Customer Reviews

You Have Killed Me

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

 

 

This is a classic detective noir. I enjoyed this book. It is a bit cliche with its crusty, hard-edged private eye taking a job from a lovely young woman who saunters about his tiny, crusty, hard-edged office.

But even with the tried and true story line, it is an fun, familiar ride. The plots twists are simple (unlike many modern thrillers that twist and twist and twist until you can't see straight). The bad guys are bad. The good guys are tough. The women are sultry, needy, and mysterious. The band plays jazz and the backroom has gambling. I'm not saying its original, though the story is interesting enough to keep you reading.

But here is why you should read this: the art is perfect. Done in immaculate black and white, the lines are as sharp as a razor, the shadows have depth, the people look real; this has a classic, reality based graphic form. And it works. The language is tough but clean and avoids any inappropriate use of the visual form in regards to the ladies. If anything, this would garner a PG-13 rating for the mild violence. It gets a 4, maybe a 4.5/5 stars from me.

YOU HAVE KILLED ME by Jamie S. Rich & Joëlle Jones was fantastic! I loved their first collaboration with Oni, Twelve Reasons Why I Love Her and their sophomore offering exceeds expectations. This OGN holds nothing back from the high production values to the perfectly crafted script to the outstanding illustrations.

Joëlle's women are sexy, her men are dashing, her backgrounds luscious, and her sequential panel work is flawless. The pacing and flow from one to the next is spot on, there are no awkward transitions, and each beautifully utilizes the best shot possible. The final product is meticulous, it's perfect, but not artificial. The story breathes and the reader gets sucked in. And the story goes down smoothly, the dialogue is quick and clever, the case has twists and turns, and sets the bar for other crime original graphic novels.

Antonio Mercer is a private dick with his own past, which comes back with the case he's offered by Jennifer Roman, the sister of his old flame who is missing. The story takes you through Mercer's case as he tracks down leads, questions suspects, and takes a beating as he gets too close to the truth.

You Have Killed Me is a MUST READ for all! Rich and Jones have achieved yet another exceptional creative original graphic novel.

My favorite visual motif comes fairly early on in You Have Killed Me. At the onset of chapter two, our protagonist, private eye Antonio Mercer, is driving through the streets of 1930s-era New York City, and out the back of his oblong rear car window, we see an actual picture of the city. It immediately calls to mind the olden days of Hollywood and the heyday of film noir, with jumpy street scenes visible behind cars in every driving scene.

And that's just one of the noir treats in You Have Killed Me, Jamie S. Rich and Joëlle Jones' nicely done tribute to the classic detective genre. As always with these stories, and in the words of the comic itself: "This story starts just like any other...with a girl."

A beautiful girl, of course, and one who has broken Mercer's heart: Julie comes from money and a proud family pedigree, so of course it could never work out with Mercer. She has an equally beautiful sister, Jennie, who puts the story in motion by hiring Mercer to track down Julie, who has disappeared mere days before her wedding.

From there, we travel to the world of shady gambling halls, horse races, edgy cops who suspect Mercer and don't want him messing with their case, and the usual assorted cast of thugs and molls, none of whom can be trusted.

Jones' art is a true standout. She has a knack for drawing beautiful dames, elegant, long-legged ones, and her men are strong-jawed toughs who take punch after punch without flinching. She and Rich have worked together before (12 Reasons Why I Love Her), and they collaborate well. Rich clearly loves the genre he is honoring in his script, and he contributes a fun new work to it. You Have Killed Me is a fast-paced detective work, and as such, the actual solution to the mystery isn't the point--the journey is, and getting there is where all the enjoyment lies.

-- John Hogan

I love Jamie S. Rich and Joëlle Jones previous collaboration of "12 Reasons Why I Love Her". It is one of my favorite books of all time. Few stories draw as rich a background for heartbreak to be as fully realized. So, I have been waiting in anticipation for Rich & Jones' next collaboration. And "You Have Killed Me" is pleasing throughout.

The Visuals: It may be inaccurate to say Joëlle Jones is relatively unknown compared to many of her male counterparts in the world of graphic novels, but I'm not sure. However, in the dominantly male world of graphic novel illustration, Jones stands out as one of the most remarkable talents of all time. Her artistic intelligence is, at the least, under-recognized and under-appreciated.

Jones' characters are fully visually considered. It sometimes makes my head hurt to look at a page of her beautiful artistry & compositions and to consider the hundreds of decisions that have been made visually for each page. Jones cares about every nuance, body weight shift, and clothing detail. If you flip through the book and study only the facial expressions, you will see facial expressions rarely captured in illustration or photographs.

