Trista and Holt #9

By Andrez Bergen

“I guess I’m a ghost. The fact I can see right through my hand is a minor giveaway.”

I’m no geologist, but it does seem like he may be a ghost. Who should we call though? I wonder if Bill Murray is busy…

This issue of Trista and Holt by Andrez Bergen tells a bit of a different story than your everyday comic. Issue #9 follows around Lou, driver for the Holt family, who walks through the issue as a ghost, even at times exhibiting a fourth wall breaking ability. Bergen does a great job at introducing this new take on the character as we even get some comical instances involving Lou’s first round at being a ghost. One of the instances involving him expressing how he probably could have levitated up to the floor above him while in a hospital instead of using the elevator, but alas, such things take practice.

Using Lou as the narrator this issue Bergen is able to show us some of the events following Lou’s death, since naturally a ghost would want to witness their own funeral (a bit of a chilling concept outside of the fictional world). Bergen uses real images here to show us these events, including a look at Lou’s car after he makes a comment on how filthy it is after the shooting.

The artwork on this issue, once again composed of various images photoshopped together, shows how Bergen has been evolving his craft as the series progresses. A great page comes fairly early in the issue showcasing rain falling over the city. Bergen depicts some of the drops as real droplets, which fits with the images of real people he places throughout the issue. These droplets even fall into the next page, and then eventually are commented on by Lou (during a fourth wall breaking moment).

“Like this kid, the girl blubbering in the rain on the opposite page.”

This quote brings some of Bergen’s humor into the mix as well, which leads into even more coming from the character Lou as the issues progresses.

Something Bergen has been doing well with this series is making each issue feel like its own individual story, and yet still connected to the main story line (he also did this with Bullet Gal). Even if you haven’t been reading Trista and Holt this issue is loaded with enough to keep you entertained.