Eye on Comics
  • About/Submissions

Extra! Extra! Bleed All About It!

  • Reviews - Boom! Studios

Bury the Lede original graphic novel
Writer: Gaby Dunn
Artist/Cover artist: Claire Roe
Colors: Miquel Muerto
Letters: Mike Fiorentino
Editor: Dafna Pleban
Publisher: Boom! Studios
Price: $19.99 US

I was keen to read this book, as its focus on journalism – and specifically crime reporting – is of great interest to me personally and professionally. This is my first exposure to the work of writer Gaby Dunn, and there’s an undeniable edge to her plotting and characterization. Unfortunately, there’s also a profound lack of logic to it as well, robbing the story of plausibility and credibility. While the noir atmosphere, both in the story and art, is palpable and entertaining, I just couldn’t buy into the protagonist’s journey here. Her dumb luck, her implausible access, her determined destruction of every relationship in her life — little of it worked for me. There’s a powerful and engrossing yarn to be told here, but it’s one that calls for a more complex and finessed execution, as opposed to the ham-fisted hammering it gets here.

Madison Jackson, an intern at the Boston Lede, gets a crash course in journalism, as a murder suspect’s decision to feed her juicy bits of the story from her cell places her at the heart of a storm of controversy – a story about a political scandal and coverup. Aided in her tyro efforts at reporting the news by a cop with an interest in her romantically and a senior reporter with an interest in her sexually, Madison finds herself torn among her loyalties, ethics and drive to get the story at all costs.

Despite my misgivings about the plot, I truly enjoyed the artwork in this book. Roe’s linework here reminded me of the styles of such artists as Brian Stelfreeze and Michael Gaydos. There’s a nice blend between a realistic approach and a more stylistic bent, and Roe captures Madison’s youth adeptly. However, I don’t think her art would have been nearly as effective if it hadn’t been for Miquel Muerto’s dark, haunting colors. His use of deep blue and purple tones really reinforced the noir atmosphere Roe establishes with her line art.

One shortcoming of the story is that the mousey personality crafted for Madison at the outset of the book completely contradicts the at-any-costs approach she so quickly adopts. Despite her willingness to cross any line for the story, the first-person narrative voice still boasts that naivete. That wide-eyed, in-over-her-head quality also makes her intimate interests – the cop, her mentor at the paper, the murder suspect herself – difficult to accept. Madison’s thoughts speak to her status as still something of a child, but her actions are those of a femme fatale. The contradiction is impossible to reconcile here. I do find Madison’s self-destructive leanings interesting, but they don’t really jibe with her personality, as it’s conveyed in the narration. 

Furthermore, Dunn introduces a couple of subplots that really don’t go anywhere. The fact that Madison’s brother is working for the mayor’s re-election campaign doesn’t really go anywhere, save to give the main character someone else to screw over in her life. The character of Harold Gennero is introduced, but to what end? She really doesn’t seem to serve any real purpose, save to hammer home the competitiveness of the profession early on (which had already been accomplished with the rival newspaper).

While it’s likely that comics instilled a love for journalism in me and led me down that career path, I’ve been frustrated for years with how often the medium gets journalism wrong, casting aside the ethics and mechanics of it all (for the sake of drama and adventure in fiction, of course). Dunn does so here as well, and that surprises me a bit, as her bio indicates she worked in the profession for a time. The notion that an intern would be given the freedom to pursue a story so fraught with pitfalls and potential liabilities is just too big a pill for me to swallow. And as for her access to an accused murderer, that didn’t jibe for me either. Now, maybe remand visitation in Massachusetts is different than it is where I live and work, but in a million years, this sort of unfettered access just doesn’t happen. And the notion that the authorities wouldn’t listen in on a murder suspect’s conversations with a reporter is ludicrous. The plot doesn’t work for me because there are so many impossible and implausible developments needed to make it work. The lack of supervision over Madison’s work, the disregarding of the many violations of journalistic ethics… there’s so much portrayed here that wouldn’t happen, and other elements that shouldn’t.

Now, I admit my own experiences in and thoughts about journalism colored my review of this book, and that my reaction comes from a very personal, clearly biased place. It could be I’m just too close to the subject matter to enjoy it as a piece of escapist crime fiction. But in the end, I think many readers will find there’s no one to root for here, no real hero in the story — and not nearly enough vindication and justice. 4/10

Follow Eye on Comics on Facebook or on Twitter.

April 1, 2020 Don MacPherson

Post navigation

Striking the Wrong Chord → ← Creepy Crawlers

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent posts

  • They Do Need Those Stinkin’ Badges
  • Future Tense
  • Teed Off
  • Scar Issue
  • Of Gods and Monsters
  • Genre Splicing
  • A Mouthful of Dollars
  • Striking the Wrong Chord
  • Extra! Extra! Bleed All About It!
  • Creepy Crawlers

Categories

Archives

Categories

  • Announcements
  • Editorials
  • Features
  • Original Comic Art
  • Reviews – Action Lab
  • Reviews – AfterShock
  • Reviews – AiT/PlanetLar
  • Reviews – Archie
  • Reviews – Black Mask
  • Reviews – Boom! Studios
  • Reviews – Dark Horse
  • Reviews – DC
  • Reviews – DC/Vertigo
  • Reviews – DC/Wildstorm
  • Reviews – Devil's Due
  • Reviews – Drawn & Quarterly
  • Reviews – Dynamite
  • Reviews – Fantagraphics
  • Reviews – IDW
  • Reviews – Image
  • Reviews – Indy/Small Press
  • Reviews – Legendary
  • Reviews – Lion Forge
  • Reviews – Marvel
  • Reviews – Miscellaneous
  • Reviews – NBM
  • Reviews – Oni Press
  • Reviews – Other Media
  • Reviews – Quick Critiques
  • Reviews – Radical
  • Reviews – Slave Labor
  • Reviews – Titan
  • Reviews – Tokyopop
  • Reviews – Valiant
  • Reviews – Zenescope
  • Reviews- Humanoids
  • The New 52 Review Project

Search

Recent Posts

  • They Do Need Those Stinkin’ Badges
  • Future Tense
  • Teed Off
  • Scar Issue
  • Of Gods and Monsters

Recent Comments

  • Marcelo Soares on Coming Clean
  • Perry on Scoop
  • R Phillips on “Fixed… With Tape”
  • Leslie on Avengers… Disassemble Those Guys
  • Perry Beider on 2018 Glass Eye Awards – Creators
January 2021
S M T W T F S
« Nov    
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31  

Archives

  • January 2021
  • November 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • April 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
Powered by WordPress | theme cats456