Detectives, Inc.

Rating:
Summary: The Best If What Comics Has To Offer
Review: Don McGregor and Gene Colan, two giants in the comics industry, crafted a tale that shatters the average person's preconceived notion of what a comic book is supposed to be like. This second volume of Detectives, Inc. features two struggling private investigators named Ted Denning and Bob Ranier, longtime friends whose consciences sometimes lead them to take cases that aren't exactly profitable. Both men have deep scars: Ranier from a painful divorce that has damaged his willingness to seek intimacy, and Denning from a time when he was forced to shoot someone.

Entering their lives is a tough social worker named Dierdre Sevens, who is drawn into trying to help an acquaintance who calls on her desperately when her husband has beaten her one too many times. Unsurprisingly, this friend backtracks on her story when Dierdre shows up and curses her when her husband arrives home. After a physical confrontation with him, Dierdre decides to hire Denning & Rainier to investigate the husband. What follows is a series of twists and turns involving emotional scars, hypocrisy, the bonds of friendship and the possibility of new hope, not to mention murder.

McGregor is a master wordsmith, delving deep into his characters' psyches, both hero and villain. While emotions run high, he's also able to inject a great deal of humor into the story with the easy rapport between the two detectives. Colan has long been respected as one of the greatest artists in the history of comics, and this black & white masterpiece is one of his finest works ever. His specialty is depicting mood & motion as well as being able to portray the subtleties of emotion on the human face.

This is a mature, introspective work that confronts and examines a number of issues without preaching or pretending to come up with all the answers. If you want to see a more human take on the detective genre, an interesting character study, or an example of what comics are capable of, check this graphic novel out.

Rating:
Summary: The Best If What Comics Has To Offer
Review: Don McGregor and Gene Colan, two giants in the comics industry, crafted a tale that shatters the average person's preconceived notion of what a comic book is supposed to be like. This second volume of Detectives, Inc. features two struggling private investigators named Ted Denning and Bob Ranier, longtime friends whose consciences sometimes lead them to take cases that aren't exactly profitable. Both men have deep scars: Ranier from a painful divorce that has damaged his willingness to seek intimacy, and Denning from a time when he was forced to shoot someone.

Entering their lives is a tough social worker named Dierdre Sevens, who is drawn into trying to help an acquaintance who calls on her desperately when her husband has beaten her one too many times. Unsurprisingly, this friend backtracks on her story when Dierdre shows up and curses her when her husband arrives home. After a physical confrontation with him, Dierdre decides to hire Denning & Rainier to investigate the husband. What follows is a series of twists and turns involving emotional scars, hypocrisy, the bonds of friendship and the possibility of new hope, not to mention murder.

McGregor is a master wordsmith, delving deep into his characters' psyches, both hero and villain. While emotions run high, he's also able to inject a great deal of humor into the story with the easy rapport between the two detectives. Colan has long been respected as one of the greatest artists in the history of comics, and this black & white masterpiece is one of his finest works ever. His specialty is depicting mood & motion as well as being able to portray the subtleties of emotion on the human face.

This is a mature, introspective work that confronts and examines a number of issues without preaching or pretending to come up with all the answers. If you want to see a more human take on the detective genre, an interesting character study, or an example of what comics are capable of, check this graphic novel out.

Rating:
Summary: Hard-Boiled and Very Human
Review: For those who aren't familiar with his work, Don McGregor has always been a trendsetter in comics. He made his name avoiding standard super-hero fare, instead doing the political high adventure Black Panther (in Jungle Action), the philosophical science-fiction feature Killraven, and a number of horror scripts for Warren Comics. But Don also was one of the first who broke away from the big companies to create and own his own characters.

Among his first creator-owned works was the first Detectives, Inc. graphic novel, A Remembrance of Threatening Green. It introduces his memorable Ted Denning and Bob Rainier, two struggling detectives who are long-time friends. This story is so absorbing because like in so many McGregor works, the plot serves the characters rather than the other way around.

Denning and Rainier both have their crosses to bear, as we soon learn. Denning is haunted by killing a man in self-defense. Rainier is still shattered by his divorce, unable to let go of his wound. Rainier's ex-wife asks him to take on a murder case involving a friend of hers. It turns out that a mid-wife's girlfriend has been killed in a hit-and-run accident, but she suspects foul play.