I would love for one day to see the world through Jones' eyes and considerations. I would feel apprehensive if I was in a room with her because I know she could see, recognize, and differentiate visual cues about me (or anyone) that few others could discern. Like Hannibal Lecter could correctly interpret significant psychological and historical traits from only a few dialogued and visual tells, I suspect Jones' visual acuity to be off the charts. You can pick up this book and open it to any page, and her artistry will be revealing and intelligent. Jones is an artist who can create new lifeforms and worlds with the craftsmanship of her pencils, inks, and mind.

If you loved the feel and visual environments of Darwyn Cooke's aside stories within his wonderful mini-series "The New Frontier", where it seemed everyone smoked glamorously and spent at least 3 nights a week out on the town, then you'll probably also love the 30s & 40s clothes, bars, cars, and settings Jones creates in this story.

The Story: Unfortunately, the book breaks down on the story side. While the story's pacing and execution are excellent, the story does little to inform us about the human condition. This criticism may be misplaced, because the story is probably aspiring to be an effective genre piece - and on that front, it succeeds.

The dialogue is crisp, rarely redundant, and very clever. The use of "thought voice-overs" is effectively done and appropriate for a private detective mystery narrative (although there were so many square boxes dialoguing the lead character's thoughts, that I felt I was reading a Jeph Loeb script - an inside joke for comic nerds who've read Loeb's Batman Hush series, his Superman/Batman series, his . . . you get the idea).

A problem I have with the story is it's a man's story, written by a man, and told through a male narrator. It is a "Femme Fatale" noir tale, and while the women are visually drawn beautifully, their written characterizations tell us very little about them.

This story, like most mysteries, is a "whodunnit," but we never clearly understand what transforms each character into a killer. We have "motives" and clever plot misdirections, but we don't understand the cognitive distortions that occur to transform these affluent characters into violent or conniving double dealers. Rather, our "suspension of disbelief" is used to believe the characters' conniving is credible - in order for the noir plot twists to progress in their proper order.

In this story, we end up with many wealthy, unloving, highly intelligent, and disconnected characters cutting each other down - in one way or another.

But again, my criticism may be misplaced because I'm critiquing a noir story because it has common noir characteristics. But as James Ellroy, author of "L.A. Confidential", doesn't like many "noir" or "hard-boiled" formulaic devices and cliches, I also don't like them. And I think Rich could have done a better job at crafting a more believable story with more universal themes - and still stay within the visual beauty of the noir genre.

I am rarely this critical in a review, but I am an admirer of Rich & Jones' abilities, and I want to see them use the best of their abilities.

The Ending (spoilers ahead): At the ending of "12 Reasons", we understood why the two main characters loved each other. Conversely, at the ending of "You Have Killed Me," we doubt if anyone really ever loved anyone, so when the relationships break down, there's little understanding of whether any of the previously affectionate relationships were worth saving, and there's little, if any, heartache or sympathetic feelings of loss.

How did I want this story to end? I've never written a section like this in a book review, but for reasons I don't fully understand, I'm writing one here. I wanted us to understand the genuinely good love lost between either Mercer & Julie, Mercer & Jennie, or even Jennie & Julie. And I wanted to see tragic "small" decisions that led to horrible loss or tragic misunderstandings. For example, it would have been interesting to see the tragedies revealed as it became apparent that Julie (or Jennie) loved something else (drugs, gambling, another relationship, etc.) a little more than Mercer - and that would have figuratively "killed" Mercer. I really didn't expect a horror-movie-style ending where the cast is getting killed one by one in the end. But this story was more about clever dialogue and violent actions than it was about understanding human decisions and behaviors.

You can sometimes tell more about a person, not by how they characterize themselves, but rather by how they characterize others. In the world of "12 Reasons" we had fewer characters and a beautifully tragic understanding of the complexity, limitations, and conflicts of romantic relationships. In "You Have Killed Me," we are sadly given thinly drawn and less understood "good guys" and "bad guys" - and the resulting ending is less satisfying.

In most stories, we are dependent on the storytellers, especially when we cannot meet the characters in person. We are only able to interpret a character based on how fully and accurately a character is drawn and portrayed. And the characters in this story are drawn too narrowly and viewed primarily from only one perspective, the perspective of a male narrator whose assumptions and judgments are too quick and too confident for the amount of information examined.

Rich is a great writer. All of his characters are very attractive (Jones makes them even more attractive) with their precise wit and charm.

I highly recommend buying this book and wrapping yourself in the world Rich & Jones created and rendered. I love the creative team of Rich & Jones, and I hope they keep creating together. And I also hope they continue "seeing other people."