Comfort in Comics: 100 BULLETS

I haven't written anything for 3 months. By written I mean, I haven't written any comic book scripts, nor have I drawn anything. When that happens I usually escape into sci-fi and fantasy based stories. Reading or watching something that has nothing to do with reality always seems to bring me out of the depths that I end up digging for myself.

   So, I did a lot of reading and watching. Being in the dark mode I was in, I picked and ruffled through the pile of graphic novels I have and then got hold of the complete trade paperbacks of 100 Bullets. Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso's tour de force is a classic crime series. The high concept is thus : A man with a suitcase filled with 100 untraceable bullets would offer you a chance to use it for whichever purposes you wish. What would you do if you were afforded such an opportunity?



This comic explores this high concept , and as we know with Vertigo, this is just a high concept! There is so much more to the entire story and an entire shadowy world underneath..Each issue takes you further and further into the world of the Minutemen and all the various individual characters that are slowly at a calculated rate served to us on a silver platter.

   From Dizzy, the Hispanic Diva to Lono the Hawaiian heavyweight, the world of the Minutemen are something unlike what I have read or watched before. Devoting my self to make it through the 100 issues encased in several graphic novels brought me out of the dark. And really isn't that what we want from comic books? Something to entertain us and capture our imagination and open our thoughts as to how we ourselves could create 'works of art' in our own way. 

Brian Azzarello's work on Batman in the past has been amazing and so reading 100 Bullets was a must for me. He knows how to craft a tale and with 100 Bullets he weaved through an amazing 100 issues to tell a tale that spanned decades.

Eduardo Risso's art is amazing. Seriously. I have been amazed by his artwork/illustrations on Jason Aaron's Scalped from DC Vertigo. Seeing how his work has progressed since 100 Bullets. His work on 100 Bullets is breathtaking and the work on Scalped is amazing. Wait, I already said that. But yes he is a skilled craftsman at the height of his talent. I can't wait to see what next project he puts his ink to.

If you do get a chance, do pick up 100 Bullets to read. Just bear in mind that it will take a while to get into and its not something that can be understood after the first arc. But if you persevere you will be rewarded.

100 Bullets is a DC Vertigo imprint and is for mature readers.

(ARU), Aruneshwar has just finished his Bachelors Degree in Digital Media -Digital Film-making. He took a semester of Multimedia earlier this year which kind of set him up for comictrade.co.nz, a New Zealand  online comic store. On the creative side, Aru is writing and illustrating a graphic novel about the 30yrs of Institutionalised Slavery ofIndians in Fiji from 1885 -1915. He is a prolific script writer and writes in all comicbook genres which include several graphic novels for his own company,Rising Sun Comics. He is also written a graphic novel called Templeton's Rise and Fall, which is being illustrated currently by a Filipino artist, Amando De La Cruz. Aru also uploads a digital comic series on Facebook called, Zero.