DARK BLUE

COMIC BOOK REVIEW
HOME REVIEWS STORY TIME FEO'S STORE MOVIES MUSIC
Fanboy of Fear Mike Oliveri Review by
Mike Oliveri
CITY OF SILENCE
FIGHT CENSORSHIP
Comic Book Legal Defense FundSUPPORT CBLDF
DARK BLUE - 2001
Written by Warren Ellis
Illustrated by Jacen Burrows
Avatar Press
$24.95

Pop comics preacher Warren Ellis (MINISTRY OF SPACE, TRANSMETROPOLITAN) strikes again, this time with a hardcover book collecting his DARK BLUE mini-series.

And unfortunately there's hardly a damn thing I can tell you without giving away the major plot twist that hits halfway through the story.

Suffice it to say Detective Christchurch works a hell of a precinct. Between brutal murders in the streets and corruption in the precinct (hell, his captain spends his day locked in his office shooting heroin), it's a wonder he's still alive. And his partner, the straight-laced, by-the-book Detective Thorogood doesn't help either. But now a mysterious killer known only as Wayman is brutally slaughtering people, leaving only the letters LD50 scrawled in blood on the walls as a clue.

The frustration of the chase pushes Christchurch over the edge, and he soon finds himself resorting to brutality to get information out of informants (in the opening pages, he is seen pummeling a man nearly to death in an interrogation room). And that's when things really start going downhill...

TRIVIA

After you read DARK BLUE you may be interested in reading about the YUGOSLAV WARS (Wikipedia).

YUGOSLAV WARS (Wikia).

Yugoslavia
former federated nation [1929–2003]
(Britannica)

He starts having strange visions and dreams, and even moments of intangible reality as cars and people pass straight through him. It is then that the world drops out from under him, and he learns what LD50 really means. Who is he really?

You'll have to read the book to find out.

Overall a solid read. Very fast-paced, though it's an overall concept you've seen before (just a different vehicle to deliver it) and the ending is a bit abrupt.

Jacen Burrows' (KING ZOMBIE, SKID ROZE) artwork is well-suited to the story. He works in black & white with a lot of sharp contrast and detail to make the important stuff really stand out. He does not shy away from detail, and despite the overloads of gore at times (witness the room full of dissected and beheaded bodies at the scene of a crime), he manages to keep enough control over the reader that the work is not over the top. Great stuff.

I give DARK BLUE three rabid fanboys.

FanBoyFanBoyFanBoy
Review copyright 2001 by E.C.McMullen Jr.

HTML: Live By The Code
YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY
(Sub-Section: SUPERNATURAL INVESTIGATORS)
THE SURROGATES THE DAMNED KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER: 50th Anniversary
THE SURROGATES
COMIC REVIEW
THE DAMNED
COMIC REVIEW
KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER: 50th Anniversary
COMIC ANTHOLOGY

Return To Comics

FEO AMANTE'S HORROR THRILLER
Created by:
E.C.MULLEN JR.
COME FOLLOW ME @
Amazon
ECMJr
Feo Blog
IMDb
Stage32
Twitter
YouTube
Zazzle Shop