SAM AND TWITCH #1-8
The first story arc gets five severed thumbs up.

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artists: Angel Medina, Jonathan Glapion
Colorists: Todd Broeker, Jay Fotos, Drew Hutchinson
Letterer: Comicraft
Eight issue story arc
Published by Image Comics, 1999-2000
$2.50 each

Reviewed by Paul Hanna

A wave of crime comics has washed over the industry recently. Frank Miller's SIN CITY, which initially got the current rippling a few years back, is still puttering along. Greg Rucka, Steve Leiber, and Oni Press produced a sequel to WHITEOUT, with WHITEOUT: MELT. Vertigo released a slew of crime titles, including SCENE OF THE CRIME, the GANGLAND anthology, and the ongoing 100 BULLETS. Even DC central has Batman going back to his noirish roots as a detective. And Image has SAM AND TWITCH.

"It's as if Dashiell Hammett wrote an episode of HOMICIDE while on crystal meth."

SAM AND TWITCH is a more traditional and pulp-style crime offering, yet there is something about it which offsets it from the methodology of the classics. It borrows aesthetics from both the old and the new, balancing both into a single, unique work. It's closer to a modern buddy cop story, but not far off from the hard-boiled detective style of old. The dialogue is closer to the boppiness of Elmore Leonard than to the wry and terse classic American crime writers. But SAM AND TWITCH is not without its wryness. It's as if Dashiell Hammett wrote an episode of HOMICIDE while on crystal meth.

One of the newer SPAWN spin-offs, SAM AND TWITCH is about New York police detectives Sam Burke and Twitch Williams. Sam is an overweight, foul-mouthed slob. Twitch is a lanky, balding, spectacle-wearing, reserved sort. An odd couple if there ever was one, they stick together because they share a common sense of morality. And interestingly enough, they get along fine; there is no Felix-and-Oscar silliness here, no mutual irritation existing between them.

Perhaps one of the most obvious and appealing things about the book is that they are such unlikely heroes. They aren't as good-looking as Captain America or Jesse Custer. They have their moments, but they lack that certain dominating presence that exists in most heroes in comics literature. Their characterizations and demeanor are more down-to-earth. The reader can easily believe that Sam would spend an evening in front of the television, stuffing his face with potato chips, crumbs collecting on his shirt. And Twitch would sit in the radioactive glow of his computer monitor for hours straight, tapping away at his keyboard while he searches the Web.

"Angel Medina's illustrations distinctly feel like they are from the Todd McFarlane school of art."

The story is a straight-ahead detective story, centered upon finding the clues, finding the bad guy, and nailing the bad guy. A rash of really unusual murders occur in New York; identical body parts are found at different crime scenes. First, five severed and genetically identical thumbs. Then five ears. And then five 'thing-a-dings'. All are connected by the mysterious word , 'Udaku'. And it keeps the reader guessing. This is mainly due to Bendis' ability to keep crucial plot elements well-hidden; he doesn't blow his wad early. In fact, the first seven issues are about Sam and Twitch actually trying to find out who (or what) their enemy, the mysterious 'Udaku,' is. It is a borderline tease, but the payoff is tremendous because the reader has as much an inkling of what's going on than the protagonists.

Angel Medina's illustrations distinctly feel like they are from the Todd McFarlane school of art, but the panel sequence reads like something straight out of Bendis' own JINX or GOLDFISH (both of which Bendis illustrated as well as wrote). This is no surprise considering that Bendis writes full-script and accompanies this with rough layouts. The layouts occasionally work in a simple yet clever way: Bendis and Medina will juxtapose almost identical layouts in different scenes, inviting the reader to notice similarities between certain story elements. This happens most notably when cutting from a scene featuring Sam to one featuring Twitch, showing some parallels between the two, despite their completely different personalities..

The linework is also astonishingly clear for a book that uses obscene amounts of light and dark contrasts. There are puddles of ink here and there that enshroud figures in complete black shadow, but the reader has no difficulty figuring out what's what.

Just as with JINX and GOLDFISH, the words and pictures have a weird harmony throughout the story: sometimes the words lead, and other times the pictures do. Both this and the wild nature of the layouts themselves do much to match the boppy, up-tempo nature of Bendis' dialogue.

Ultimately, the eight-part 'Udaku' storyline is an immensely satisfying read. SAM AND TWITCH does more than hold its own against other crime comics.

Recommended

Paul Hanna is Reviews Editor of PopImage.

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