What They Say:
Joe Fitzgerald was a mob enforcer until the day he met Laura, who convinced him to leave that world behind. Before quitting, Joe agreed to one last job, little realizing that the man he’d been sent to kill was deeply involved in demonlogy. He survived Joe’s attempt and came after him, fatally wounding Joe and killing Laura. As he lay dying, an angelic force (who may or may not be what she appears) pointed out that where she is going, he can’t follow, and where he is going, he wouldn’t want her to follow. But if he will agree to work for them as a different kind of enforcer, they will bring him to life and keep on bringing him to life every time he is killed in a righteous cause. The reward: for those five minutes of death, he will be with Laura again. Would you endure an eternity of pain and death, dying over and over, to be with the woman you love for just five minutes each time you died? Most people might say no. But Joe Fitzgerald isn’t most people.
Creators:
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artist: Ben Templesmith
Letterer: Troy Peteri
Cover Artist: Ben Templesmith
The Review:
How far would you go for love? Would you kill for it? Would you die for it? Would you die just for five fleeting minutes with the one you care most about in the world?
These are the questions at the heart of J. Michael Straczynski and Ben Templesmith’s Ten Grand, the first comic in the newly revitalized Image Comics imprint Joe’s Comics. The protagonist, Joe Fitzgerald, never lead an angelic life. As a mob enforcer he engaged in acts that earned him a one-way ticket to Hell: a ticket that gets punched when, on his last mission, he tangles with a demonologist. Joe failed in his mission and he and his girlfriend, Laura, are brutally murdered by demons. The worst part, though, is that Laura goes to Heaven while he goes to Hell. However, the angels have a deal for Joe: kill for them and every time he dies a righteous death, they will grant him five minutes with Laura in Heaven before bringing him back to Earth. Between pulling jobs for the Holy Host, Joe takes gigs on the side, helping those in situations that can’t be solved by mundane means. The price? Ten grand.
Straczynski and Templesmith make for a dynamic duo on this title. The plot is tight and compelling, jumping between present-day Joe and flashbacks to his former life in a natural way that allows for a great amount of exposition and character development without feeling like huge info-dumps. In terms of the writing, the real strengths lie in the dialogue and the little touches that Straczynski adds, such as a special keypad with Enochian symbols that allows for magic Google searches (it’s much better in execution than I make it sound), or bullets carved with magical sigils. This title is obviously a mashup of noir and horror, which is in and of itself nothing new, but the pleasure comes from the details that the writer uses from each genre.
Even better than that is the dialogue. Straczynski has always had a flair for great, quirky dialogue and the noir setup seems to bring it out even more. It’s not quite natural. Instead it’s more like the way that writers wished people would talk. It has a rhythm, a cadence, and a way with word choice that makes it delightful to read.
The writing alone would make this title worth checking out, but thanks to Ben Templesmith’s art, this is a great looking series as well. He has a wonderful, evocative, and impressionistic style that I greatly enjoy. He takes a minimalist approach that looks a bit rough and dirty, which suits the rough and dirty tone of the story. It also allows him to create expression and depict mood with very few lines, creating an economic language that is very effective.
The colors are excellent as well. Each scene seems to have its own color pallet, typically ranging from warm yellow to dark gray. The street Joe walks down to get to the bar where he conducts his business is blue-gray with no other colors save for the neon orange of the bar’s sign. The interior of the bar is colored in a variation of the orange, only tempered by yellows, reds, and blacks. It’s visually distinctive and works to highlight the mood of the particular scenes. It also serves as a great example of how color can be effectively used in a comic book in a way that is not reproducible (at least in my opinion) in other genres.
Ten Grand, as I mentioned before, is the first launch of a slew of new series from J. Michael Straczynski under his Image imprint, Joe’s Comics. Joe’s Comics first appeared in 1999 as an imprint of Top Cow with the title Rising Stars. Later on he also wrote Midnight Nation and Delicate Creatures. The imprint foundered after Straczynski fell out with Top Cow. At the moment, Ten Grand is slated to run for twelve issues and will soon be followed by Sidekick in July and later on with Alone and Protectors, Inc. Each title will only run for a limited time, following the BBC model, as Straczynski points out in the afterword (to which I would also add Atomic Robo and Hellboy). In the writer’s own words, Joe’s Comics “isn’t about creating IP. It’s about telling good stories and working with the best artists and other talents the field has to offer.” This also includes examining the medium in different ways. A QR code is stamped on the final page of the afterword and if you scan it you listen to an audio performance of the dialogue acted by Robin Atkin Downes, Yuri Lowenthal, and Tara Platt. In many ways this reminds me of what Mark Waid is trying to do with his site Thrillbent. Whether or not this turns out to be a gimmick or a brave new way to enjoy comics remains to be seen, but I’m definitely glad they are playing with the genre.
In Summary:
Ten Grand tells the story of Joe Fitzgerald, a former mob enforcer turned clean up man for Heaven. His price for this work is—should he die a righteous death—he can spend five minutes in Heaven with his dead girlfriend, Laura before being resurrected. It’s a masterfully told tale that plays to Straczynski’s skills at world building and dialogue and is beautifully presented through Ben Templesmith’s artwork. This title is slated to run for twelve issues and represents the first in a string of titles coming from the newly resurrected Joe’s Comics imprint, now housed by Image. The mandate for Joe’s Comics is to tell good stories with the best talents in the field and to try new things with the medium, similar to Mark Waid’s Thrillbent. Ten Grand 1 is an excellent issue and bodes as an auspicious beginning for some excellent comics. To say that I’m excited would be to state the obvious. Highly recommended.
Grade: A+
1 thought on “Ten Grand #1 Review”