Don takes a potentially sensationalistic topic, homosexuality, and treats it like exactly what it is: simply another aspect of being human. The way Rainier drifts off into fantasizing about their client, a lesbian, imagining her in very typical male fantasies is replaced by understanding that the two of them had very similar senses of loss. They both had deep scars and were able to share their pain, not as male and female or gay and straight but two human beings who were not only alone, but whose link to intimacy had been taken away in a cruel manner.

Denning and Rainier work through a number of different suspects as a number of twists and turns reveal some interesting things about all of the characters, and the final confrontation delivers the action genre goods. But the focus of the book is the friendship between Bob & Ted. The two men share a bond deeper than words can express, and their easy, humorous rapport helps both cope with the issues they're dealing with.

The art is exquisite, with the fabulous Marshall Rogers giving us a detailed tour-de-force filled with grit and whimsy. The panel design is imaginative, with a certain cinematic influence. This is McGregor at the top of his game, and any fans of comics, the detective genre will like it and anyone interested in a complex exploration of relationships will love it.

Rating:
Summary: Hard-Boiled and Very Human
Review: For those who aren't familiar with his work, Don McGregor has always been a trendsetter in comics. He made his name avoiding standard super-hero fare, instead doing the political high adventure Black Panther (in Jungle Action), the philosophical science-fiction feature Killraven, and a number of horror scripts for Warren Comics. But Don also was one of the first who broke away from the big companies to create and own his own characters.

Among his first creator-owned works was the first Detectives, Inc. graphic novel, A Remembrance of Threatening Green. It introduces his memorable Ted Denning and Bob Rainier, two struggling detectives who are long-time friends. This story is so absorbing because like in so many McGregor works, the plot serves the characters rather than the other way around.

Denning and Rainier both have their crosses to bear, as we soon learn. Denning is haunted by killing a man in self-defense. Rainier is still shattered by his divorce, unable to let go of his wound. Rainier's ex-wife asks him to take on a murder case involving a friend of hers. It turns out that a mid-wife's girlfriend has been killed in a hit-and-run accident, but she suspects foul play.

Don takes a potentially sensationalistic topic, homosexuality, and treats it like exactly what it is: simply another aspect of being human. The way Rainier drifts off into fantasizing about their client, a lesbian, imagining her in very typical male fantasies is replaced by understanding that the two of them had very similar senses of loss. They both had deep scars and were able to share their pain, not as male and female or gay and straight but two human beings who were not only alone, but whose link to intimacy had been taken away in a cruel manner.

Denning and Rainier work through a number of different suspects as a number of twists and turns reveal some interesting things about all of the characters, and the final confrontation delivers the action genre goods. But the focus of the book is the friendship between Bob & Ted. The two men share a bond deeper than words can express, and their easy, humorous rapport helps both cope with the issues they're dealing with.

The art is exquisite, with the fabulous Marshall Rogers giving us a detailed tour-de-force filled with grit and whimsy. The panel design is imaginative, with a certain cinematic influence. This is McGregor at the top of his game, and any fans of comics, the detective genre will like it and anyone interested in a complex exploration of relationships will love it.

Rating:
Summary: HIDDEN IN THE COMIC BOOK WORLD
Review: In amongst the capes and tights and adolescent power fantasies that pass themselves off as the American comic books, there are a handful of dedicated creators out there who are attempting to push the medium to be more than it is. DON McGREGOR has been pushing for a long time. Back in the '70s, when he was writing Black Panther (in the pages of JUNGLE ACTION) for Marvel, he was told his work was "too close to the black experience." The person saying it meant it as a negative, but since Don is in fact a white guy, I can't think of too much higher praise a white writer working on a title with a black central character and a mostly black supporting cast could ask for. Flash forward a few years, Don is again pushing the envelope. This time for creator rights. Among the creator-owned characters he brings to life are private detectives Denning and Ranier, the stars of this (and so far one other) DETECTIVES, INC. book. The Culp and Cosby of the comic book set. These guys are low on cash, strong on ethics, and positively white hot on intrigue, action and great, great dialogue. He could have sold them to one of the big publishers and produced some watered-down version, but he didn't. He stuck to his guns and with artist Marshal Rogers executed one of the most original graphic novels to ever come off the presses. Real characters. Real problems. Real suspense. This recently published 20th anniversary edition is a superb introduction to these characters, and a great private detective story on its own. GET THIS BOOK!