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Where the Body Was
Win a free print copy of this book!
11 days and 16:55:37
30 copies available
U.S. only
Like a true crime podcast crossed with a long-lost diary, Where the Body Was is unlike anything Brubaker and Phillips have ever done, and a must-have for all their avid fans!
A boarding house full of druggies. A neglected housewife. A young girl who thinks she’s a superhero. A cop who wants to be left alone. And a Private Detective looking for a runaway girl. These stories collide one fateful summer in Where the Body Was, a tale of love and murder in the suburbs, told from a dozen different points of view. All the neighbors on the block have an opinion about the murder and how it happened, but which of them is telling the truth?
Starting with a map of the crime scene, this murder mystery follows the ripples of this killing as they echo through decades of love and loss and passion and violence.
Where the Body Was is a tour-de-force readers will be obsessed with from grandmasters Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips—the bestselling multiple Eisner award winning creators of Pulp, Reckless, and Criminal.
A boarding house full of druggies. A neglected housewife. A young girl who thinks she’s a superhero. A cop who wants to be left alone. And a Private Detective looking for a runaway girl. These stories collide one fateful summer in Where the Body Was, a tale of love and murder in the suburbs, told from a dozen different points of view. All the neighbors on the block have an opinion about the murder and how it happened, but which of them is telling the truth?
Starting with a map of the crime scene, this murder mystery follows the ripples of this killing as they echo through decades of love and loss and passion and violence.
Where the Body Was is a tour-de-force readers will be obsessed with from grandmasters Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips—the bestselling multiple Eisner award winning creators of Pulp, Reckless, and Criminal.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published December 13, 2023
33 people are currently reading
1563 people want to read
About the author
Ed Brubaker
1,800 books2,977 followersEd Brubaker (born November 17, 1966) is an Eisner Award-winning American cartoonist and writer. He was born at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland.
Brubaker is best known for his work as a comic book writer on such titles as Batman, Daredevil, Captain America, Iron Fist, Catwoman, Gotham Central and Uncanny X-Men. In more recent years, he has focused solely on creator-owned titles for Image Comics, such as Fatale, Criminal, Velvet and Kill or Be Killed.
In 2016, Brubaker ventured into television, joining the writing staff of the HBO series Westworld.
Brubaker is best known for his work as a comic book writer on such titles as Batman, Daredevil, Captain America, Iron Fist, Catwoman, Gotham Central and Uncanny X-Men. In more recent years, he has focused solely on creator-owned titles for Image Comics, such as Fatale, Criminal, Velvet and Kill or Be Killed.
In 2016, Brubaker ventured into television, joining the writing staff of the HBO series Westworld.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 495 reviews
March 8, 2024
My knee-jerk reaction was to give this 4 stars.
And then I kind of thought about it for a minute and...why? I love Brubaker and Philips but this wasn't fantastic, it was just good. Like, it's a solid crime story but I wasn't wowed by any stretch of the imagination.
So. 3 stars.
Like a true crime podcast crossed with a long-lost diary, Where the Body Was is unlike anything Brubaker and Phillips have ever done, and a must-have for all their avid fans!
-says the blurb
No. You can skip this if you want. It's not bad, but this isn't their best or most interesting work by a longshot.
This basically tells the story of a neighborhood where a body was discovered back in the 80s. And each of the characters tells their own story, basically up to the present day.
That's a cool premise and I enjoyed it.
Like any Brubaker/Philips story, the characters are well-written and the setting manages to be somehow compelling and mundane at the same time.
The only problem is that the setup is far more interesting than the conclusion.
Fans of this duo won't want to miss this (I know I didn't), but for casual crime comic readers, this one isn't anything to add to your must-read list.
Recommended for Brubaker/Philips fans.
And then I kind of thought about it for a minute and...why? I love Brubaker and Philips but this wasn't fantastic, it was just good. Like, it's a solid crime story but I wasn't wowed by any stretch of the imagination.
So. 3 stars.
Like a true crime podcast crossed with a long-lost diary, Where the Body Was is unlike anything Brubaker and Phillips have ever done, and a must-have for all their avid fans!
-says the blurb
No. You can skip this if you want. It's not bad, but this isn't their best or most interesting work by a longshot.
This basically tells the story of a neighborhood where a body was discovered back in the 80s. And each of the characters tells their own story, basically up to the present day.
That's a cool premise and I enjoyed it.
Like any Brubaker/Philips story, the characters are well-written and the setting manages to be somehow compelling and mundane at the same time.
The only problem is that the setup is far more interesting than the conclusion.
Fans of this duo won't want to miss this (I know I didn't), but for casual crime comic readers, this one isn't anything to add to your must-read list.
Recommended for Brubaker/Philips fans.
May 3, 2024
Thank you Image Comics for providing me an ARC.
I've been a fan of the works of Ed Brubacker and Sean Phillips for a long time now.
