Falls the Gotham Rain (1992) by Devin O’Leary & Jason Waskey
This is a “prestige format” book — it looks like Comico tried to class things up quite a bit. I.e., not just Elementals swimsuit specials, but also some that would appeal to an adult audience.
Huh… the “managing editor” here is Brian Azzarello, who is presumably the same guy who would go on to fame and fortune writing noirish crime comics.
And this looks really intriguing. I love that spot of red in an otherwise black and white book. And I wonder how this artwork was done? Most people who do books vaguely in this style usually use pencils or washes, but I don’t think that’s what’s being used here? It almost looks like it’s painted acrylics that then have been shot in black and white? And perhaps painted in almost the same size as it’s been printed?
It’s a really interesting and (I think) appealing look.
Wow, that’s a fantastic page. The way it flows, and then trips you up a bit with that silent panel that has a different section of the guy in the final panel. That’s one great-looking page — it’s almost like something out of Raw Magazine in 1984.
There’s quite a lot of characters here that are obviously referencing famous people from various thrillers, including Hitchcock — but we see the limitations of the artist’s approach here, because the characters end up more hinting at the people they’re supposed to depict, presumably. And that’s a very, very strange angle — the deli guy is presumably supposed to be standing behind a high counter, but it doesn’t really read like that. Perhaps the artist didn’t have a reference photo that had a better angle to use.
It’s a really enjoyable book to read… but it’s also like reading a feverish synopsis of All Noir Films Ever: You get all the highlights, but very little of the stuff in between (due to length constraints, presumably), so the book careens madly from cliché to cliché.
All of them are covered. But again, it’s well done — just look how compressed you can make this standard scene of the private dick getting knocked out by a cop? I mean, it works partly because we already know what’s going to happen, but it’s still beautifully done.
It just really manages to capture the feel of a noir movie. Not by overloading the pages with leaden noir narration (which is the go-to move by most comics writers trying to do this), but by trusting the artwork and trusting in the reader.
This might perhaps be the best thing Comico ever published!? Whodathunk!
Both creators are unknown to me. Apparently it was the only thing O’Leary did, and he’s probably the writer? Jason Waskey has two credits, and is perhaps the artist? It’s not specified, but Waskey did the artwork on at least one other comic book, so…
As usual with the post-bankruptcy Comico, I could find no contemporary reviews. Either Andrew Rev was bad at sending out reviewer copies, or everybody shunned him?
Here’s a review from the interwebs:
For fans of classic film noir, Falls The Gotham Rain is a decent homage, but offers very little in the way of anything new.
that kid is going to be seriously messed up when he grows up
I guess!
The book has never been reprinted, but you can pick it up below cover price:
