Bullet Gal #8

By Andrez Bergen

“You ever thought of investing in a pair of monoculars, Boss?”

“Then they wouldn’t be a pair. And do monoculars actually exist?”

Writer Andrez Bergen once again takes us into the world of Heropa, this time with an even bigger emphasis on the story’s noir theme. Heropa is a world set apart from your average noir tale, a world full of imagination and creativity, but issue #8 of Bullet Gal takes a different path than the previous issue and really uses its pages to pull us back into the noir lifestyle of its gritty detective. A quote from the text shedding more light on this is “We clean up the messes the capes have no time to do.” – and from there our hero with the eye-patch goes looking for answers on the case.

The artwork style in this issue is consistent with previous issues, the pages looking of various pictures and images run through filters. A page towards the beginning features the gritty detective in his search for answers, well, not sure if he’s actually searching, more like shooting for answers. The page consists of bullets flying and the blasts taking up numerous panels as “BLAM” is stretched out across the page. The page that follows shows the detective’s face in a lingering cloud of smoke as he says “Doesn’t make it any easier” showing a remorseful side to a character that tries to remain rigid in his pursuit of justice.

Bullet Gal #8 pulls us into a very noir-centric story right from the get-go. From the beginning we’re told of the city as the narrator tries to avoid the usual noir descriptions. From the artwork to the witty writing we’re given a story as if it were pulled from the minds of Chandler and Hammett themselves.