Customer Reviews

Shot Callerz

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(3.5 stars) The whole blaxploitation genre is one I generally don't like, but like any genre, in the right hands, it can result in an entertaining tale.

By day, Gary Phillips is apparently (I'm not familiar with his work) a novelist in the vein of the influential Donald Goines, and judging by his crisp writing here -- a classic hardboiled, bullets-and-broads tale of double and triple-crossing, blaxploitation meter unabashedly set to full-throttle -- he's not only a master of the form, but one who clearly has a genuine love for it. (As opposed to, say, Quentin Tarantino's fetishistic obsession.) After a short story "prelude" introduces the main players and sets things up, Phillips jumps right into the action as his lead, Nea Garvin, is shot in the back by her boyfriend on the heels of a successful heist where she served as the inside woman, and is left for dead. What follows is a fast-paced tale of revenge that is highlighted by Nea's evolution from naive hoodrat to pistol-packin' mama, complemented by a colorful cast of supporting characters and an unexpectedly sentimental ending.

Brett Weldele's sketchy black-and-white artwork is an effective mix of the realistic and impressionistic, complementing the morally grey tone of the story very well. His dynamic page layouts and camera angles communicate the fast pace of the story while allowing it to breathe when necessary, and each of his characters are distinctive and emotive, both facially and in their body language.

I'm still not a fan of blaxploitation, but credit where credit's due. Shot Callerz isn't high art by any means, but if you enjoy hardcore, gritty crime stories like Ed Brubaker's Criminal -- or, god forbid, thought Wings of Anansi was any good -- you'll love what Phillips and Weldele have to offer.