Fogtown

My primary motivation for buying all of the “Vertigo Crime” graphic novels as they come out, regardless of the creative team, has mainly been to gather material for a future podcast on the imprint’s inevitable failure observe the progression of the imprint and see the quality of the books firsthand.  The buying part has been easy, but the reading has been less so.  Quality has been all over the place, ranging from “not bad” (“The Executor”) to “phoned in” (“Filthy Rich”), to “godawful” (“The Chill”) and “a good ‘Hellblazer’ story, but not a crime story” (“Dark Entries”).  Now I wasn’t expecting much from the latest book, “Fogtown,” as the creative team of writer Andersen Gabrych and artist Brad Rader hadn’t really done much to get my attention.  Furthermore, the premise made it seem like this was going to be “Brokeback Mountain” for gritty private-eye stories set in the 50’s.

Much to my surprise, this turned out to be one of the more enjoyable “Vertigo Crime” GNs.  Frank Grissel is your standard gumshoe who wears his world-weariness and cynicism on his sleeve.  I doubt it would surprise anyone when I say that his latest missing persons case turns out to be much more complicated than he would’ve imagined, but the execution more than makes up for it.  Not only does Gabrych have the snappy tough-guy dialogue down to a science, but he makes the story’s sexual politics an integral part of the narrative and not something tacked on to explicitly prove a point or advance an agenda.  The story’s central mystery also unfolds nicely — though it’s not designed to allow you to figure things out before the protagonists do, it builds to a satisfying climax.  Brad Rader’s art also captures the feel of the era and the emotions of the characters on the page.  Despite some glaringly unsubtle visual cues of a sexual nature (you’ll know them when you see them), it’s a solid book and unlike the majority of the books I’ve read from the imprint, I’d actually be willing to read another from this creative team.