Cops and Crooks #1
Brian has this listed as a #1, but in this case I don’t get it. I suppose, if I squint my eyes just right, this could be the perfect beginning of a series. Or it could be the perfect example of a self-contained comic. Ah, who cares? He has a half dozen or so other series that he’s juggling, so either way works for me. This is the story of, well, cops and crooks. This has to be close to the shortest flip book around, as half of it deals with a cop and the other half deals with a man who wants to kill all cops and destroy the system. The cop had a rough but decent life, as his father (also a cop) was killed when he was four years old, but he was raised by a bunch of different cops on the force, with them taking him on their family vacations and generally doing all the things that a father should do. The other guy had a completely different experience, as his father was taken away by cops before he was even born, so he has, quite naturally, hated them ever since. There’s also the distinct contrast of the artwork, as Jason Young (I’m guessing the Veggie Dog Saturn Jason Young?) has a clean line with everything seeming to be sweetness and light, while on the Crooks half Eric Shonborn perfectly captures some scratchy (but still intricate) rage. Like I said, this could go either way in terms of it being a series. I could see them both eventually crashing into each other, or this just being fine all by itself as a commentary of the intrinsic nature of cops and crooks. Either way, as always, I’m on board, and you should be too. $1
