-first century outlaw on a Dillinger-esque crime spree. So it’s a child’s fantasy. Also, Amy eventually gets scars on her face from…

Lapham goes for mood a lot this issue. Only, he doesn’t do it with the art, he does it with the lettering. He does it with the “sound” going around, the dialogue. It’s a fantastic sequence. It takes place during a party, which is sort of confusing as many of the guests seem to be…

So, with this issue, Lapham does two things. First, he resurrects a previously presumed dead character and fills in, through exposition, the year between stories. But then he also spends the entire issue teasing danger for the character, only to go for a somewhat black, but still comedic relief finish for the issue. It’s kind…

Being interconnected can be a real problem when it’s all you’re going for. This issue, Lapham brings in characters from the previous issues at different times in their lives, showing where they’ve gone or showing how they ended up where they’re going. For the most part, they’re supporting cast, which is good. The problem is…

There’s an odd thing to this issue of Stray Bullets. Even though Lapham never suggests things are going to go all right at all, even though he takes the reader through various intense situations and they always get worse, he creates a hopefulness. It’s a useless one, of course, but it’s there. The reality of…

With a very strange sense of humor, you could call the first issue of Stray Bullets a comedy of errors. Two guys working for a crime boss (it’s never too clear, which is nice) have a simple task. They have to dispose of a body. Unfortunately, they have a flat. Then it turns out one…

With this first issue of Stray Bullets: The Killers, David Lapham reminds everyone why they should feel bad about themselves for not missing Stray Bullets more. It's a new story, but it hits all the best beats the series used to hit and nothing else has hit since. It opens with a stunning sequence with…