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 previous issue, but following around a new character, a local loser who takes Orson out to the nearby truck stop. There's nothing else to do but hang out at the truck stop. The issue's protagonist is an unlikable bully (though Lapham never gives the reader the satisfaction of Orson going off on him) and his adventures, set over a day, are mostly comical.
The end is a little bit of a surprise, not so much the last page, which Lapham goes for humor, but the bully's big moment.
It's a solid, if unremarkable, issue.
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.
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 least I think she’s the girl from the end of that issue. Anyway, it probably takes Lapham three pages to get that information out of the way.
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.
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 feels far more organic.
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 her awful mother.
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 the same as the other party from a previous issue. But it’s definitely a different party.
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.
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.
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.