She’s getting ready for her TV debut … and so am I

Stumptown Vol. 1 hardcover (The Case of the Girl Who Took her Shampoo (But Left her Mini)
Oni Press
Creators: Greg Rucka, Matthew Southworth, Lee Loughridge and Rico Renzi
Release date: March 2011

In case you haven’t yet heard, Greg Rucka’s and Matthew Southworth’s creation Stumptown is headed to ABC as a television pilot sometime this next season. The pilot will star Cobie Smulders as the main protagonist, Portland, Oregon, private investigator Dex Parios.

I don’t have any experience with Southworth’s art, at least not that I can recall, but Rucka is one of my favorite writers. I have followed his comics work on titles like Gotham Central, Batman, Adventures of Superman, Wonder Woman and Queen and Country, even following that last series into some of his prose work. He is well known as a writer who can easily handle strong female characters. I can’t argue with that assessment, but I think he handles most of the characters he writes with skill and an ear for dialogue and consistent characterization.

I purchased this first volume of Stumptown a couple years ago with a few other independent graphic novels Rucka authored with the intent of trying them out. They went on that ever-growing “sometime” pile and stayed there. That is, until the announcement of the new pilot made me decide to move this particular hardcover to the top of the stack. It did not disappoint.

Dex is a typical P.I. in the vein of Jim Rockford of television’s “The Rockford Files”; she has a good heart, a lot of brains, a quick wit and really crappy luck. That crappy luck extends to the gambling table, where Dex has racked up quite a debt to the house at the beginning of this story. The owner of the casino, Sue-Lynne Suppa, agrees to forgive Dex’s debt if Dex will find Sue-Lynne's missing granddaughter. This first hardcover includes all four issues of the initial Stumptown series as Dex tries to track down the missing 18-year-old despite opposition from several sides. Players in opposition to Dex seem to know immediately the case Dex is investigating before she has any chance to uncover who or why someone might want to harm the missing girl. Rucka weaves an engaging whodunit that takes readers along for the ride as Dex tries to finally make sense of the forces lined up against her.

Southworth’s art is dark and moody, which suits a title like this one, without being “muddy” like some dark comics can tend to get. Loughridge’s and Renzi’s colors help with the atmosphere, as well. They keep the color palette simple and sparse, except when a few carefully placed bright colors are needed to emphasize a dramatic panel or two.

If you haven’t tried Stumptown and like P.I. fiction, I heartily recommend this volume. I plan to seek out the subsequent three volumes in the very near future, and I also plan to give “Stumptown” a watch on television when it debuts.

No typical mysteries to solve here

Detective Comics No. 449
DC Comics
Creators: Elliot S. Maggin, Ernie Chan, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (PBHN), Mary Skrenes and Dick Giordano
Cover date: July 1975

This is yet another of those older Batman issues I’ve been looking at of late. This one in particular is a comic I bought and read off the stands at the time, subsequently lost track of for one reason or another, and purchased again in adulthood out of a sense of nostalgia.

I never forgot the cover to this issue’s main story, “The Midnight Rustler of Gotham City!,” as it isn’t every day you see Batman depicted on horseback amid stampeding cattle. And re-reading the issue now did not disappoint.

Commissioner Gordon seeks Batman’s help in solving the mysterious disappearance of several herds of cattle from slaughterhouses during a beef shortage. Batman tracks down a suspect and some of the missing cows in less than an hour, but something continues to nag at the back of the Masked Manhunter’s consciousness. This continues for a week before Batman’s sharp mind and keen detective skills ferret out the real mastermind, who is finally brought to justice, but not before the scene on the cover plays out with Batman on horseback trying to round up the remaining missing cattle that are loose on the roadways of Gotham.

One doesn’t usually expect to find horses and cows running through a Batman tale, but I think the reason this story continues to hold up is it again showcases the hero’s brains and his analytical mind. Batman has no powers, and he has honed not only his body but also his mind to allow him to stand side by side with other heroes with fantastic abilities.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the back-up story in this issue. As soon as I saw the title page of the Elongated Man story, “The Mystery Man Who Walked On Air,” I remembered it, too, and started to chuckle. I just hadn’t remembered that it was in this particular issue of Detective Comics. This is one of the few Elongated Man solo stories I recall reading as a kid, but I always liked the character in the satellite-era of the Justice League. This story is a fun romp as Ralph Dibny (the Elongated Man) tries to solve the mystery of this little old man who keeps showing up and defying the laws of physics. Turns out it is all a prank arranged by Ralph’s wife, Sue, for his birthday. It showcases the fun this couple often was in the Silver Age of comics.

So this issue once again earns a “great read” seal of approval from me! Come back in two week for a look at a nearly 10-year-old original graphic novel that is soon to debut once again.