I've read most of their books, and this one is probably in my top 5.
It's a standalone, a slice of life of a few suburbs residents in the summer of 1984. The cast is fairly diverse and the story is told their POV, present and looking back.
We fallow them during the few weeks preceding the discovery of a body in the neighboorhood.
It's a "who done it" on paper, but with a twist and I found it mostly character driven.
Like always with Brubacker, the characters are complex and compelling.
Like always with Phillips, the art is beautiful and immerses you in the perfect ambiance and nostaligia for the time period.
Again, one of my favorite books of the duo. I highly recommend it.
I've been a fan of the works of Ed Brubacker and Sean Phillips for a long time now.
I've read most of their books, and this one is probably in my top 5.
It's a standalone, a slice of life of a few suburbs residents in the summer of 1984. The cast is fairly diverse and the story is told their POV, present and looking back.
We fallow them during the few weeks preceding the discovery of a body in the neighboorhood.
It's a "who done it" on paper, but with a twist and I found it mostly character driven.
Like always with Brubacker, the characters are complex and compelling.
Like always with Phillips, the art is beautiful and immerses you in the perfect ambiance and nostaligia for the time period.
Again, one of my favorite books of the duo. I highly recommend it.
December 15, 2023
Thanks to Net Galley and Image and Phillips and Brubaker for an early look at this graphic novel, a stand alone as we await the return of the Reckless series. This story, we learn in an afterword, was an attempt at answering Sean’s request to Ed that he write a romance, but, well, it doesn’t quite work out, too sad for that, but it’s superbly crafted, nevertheless. I’d say it was sort of an average story for this team, maybe 3.5 for them, but in the larger world of comics, it's 5 stars, it’s that good.
Everything takes place on one suburban street. A girl who reads comics (a theme in Brubaker) plays teen sleuth in a superhero costume, with a homeless guy who is also in disguise. A neighborhood guy bullies people with his dead father’s cop badge (disguise) and is having an affair with a therapist’s wife (yeah, everybody’s got a secret, and they are all entwined in one block, all of the pretending to be someone else).
Superhero girl has a crush on a guy who is doing drugs with an unfaithful woman; they burgle houses to get cash for their fixes. And threatens him with going to the cops if he doesn’t stop…. But she’s not the only one who knows stuff. . .
We don’t learn of the murder plot til way late, and we’re in the future with a lot of these people having gone their separate ways and looking back as if it were some true crime blog. The opening frame is a map of the neighborhood to reference. And at the end a panel suggests: If you want to know what happened, turn the page. . .
Maybe the unique thing here is the interconnections on one street, and the fact that everyone is pretending. Original idea? That’s not the point. It’s a kind of story Brubaker loves, and he’s the master.
Everything takes place on one suburban street. A girl who reads comics (a theme in Brubaker) plays teen sleuth in a superhero costume, with a homeless guy who is also in disguise. A neighborhood guy bullies people with his dead father’s cop badge (disguise) and is having an affair with a therapist’s wife (yeah, everybody’s got a secret, and they are all entwined in one block, all of the pretending to be someone else).
Superhero girl has a crush on a guy who is doing drugs with an unfaithful woman; they burgle houses to get cash for their fixes. And threatens him with going to the cops if he doesn’t stop…. But she’s not the only one who knows stuff. . .
We don’t learn of the murder plot til way late, and we’re in the future with a lot of these people having gone their separate ways and looking back as if it were some true crime blog. The opening frame is a map of the neighborhood to reference. And at the end a panel suggests: If you want to know what happened, turn the page. . .
Maybe the unique thing here is the interconnections on one street, and the fact that everyone is pretending. Original idea? That’s not the point. It’s a kind of story Brubaker loves, and he’s the master.
February 14, 2024
"It all started at the boarding house . . . June 27, 1984." -- from the opening page narration
A 'one-shot' graphic novella from the writing / drawing duo of Brubaker & Phillips (also responsible for many other felonious-themed series such as Kill or Be Killed, Criminal, and most recently Reckless), Where the Body Was is a period piece - which is quite unnerving to say, because I actually lived through this time - set during the summer days of '84 in a nondescript town in California. The lives of nine character types - among them a private eye, a rollerskating little girl who dreams of being a super-heroine, an alluring and libidinous housewife, a vagrant, and some irritating teen delinquents - residing and/or working on the same U-shaped suburban avenue eventually collide and the result is MURDER! I'm sure the choice to set this 40 (!) years ago was to avoid cell-phones or social media, which probably would've revealed the secrets a hell of a lot sooner. But the slow-burn approach / unveiling works for this transgression story - although it's not particularly memorable, I admired the way the narrative pieces all fit together and played fair with standard mystery-writing rules.
