Customer Reviews

Black Kiss: Thick Black Kiss

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Before the Crying Game, there was Black Kiss.

Chaykin is atthe top of his form here. No censorship, no holds barred, nothing tokeep him from telling the twisted tale of transvestites, power and perversion in the underground world of Los Angeles.

This is the type of story he wanted to tell in American Flagg! but obviously unable.

Chaykin, like Elmore Leonard and Greg Rucka, has a knack for language and dialogue. His exchanges are tough and terse, but not too much. Blend this with his unmatched sense for panel layout and design and you have a brilliant storytelling vehicle. It's like a porno with a killer plot.

One caution: you will curse like hell at Chaykin for the ending to this one. It doesn't at all live up to the promise that the rest of the book offers. Nonetheless, a must have for every over 18 red-blooded, American male who reads comic books.

Buy it now!

Howard Chaykin's style is unmistakable, once he set it free. This adults only, black and white comic shows his style at its fullest, about as good as it gets.

It has all the things that make Chaykin's work stand out. His figures are all strong, the men muscled and the women curved. Every character is unique, not the the same faces and figures repeated. Chaykin's figures are all posed, but without turning stiff and without the exaggerations of the superhero genre. Somehow, he arrages each figure and draws each panel as if it's the most important one in the book. Despite his modern setting, Chaykin favors a 1940s look, with seamed stockings, spike heels, and fashions that make the most of a figure, male or female.

This also has the story line and characters that make Chaykin's work stand out. It's a world where everyone is corrupt, one way or another, or maybe more than one. The story starts with blackmail and murder, then sinks successively farther into depravity - the grinning kind, that wears a nice suit and a good manicure. And somehow, through it all, everyone seems to have just one more dirty secret.

It's not easy to like any of the characters, but I don't think you're meant to. It's easy to like Chaykin's art, and this is prime material.

//wiredweird

...in a comicart novel. Hold on to your seats for this one. Stunning, graphic and over the top. Meaning it ain't fer the kiddies. Chaykin has been one of my faves since he illustrated Rice Burrough's "Pellucidar" for DC...