Barry Gifford's Perdita Durango: A Graphic Thriller (Neon Lit) [Paperback]

Bob Callahan (Adapter), Barry Gifford (Author), Scott Gillis (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1995

Adapted from a novella in Sailor's Holiday, this graphic novel introduces Perdita, a Tex-Mex femme fatale. It was one thing to turn an occasional trick to survive, but now Perdita's fallen in with a mysterious drug dealer, and they've kidnapped a gringo couple. As they head for Cajun Country, the group is soon lost in a landscape of sex, violence, and otherworldly mystery.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Akin in its dark, dark humor to the films of Quentin Tarantino and David Lynch, and a worthy successor to the author's Wild at Heart, Barry Gifford's Perdita Durango, as illuminated by Scott Gillis, is the second volume in Bob Callahan and Art Spiegelman's award-winning new series, Neon Lit.

From Publishers Weekly

A quirky, violent exercise in lowlife Tex-Mex noir, this second book-length comic to be released in Avon's Neon Lit series (series design by Art Spiegelman) is an adaptation of a novella from Gifford's Sailor's Holiday. Perdita is one tough half-breed prostitute, unsentimental and ruthless ("the only two real pleasures left on earth are fucking and killing"), wandering around the Southwest before finally teaming up with Romeo Dolorosa a quasi-mystic Jamaican drug dealer in New Orleans. This strangely engaging twosome is hired to drive a shipment of cocaine to L.A., and along the way they commit a ritualistic murder and take a young Anglo couple hostage?both at Perdita's coolly pernicious insistence. As this road trip snakes through a memorable array of truck stops, cheap nightclubs and trashy motels, Perdita and Romeo exchange vivid but morbid reflections on life with their fearfully attentive prisoners and they slowly become more like reluctant companions than captors and captives. Callahan's adaptation has recreated an irresistible atmosphere of petty crime, moral sleaze and arbitrarily exotic, debased cultural amalgamation, all of which is effectively captured by Gillis's dramatically composed, sensuously etched scratchboard drawings. The book concludes with an interview with Barry Gifford.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 123 pages
• Publisher: Avon Books (December 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380771098
• ISBN-13: 978-0380771097
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,646,750 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eerie Premonition, August 14, 2003

By 

Dan Hall (Berlin, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barry Gifford's Perdita Durango: A Graphic Thriller (Neon Lit) (Paperback)

Aside from the incredible artwork, the one thing the astonished me was the eerie premonition of two tall towers on page 103. The towers stand well above a city skyline. One of the towers is engulfed in flames. The caption above reads: "We haven't seen the last of these guys." The "guys" Gifford is referring to are "religious fundamentalists trained by the CIA in explosives, financed by a mountain of smack."
The picture of the towers bears a striking resemblance to the World Trade Center catastrophe on 9/11/01. The book was published in 1995.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The scratchboard artwork in this book is unrivaled., September 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Barry Gifford's Perdita Durango: A Graphic Thriller (Neon Lit) (Paperback)

Scot Gillis' artwork is tremendous in what should become a pulp lit classic. Barry Gifford's story of the venomous, sinewy Perdita Durango is a dusty ride through cheap fiction. The story is spartan but the artwork is rich and unrivaled.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I wanted to like it, but didn't., May 6, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Barry Gifford's Perdita Durango: A Graphic Thriller (Neon Lit) (Paperback)

I thought it would be good, by the looks of it, the compelling cover, interesting artwork, and art spiegelman's name on the cover. I don't know how much spiegelman had to do with the story itself, but I didn't see any sign of his level of intelligence and creative vision here. Mostly, I was disappointed by the writing; the dialog seemed *too* bleak, without sufficient justification from the story line. What we got here are some disaffected hardasses who are gonna show how tough and calloused they are--but mostly through their brutal actions, not through any sort of articulate speech. It was impossible to feel any affection or even respect or pity for any character in the book, especially the main character Perdita. Maybe that's the point--look how hard the world is, what a cold, cruel world it is, etc. I don't know who's to blame for that pessimistic vision, but even with my avid interest in comics and graphic novels and literature of the US/Mexico border (like Charles Bowden's *Blue Desert* which is bleak but amazingly compelling, or Aristeo Brito's *The Devil in Texas* or Ted Conover's *Coyotes*) I have to say that this book was a big disappointment. Much of the art is good, but the writing drags it down. I really did want to like it! I hunted for it for months! I can't help it!