4 crampons out of 5

See, this was originally why I championed Ed Brubaker.

I’m still a big Brubaker fan.  I will pick up a new book with his name on it, and while his Criminal series and its spinoffs is sort of mining the same territory continually, Ed continues to grow stylistically to present his stories more smoothly.  But, as happens with a lot of “discovered” guys who start working for the majors, he’s gotten lost in the shuffle of big books and crossovers.  His style is there, and it reads well week to week, but put it together and it feels sort of empty when compared to more personal projects like “An Accidental Death.”

There’s not going to be a surprise, plotwise, in store for you when reading the story – 2 kids growing up on an island army base, 1 kid gets obsessed with a neighborhood girl and then she winds up dead – but the mark of a good storyteller is to take something original and make it feel compelling.  Which Brubaker does exceedingly well here.  The hitch in comics, though, is how much the art diminishes, shows off, or overwhelms your story, and in this realistic tale, Brubaker had an excellent partner with the clean pencils of Eric Shanower.  Every character is distinct in both voice and look, and while we’re only getting an issue’s worth of material glimpse into these people, you understand who they are within the context of the book.

The story stumbles a bit at the beginning and end – Brubaker chooses a flashback framing element that feels a little like “Why are you telling us this…?” but it allows for a cold retelling of events instead of something more emotional, which overall enhances the story.

I think this was initially serialized in Dark Horse Presents, but you might be able to find the Fantagraphics collected copy in a used bin like I did.  The price on Amazon is a little steep.  I’d say paying ten bucks for this book would be worth it.  If you’ve enjoyed the more tempered, naturalistic stories Brubaker’s worked on (I’d actually include his work on Gotham Central as an example, oddly enough), ‘An Accidental Death’ is a great read.

buy me