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A review by xterminal
Filthy Rich by Víctor Santos, Brian Azzarello
3.0
Brian Azzarello, Filthy Rich (Vertigo Crime, 2009)
Brian Azzarello is one of the new kings of noir, and as such, any release of his should be hailed. And as a Brian Azzarello title, Filthy Rich, the first stand-alone piece of his I've read, is deserving of all the usual praise. Not so, unfortunately, the Victor Santos art with which the story was paired. I get what Santos was trying to do here—noir is a genre that feeds on murk—but too many of Santos' characters are a little too abstract, resulting in a number of them looking alike. This gets confusing in crucial scenes. (Amusingly, I was put in mind of certain shojo titles, most notably Fruits Basket, more than once because of this. As a codicil, Fruits Basket would have been so much better with ruined football players, guns, and rich heiresses.) Eduardo Risso, working with Azzarello, showed decisively that noir can be done with distinctive characters in 100 Bullets; someone forgot to give Santos the memo. ***
Brian Azzarello is one of the new kings of noir, and as such, any release of his should be hailed. And as a Brian Azzarello title, Filthy Rich, the first stand-alone piece of his I've read, is deserving of all the usual praise. Not so, unfortunately, the Victor Santos art with which the story was paired. I get what Santos was trying to do here—noir is a genre that feeds on murk—but too many of Santos' characters are a little too abstract, resulting in a number of them looking alike. This gets confusing in crucial scenes. (Amusingly, I was put in mind of certain shojo titles, most notably Fruits Basket, more than once because of this. As a codicil, Fruits Basket would have been so much better with ruined football players, guns, and rich heiresses.) Eduardo Risso, working with Azzarello, showed decisively that noir can be done with distinctive characters in 100 Bullets; someone forgot to give Santos the memo. ***