The Black Dahlia: She's not ready for her close-up

A Treasury of XXth Century Murder: Black Dahlia
By Rick Geary
Published by NBM



True crime seems like a genre that would be perfectly suited to comics, but there don't seem to be too many examples of it, at least not in the English-language comics scene. But maybe that's because Rick Geary has got the market cornered, first with his "Treasury of Victorian Murder" series and now with his ongoing "Treasury of XXth Century Murder" books. Between the two series, that's more than 15 books of impeccably-presented tales of people meeting their gruesome ends, and it covers some of the most famous cases of the past couple centuries, giving readers pretty much all the information they need to know about these examples of human nastiness.

Actually, that might be selling Geary short. His books aren't just basic recitations of facts with competent illustrations; they're detailed examinations of events that cover as much as possible in around 80 pages, examine the relevant personnel, and place these events within the proper perspective, filling in whatever details about the time and setting are needed to understand what captured the public attention and continues to make them intriguing. While some salacious details are provided, Geary makes implication go a long way, keeping most of the gory imagery off the page but still providing a sense of realism. I love the way he gives things a sense of the mundane, making the players seem like everyday people who got caught up in something larger than they ever expected.



This particular case gives him plenty to work with, featuring a young woman's mutilated body found in a vacant lot outside of Los Angeles in January of 1947. Some investigation reveals that her name was Elizabeth Short, but while dozens of men were questioned, the killer was never found, and the horrific nature of the murder (she was beaten and had her face sliced open, and the body was cut in half) almost defies comprehension. Geary brings up several possible explanations, including that she might have had mob connections or that there may have been a serial killer who preyed on several women in the area throughout the 1940s, but none of it is satisfying, which is the nature of many of these true crime tales, and a probable element of why they continue to be so compelling.

But Geary does give as complete a picture as possible, delving into Short's troubled history as a would-be model and actress who bounced between her hometown in Massachusetts, Miami, Chicago, and southern California, developing relationships with a string of men but never able to find the right guy to settle down with and eventually getting involved with some unsavory characters in LA's underworld. Geary makes her into a sad character, someone who is never able to realize her dreams, but she still feels painfully human, undeserving of her awful fate.

And as usual, Geary brings it all to life with fascinating detail. He has a knack for giving people a homely look, the kid of person you would expect to encounter on the street, but they're all individual, unique people, everyday Joes and Janes lost in the sea of humanity, only standing out due to their proximity to events that we're still trying to reckon with.



And he also does his usual great job of filling in the settings, which here consist mostly of the palm-tree-lined streets of Los Angeles, but also include a variety of hotels and nightclubs. I like the way he gives many of these places an art deco feel, evoking the era without being too obvious about it.



So, all in all, it's what you would expect from someone who has gotten to be a real pro at this sort of thing. I don't know if I feel especially enlightened by what I've learned, but that's to be expected. Cases like this are famous due to their incomprehensibility, but they're still intriguing because they involved real people, and Geary is able to capture both the realism and the mystery, tying it all up in one succinct package. If you're looking to immerse yourself in some of the uglier moments of recent human history, you're not likely to find a better guide. Just don't expect to gain much understanding of humanity along the way.

Comix Canon Club: Horrors of a supernatural and carnal nature

This is the third post in a series looking at notable stories to be found within The Graphic Canon, volume 1.

The Book of Revelation
By Rick Geary

Rick Geary's version of the visions of St. John is pretty great, a straightforward, literal, deadpan treatment of the "prophecy" that could be interpreted as either the ravings of a madman, or an attempt to imagine the horrors of the end of the world. Either way, Geary makes it entertaining, whether he's detailing weird visions like Jesus as a seven-eyed, seven-horned lamb:



Or making the servants of God, who have just received seals on their foreheads, look like grinning simpletons:



Like the original text itself, it's a non-stop parade of freaky imagery that demonstrates the power of the lingering imagery that originated here, such as the whore of Babylon, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and the mark of the beast, while surrounding it with all the related strangeness that overwhelms the "vision" and turns it into ridiculous (if entertaining) religious nonsense.
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"The Fisherman and the Genie" 
From The Arabian Nights
By Andrice Arp

