Damned first came out from the Homage imprint when it was part of Image, so it was a while back. I cringe to look at my reviews from that period, and to be honest, I didn't remember too much of the specifics of Damned beyond liking it quite a bit. A little distance, and a lot more comics, later, it isn't quite as fantastic as I remember, but it's a solid crime thriller with its roots in classic comic-book storytelling, and I'm glad that Cyberosia has put the book together in a collected edition for new readers to enjoy.
Damned as a premise reads like the kind of thing you'd get from Richard Stark or Elmore Leonard, casting a crook as the hero of the piece. Grant's protagonist, Mick Thorne, is a little more lily white than the ex-cons in most crime novels, having gone to prison over a matter of self-defense, but his violent temper does make him less than a Boy Scout at the same time. Thorne's edge is mostly heard about rather than seen, when a bookkeeper that he helped in the joint talks about his reputation or when Thorne thinks about everything going red in a fight, but he does have a sort of collected manner and willingness to engage in gunplay and fisticuffs that makes him a good solid lead character.
Grant populates his story with interesting characters, actually. Charlotte Dahl, the parole officer who shows up about midway through the story, is sassy and tough, again much like a good Elmore Leonard character, and I love that she doesn't fall into the straight arrow mode but instead seems willing to work an angle with Thorne. Together with the opportunistic and violent Yargo, the classic femme fatale Orton and classic crime lord King Silver, there's enough interesting and well-defined characters to provide some nice bubbling chemistry together. Some of that chemistry happens a little fast, as the relationship between Thorne and Orton goes from strangers to lovers to something else awfully quickly, but in general, the character interaction is a big selling point of Damned.
The overall story, one of stolen money and shifting loyalties, is a noir cliche, and it's not the only familiar element to be seen here. Thorne's narration is standard hard-boiled detective stuff, many of the names and situations feel, for lack of a better word, "comic-booky," and when you compare this work to Stray Bullets or Sin City or 100 Bullets, it does feel a little watered-down, because the boundaries hadn't quite been broken down when it was originally created the way they have now. But Damned still works, largely because of Grant's ability to create interesting characters and interesting scenes within the story. Thorne's first meeting with Silver is a brief but tense little stand-off between two tough guys, the series of chases, gunfights and reversals in the latter half of the book are exciting and fast-paced and the denouement features a clever revelation about the missing money and the clue that Doug Orton gave Thorne in prison. Grant has changed up the ending a little bit for the trade paperback, and it's a good change that puts a new spin on the tale but doesn't completely change the way it read previously.
Then there's the artwork, which is definitely a big selling point. Mike Zeck's clean line works really well with Denis Rodier's inks, which give the whole thing a gritty look. The work reminds me of a cross between such disparate artists as John Romita Jr., Guy Davis and John Byrne, and the colors by Kurt Goldzung (whatever happened to this guy, anyway?) are fantastic. Zeck's character designs are absolutely on the money, from the sexy but sleazy Cam Orton to the built-like-a-brick-wall Yargo to the sharply dressed but somewhat weasely look of crime boss King Silver.
