Download Vertigo Crime: The Executor by Jon Evans (.CBR)

Vertigo Crime: The Executor by Andrea Mutti and Jon Evans
Requirements: CBR Reader, 162 MB.
Overview: New from Vertigo Crime, THE EXECUTOR is the story of Joseph Ullen, a retired pro athlete, who returns to his hometown in upstate New York when he’s named executor of his high-school sweetheart’s will. In a search to find out what really happened to Miriam following her mysterious death, Joseph is confronted with his own haunted past and the possibility that the two are connected.

Vertigo Crime: The Executor

Andrea Mutti

Clem Robins

Jon Evans

Lee Bermejo

Mark Doyle, Will Dennis

Vertigo, 2010.

Michael C. Lorah

The Executor was my first exposure to Vertigo’s new crime line, and it’s not the introduction I’d have hoped for.
Here’s the gist of this book: Joe Ullen, a one-time professional hockey player, returns to his hometown when his high school girlfriend, who he’s not seen in fifteen years, is murdered and her will names him executor of her estate.

Joe’s quickly introduced, locked into an apparently unsatisfying relationship (which establishes something about where he is in his life, but is never touched on again), before immediately jetting off to Elora, Calif., to attend the late Miriam’s funeral. Several characters are thrown at the reader, though none hits hard enough to have much presence.

Among The Executor’s flaws is Evans’ reliance on quite-literally lifeless characters. A mystery revolving around the deaths of two local Native American kids during Ullen’s youth ties into the tragedy of Miriam’s murder, but neither character has any presence in the narrative. Both appear in brief flashback, often single panels, without speaking, leaving them a hollow presence, a wispy ghost with no impact for the reader. Miriam herself, despite slightly more page time, barely registers as a presence either.

The characters, from Ullen to Miriam, from the dissatisfied girlfriend to the tragic boys of Ullen’s youth, are more types than realized personalities. They’re terse and tough, tragic and emotionally disconnected. Their dialogue is predictably distant, preventing any of the cast from connecting with readers or showing any indication of humanity.

Andrea Mutti, The Executor’s illustrator, delivers stiff, but most effective pages. The character designs aren’t strong, but show enough range that readers can tell the cast apart. The layouts are simple and clear, but the camera work shows little imagination and Mutti’s characters have little acting range.

In short, The Executor is a disappointment, wallowing in cliché, supporting by pedestrian artwork, full of characters who don’t deserve any reader sympathy, and more to the point don’t muster an ounce of reader interest.

Note: Vertigo Crime Series:

Dark Entries

Fogtown

A Sickness in the Family