You know, despite having read every issue published of Grimjack, I just never get tired of him kicking the crap out of a bunch of monsters. This issue sees Gaunt and his new protege/lover/possible trouble ahead Jo Chaney facing off with monstrous vampires in a vampire club, which sounds potentially kind of old hat but isn't thanks to the perfect execution by Ostrander and Truman. The meat of the story may be an extended fight sequence in a vampire nightclub, but the heart of the story is in the hints of Grimjack's past life, his past run-ins with vampires and how they inform his current ones and his self-abusive, sarcastic and often very funny internal monologue, right out of a great pulp detective novel. And as if Ostrander's words weren't evocative enough, Truman gives us some fantastic, bloody and very imaginative fight sequences that could serve as lessons in action storytelling to more than one young gun out there, still focusing on splash pages at the expense of panel-to-panel storytelling that more effectively carries the illusion of motion.
It's taken me a couple of issues to really notice, but the new Grimjack series is slightly more adult than the old one. A little nudity, a "cocksucker" here or there (although not as frequently uttered as it is in Deadwood), the sensibilities of Grimjack remain the same but the maturity level of the language and approach seems to have caught up with the more adult themes and style that the book always had. It's a little thing, but it's something that makes Grimjack seem just as fresh as it did the first time around, as if it really were just a bit ahead of its time.
Whether you're a new or old Grimjack fan, this issue has some very memorable moments and characters. I honestly don't remember legless, crude snitch Feetus, but he makes a memorable impression in this issue with his dirty mind (best exemplified by his funny comments about his "middle leg") and the sense that he didn't really need John Gaunt's help to run off a bunch of rich punks. Simone, on the other hand, is a fantastic villain, sultry and smart and immensely dangerous, showing off not only the seductive appeal of vampires in fiction for a long time as well as the intelligence to manipulate John Gaunt into doing what she wants, even when he's deliberately trying to avoid just that. Truman's portrait of Simone really gets across the wicked joy she takes in tormenting John and controlling others, and I hope and expect we'll be seeing more of her before Killer Instinct ends. The highlight of the issue for old school Grimjack fans, though, is going to be the early encounter between Roscoe and Gaunt, as we see that their friendship (always based on a sort of mutual grousing society) started off even rockier when Gaunt was working for the TDP, and one can't help but feel that Roscoe is perfectly justified, a thought that even Gaunt shares.
That's also the key to this issue of Killer Instinct, and indeed the key that shows me that these creators still "get it" when it comes to Grimjack. John Gaunt isn't driven just by a heroic desire to do the right thing, although, like the best noir heroes, he does have a streak of heroism that he just can't admit to himself. Instead, he's driven by his demons, by mistakes he knows he's made and can't ever redeem himself for, and yet at the same time, his personality forces him to continue making more mistakes and creating more demons. He screws up, such as when he loses his temper facing Simone, or when he couldn't work up the courage to see Roscoe after he lost his eye. He's paranoid, as we can see by the way he keeps Chaney at arm's length and even has her tailed (although there are hints that this might be justified). And above all, he's just not all that happy, even on the rare occasion when things go well, when he beds a beautiful girl or escapes a near certain death by way of his wits and skill. Gaunt is always looking for the next big mistake, and never able to escape it.
Thankfully, this sort of dour, perfectly noir attitude is counterbalanced by a sense of wonder and a sense of humor. The imaginative description of Gaunt's anti-vampire gun, or the device introduced on the last page, transport the reader to Cynosure as effectively as the saints of waste disposal or powerful wraiths in the previous issue. And the last page, complete with an almost absurd final set of captions, is laugh-out-loud funny, as entertaining as the smartass persona of Feetus early on. The icing on the cake, though, comes in the next issue box, as the creators promise a trip to the memorable Munden's Bar next issue. Fans new and old are in for a treat, although I suspect that those already reading this series know that by now when it comes to every issue. 10/10
