STRAY BULLETS UBER ALLES ED
Writer/Artist: David Lapham
Letterer: David Lapham
Publisher: Image
Rating: 9/10
In a genre full of great crime comic books like Sin City, Criminal and 100 Bullets it's hard sometimes to find one to just “wow” you like those titles did. Stray Bullets, for me, deserves to be named among one of the all time greats in the genre I love so much. It's an independent comic which ran from 1995 through 2005. David Lapham wrote, drew and lettered everything himself, and published it with his wife under their own imprint El Capitan Books. That's just mind blowing to me, for a series that ran for 41 issues.
All the stories can be read by themselves but are connected in a loose way with recurring characters and intertwined tales. The story is also non linear and jumps between 1974 through 1996 but never gets too complicated. It’s a mix of The Coen Brothers and Tarantino, and ranges from typical crime tropes like murder, drugs, revenge, and just gangster-lowlife-junkies, but also cominf-of-age, puberty and abuse. There are many characters but at the center, it's the story of two girls Beth and Amy, and their struggle to live in this criminal world. It's also normal day to day stuff but the darkness is never far away...
The stories are all engaging and exciting, the art in black and white suits the story well, and the overlapped story pulls you further and further in. I read the entire series of 5 graphic novels collected in one big compendium called the Uber Alles Edition in about ten days, it’s 1200 pages of magnificent story telling and just among the best collected comic books out there. It’s not too expensive as well. This comic is worth checking out for people who love the crime genre or indie comics in general, and comes with my highest approval. Check this one out, you wont regret it!