Silverfish [Hardcover]

Dave Lapham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 6, 2007

David Lapham, writer and illustrator of the acclaimed crime comic-book series Stray Bullets, comes to Vertigo with SILVERFISH, an original, black and white hardcover graphic novel of stark crime noir and intense, gritty realism.

What starts as a childish bid for her father's affections turns into nail-biting suspense when a young girl called Mia searches her new stepmother's purse, only to find a secret stash of money, a bloody knife and a mysterious address book.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lapham's new graphic novel doesn't stray far from his best known work, the noir comic Stray Bullets. Daniel is a killer, a man who believes that silverfish live in his brain and tell him to commit murder. All of his scenes are spectacular examples of creating an uneasy mood. Lapham art is easy to read, but he can also pull off a style for depicting something metaphorical, such as a stream of nasty-looking fish heading toward a man's brain. But Daniel is not the center of the story so much as a presence that hovers over the action like a storm cloud. The book spends most of its time on teenager Mia, who thinks something is strange about her stepmom Suzanne. Along with her friends, Mia finds some unsettling clues about Suzanne's past. Story stereotypes like the distrustful stepmother and the clueless dad are too clichéd for someone like Lapham to take at face value. The book sticks close to genre conventions, enjoyable but familiar, with Lapham's highly expressive noir art kicking it up a notch. (June)
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From Booklist

Home babysitting her asthmatic little sister while her father and stepmother have a weekend vacation, Mia, sister in tow, explores the house with best friend Vonnie and her boyfriend. They discover a suitcase of money, a bloodied knife, and the stepmother's address book. Meanwhile, an apparently psychotic man in another town battles hallucinations of a silverfish and violent impulses. The teens' prank call to a number in the address book puts them and the man in eventually grim contact. Lapham renders Mia, sister, and friends as fresh-faced, while the adults range from shadowed and fractured—the psychotic—to slowly evolving from jagged to regular—Mia's stepmother as Mia's view of her shifts. The eventual violence is hardly gratuitous, and blood spilt in black-and-white isn't as frightening as the tension built by the narrative's sly unfolding. Lapham's thriller handily balances driving the plot and developing characters, sure-footed narrative with detailed and perspective-rich images. Suspense mavens who don't already know how well comics conjure their favorite atmosphere and graphic-novel fans looking for realistically scary stuff must find Silverfish. Goldsmith, Francisca

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Vertigo (June 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401210481
• ISBN-13: 978-1401210489
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 0.6 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,295,361 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Short, but pretty sweet., February 22, 2010

By 

E. Norvil "EDMIX" (Coral Springs FL) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Silverfish (Hardcover)

SilverFish is graphic novel thats pretty short but really gripping. Its very teen horror like, (think Scream or early Wes Craven films) were they give you the basic elemnets to create a teen horror.

A. Teens, no BAD teens who smoke and have parties when there parents are away on trips.

B. Seclusion- again parent need a reason to be gone.

C. Mystery- people with fishy backgrounds (really no pun intended)

D. Violence and horror- to give those teens a reason to fear for there lives and give you a really good time.

The story is about a girl who's mother died years ago and her Stepmom which she absolutely hates. Her father and stepmom are going out of town for the weekend and she just so happens to invite her good friend (think Jamie Lee Curtis's friend in Halloween) over. Of course her friend will invite boys and smoke etc. While there they begin to investigate who her Stepmother really is. They basically go Nancy Drew on her ass. If you've been around the block like i have in terms of film then you'll see it coming really really fast, but to those who aren't as seasoned it might come as a surprise.

All in all its a great book.

5.0 out of 5 stars A great crime thriller/teenage drama/mystery by one of comics' top creators, April 30, 2011

By 

Eric Erbes (Santa Cruz, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Silverfish (Paperback)

Lapham is in top form in this dark and absorbing thriller that could easily pass as a spin-off book from his Stray Bullets series. The story revolves around ordinary characters who get caught up in extraordinary circumstances, but unlike a lot of "crime graphic novels" the plot developments seem entirely character driven and thus are that much more believable and thrilling. The striking cover, the memorable characters, the richly evocative setting, the cinematic crime noir artwork and the equal parts humorous/trite/moving final dialogue line all makes for a great package. Fans of Stray Bullets owe it to themselves to check out Silverfish (and vice versa).

5.0 out of 5 stars a movie on the page, May 23, 2010

By 

Kauffinbauchser (Tacoma, WA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Silverfish (Paperback)

It's already been said by someone but this is like a film in graphic format. Written as an OGN there are no cliffhangers every 22 pages. The whole story leaves you gasping for breath. From the start, I was in a state of suspense. Don't start this book unless you have time to finish it. You won't put it down. David Lapham does it again.