This is a nice little nested set of stories from Arabian Nights, in which a fisherman catches a bottle and is threatened by the genie that comes out, then tricks it back into the bottle and tells it a story, in which another character tells a story, and there's even sort of another story within that one. It's kind of goofy, but Andrice Arp details it with some really nice cartooning, and a well-done formal conceit in which the panels of the stories-within-stories get progressively smaller, then return to the original size when the action returns to the original players:



It's really well done, a great interpretation of a classic, and a really nice example of Arp's cartooning skill. Her work definitely deserves more exposure.
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"The Woman with Two Coyntes"
From The Arabian Nights
By Vicki Nerino

For a completely different interpretation of an Arabian Nights story, this bit of grotesquerie from Canadian artist Vicki Nerino takes an already bawdy story (about a woman getting permission from her husband to sleep with a stable boy by claiming that her mother bequeathed her vagina to her daughter, and the second "coynte" needs its own husband) and makes it downright nasty, turning the characters into subhuman homunculi, lingering on gross details, and giving everything a scribbly, splattery, sickly, dirty feel:



She updates the language into a silly post-millenial patois as well, including terms like "totes", "whatevs", and "OMG", which makes the whole thing that much funnier. It's a riot, one hell of an inspired adaptation, and another case of this book providing exposure to an artist that deserves further consideration.

The Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti: I wouldn't give their troubles to a monkey on a rock

A Treasury of XXth Century Murder: The Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti
By Rick Geary

 

Rick Geary's "Treasury of Victorian/XXth Century Murder" books never fail to be fascinating and educational, presenting meticulously researched information about violent incidents from the past, both famous and lesser-known, then exploring the surrounding circumstances engagingly and enjoyably, making for an quick, yet comprehensive, history lesson for those of us who want a taste of old-school salaciousness. There's something about Geary's grim, quiet presentation that brings the events to life without being sensationalistic, yet also seems kind of alien, with odd-looking people acting out terrible scenes that seem as foreign to us due to their inhumanity as their period garb and setting.



This particular case is especially interesting since it was notorious on a worldwide scale, yet seems to be little more than a footnote in the present day. A payroll robbery and double murder led two anarchist-affiliated Italian immigrants to be arrested and charged, even though their guilt seemed pretty unlikely at best, with the subsequent guilty verdict being a result of anti-immigrant prejudice at its worst. Seeing the events play out, marching unrelentingly toward what was almost certainly a wrongful execution, is kind of banally horrific, a miscarriage of justice that would seem unthinkable in modern times, if we didn't have plenty of examples of exactly that sort of awfulness filling the news daily (those will have to wait a while for Geary to get to them).

Whether one can draw a direct line from past horrors to the present is arguable, but Geary isn't interested in making any sort of social or political statement; he's just laying out the facts, and he does as remarkable a job of it as always, filling pages with maps, diagrams, informational text, timelines, and recreated images of the various people involved, pacing it in a perfectly steady flow of information that makes the reader feel like they understand the ins and outs of what happened, even if it must be a simplified version of a complicated tragedy, one that was confused by poor memories, lies, rumors, protests, and myriad other factors.

It's also wonderfully illustrated, although there's not much here that one wouldn't expect after reading most anything else by Geary. The texture given by closely-spaced parallel lines, the blank faces, the frozen moments; it's as excellent as always. I particularly like the emphasis on details provided during the trial, like an inset magnifying a bullet being held by the coroner:

And the goofy details that show up here and there make me smile; it seems like Geary is slipping a bit of humor into such a steadfastly dry relation of events with panels like the second one below:



Whether you're interested in the details of history or just like to see good comics storytelling, this is a really good book, one that educates and fascinates, and kind of outrages, even when the events depicted are nearly a century old. That would be a remarkable accomplishment on its own, but when it's just one example among many, you know you're in the presence of great talent.