Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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!