In reading Smoke, I was reminded of the work of Alan Moore, especially his work on V For Vendetta, although Smoke is considerably more light-hearted in some ways than that. Which is to say, De Campi delivers the goods with an espionage/political thriller flavored with a healthy dose of social satire and plenty of beautiful violence, the latter courtesy of Igor Kordey. Kordey is at his best here, with an amazingly detailed look at future London and memorable characters that call to mind not only his underrated work on Cable but David Lloyd's work on V For Vendetta. Smoke is one part cynical futurism exercise, predicated on the unfortunately realistic notion that government will grow only more corrupt and greedy as time goes on, and one part conspiracy thriller, as a reluctant assassin in service to the government finds himself drawn into a web that includes higher-ups in the government, a plot to manipulate oil prices and a group of terrorists whose only goal is liposuction and body modification surgery.
One thing I noticed about Smoke is that it has a tone that is difficult to pin down. The story is very serious, involving massive corruption and a few significant deaths to further someone's political agenda, not to mention past heartbreak for our lead character, and yet there's a cheeky sense of humor throughout. De Campi's sense of humor is unusual as well, as it includes everything from a dry wit to absurd parody to slapstick, but it never crosses the line into cheesy that can occur with those latter two types of humor. Smoke is at times very amusing, but it's never laugh out loud funny, and it is at times very dark and brooding, but it never really lands in depressing or oppressive territory. It's a balancing act of different tones and styles that somehow never falls to far to one side or the other.
Of course, the first thing I noticed about Smoke was the artwork. When this book was announced, I was excited to see Kordey, who had been absent from comics for some months, and Smoke definitely rewards my anticipation. This has all the hallmarks of Kordey's best works, like insane attention to background detail and some of the most expressive faces in comics, but it also might be some of his most beautiful work ever, and I expect even those who have griped about Kordey's art in the past will be eating their words when they see this book. Kordey perfectly executes every storytelling sequence, whether it's the quiet approach of assassins in the early going, the sudden eruption of violence in the pub bombing flashback, the obvious pain and tension when Rupert and Lucy confront one another or the car chase that ensues at the tail end of the book. He also provides some stunning one-page splashes that tell stories of their own, such as the opening page that shows us the streets of this future London or the splash of the king's debauchery round about the middle of the book. Credit also to colorist Len O'Grady, an unfamiliar name who really impresses with a subdued and yet still fully colorful palette that perfectly complements the subtleties of Kordey's work.
De Campi's work reminds me of a lot of the strengths of other British (and one Scottish) writers. The finely honed sense of futurism and social satire of Smoke is a descendant of Warren Ellis's work on Transmetropolitan, the corruption of the British government reminiscent of Moore's V For Vendetta or even some of Garth Ennis's work on Maggie Thatcher's England in Hellblazer and the "Beauty Brigade" are villains who seem right out of Morrison's fertile imagination. Which is not to say that De Campi doesn't have her own voice, because she absolutely does, just to say that her work resonates on the same level as these creators, and has a similar "British" flavor. This is, as far as I know, De Campi's first comics work, but she's working at a level far above "first comics work" here.
Smoke offers up a very intriguing lead character, a seemingly cold assassin who reveals depths of character as the story peels the onion. By the time the first issue is over, we learn he's not the government loyalist he seems at the beginning, but a man trapped by past promises and obligations who has given up (or lost) most of what kept him human. He's a great lead character, capable of precise violence but also clearly intelligent and intuitive, as his one-page investigation of police corruption shows. De Campi and Kordey also give us a great villain in the form of the recognizably corrupt and yet also recognizably intelligent and charming Lauderdale, and some memorable heavies in the form of the Beauty Brigade.
It's always nice when something you're anticipating as being good lives up to those expectations, and that's what happened with me and Smoke. De Campi and Kordey have created a fascinating near-future setting, populated it with interesting characters and wrapped it around an all-too-believable and yet just exaggerated enough conspiracy plot to keep the reader engaged from start to finish. 10/10