A 'one-shot' graphic novella from the writing / drawing duo of Brubaker & Phillips (also responsible for many other felonious-themed series such as Kill or Be Killed, Criminal, and most recently Reckless), Where the Body Was is a period piece - which is quite unnerving to say, because I actually lived through this time - set during the summer days of '84 in a nondescript town in California. The lives of nine character types - among them a private eye, a rollerskating little girl who dreams of being a super-heroine, an alluring and libidinous housewife, a vagrant, and some irritating teen delinquents - residing and/or working on the same U-shaped suburban avenue eventually collide and the result is MURDER! I'm sure the choice to set this 40 (!) years ago was to avoid cell-phones or social media, which probably would've revealed the secrets a hell of a lot sooner. But the slow-burn approach / unveiling works for this transgression story - although it's not particularly memorable, I admired the way the narrative pieces all fit together and played fair with standard mystery-writing rules.
March 5, 2025
[7/10]
I was not familiar with the term puzzlebox mystery but, as a fan of both Brubaker and Phillips, I trusted them with this new story. It’s a one-shot, so there’s no need to wait for sequels in order to enjoy the ride.
It may not be my favorite offer from their recent catalogue, but I think putting a map and a row of portraits for the characters at the start of the album was a great idea, a sort of ‘hook’ to lure me into their web of lies and secrets.
So what’s a puzzlebox mystery? It’s a sort of ‘whodunit’ v2.0 set in a closely knit community, the sort of story that made Agatha Christie famous but moved outside the usual cosy framing of posh people in posh locations.
Ed Brubaker mentions in an afterword that he went back to his own past childhood and youth for inspiration, a whiff of nostalgia that I’ve noticed in many other titles scripted by him. He talks about ... the puzzle idea of a book with several different stories overlapping on one street. Something worthy of a map and legend at the beginning. Which has honestly been a career goal, ever since I fell in love with the mapback pulp books from the 40s. But this one is like a map of a memory frozen in time.
[...] There’s a big part of my heart on that street
I was twenty myself in the summer of 1984, when the events on Pelican Road unfolded, and grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood, so I can definitely see the nostalgic value of the album, even if we didn’t really have to deal with drugs, hippies or post-traumatic veterans.
But I’m sure there were a lot of secrets behind the closed doors of my neighbours houses, hard drinking and domestic violence and deceit. The one player I found most easily to relate to is The Roller Derby Kid. I share with her memories of roller skating as a teenager and of an early interest in adventure comic books.
>>><<<>>><<<
We know where the body was discovered from the map included on the first page, even if his identity will remain a mystery for a long time. We know who the main actors are from the next page, and we know what they do from the labels included.
Writing a synopsis of events would defeat the very purpose of this exercise, which is to discover how the different stories provided by all of these people will eventually gel together and reveal the identity of both the victim and of the perpetrator [s].
We should trust Brubaker and Phillips to guide us through this puzzle.
I was not familiar with the term puzzlebox mystery but, as a fan of both Brubaker and Phillips, I trusted them with this new story. It’s a one-shot, so there’s no need to wait for sequels in order to enjoy the ride.
It may not be my favorite offer from their recent catalogue, but I think putting a map and a row of portraits for the characters at the start of the album was a great idea, a sort of ‘hook’ to lure me into their web of lies and secrets.
So what’s a puzzlebox mystery? It’s a sort of ‘whodunit’ v2.0 set in a closely knit community, the sort of story that made Agatha Christie famous but moved outside the usual cosy framing of posh people in posh locations.
Ed Brubaker mentions in an afterword that he went back to his own past childhood and youth for inspiration, a whiff of nostalgia that I’ve noticed in many other titles scripted by him. He talks about ... the puzzle idea of a book with several different stories overlapping on one street. Something worthy of a map and legend at the beginning. Which has honestly been a career goal, ever since I fell in love with the mapback pulp books from the 40s. But this one is like a map of a memory frozen in time.
[...] There’s a big part of my heart on that street
I was twenty myself in the summer of 1984, when the events on Pelican Road unfolded, and grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood, so I can definitely see the nostalgic value of the album, even if we didn’t really have to deal with drugs, hippies or post-traumatic veterans.
But I’m sure there were a lot of secrets behind the closed doors of my neighbours houses, hard drinking and domestic violence and deceit. The one player I found most easily to relate to is The Roller Derby Kid. I share with her memories of roller skating as a teenager and of an early interest in adventure comic books.
>>><<<>>><<<
We know where the body was discovered from the map included on the first page, even if his identity will remain a mystery for a long time. We know who the main actors are from the next page, and we know what they do from the labels included.
Writing a synopsis of events would defeat the very purpose of this exercise, which is to discover how the different stories provided by all of these people will eventually gel together and reveal the identity of both the victim and of the perpetrator [s].
We should trust Brubaker and Phillips to guide us through this puzzle.
February 3, 2024
A nifty and tidy little character study about how untidy suburban life can be is wrapped up in a little murder mystery. A couple of characters talk about The Twilight Zone in the course of the book and some of the ironic little twists here wouldn't be out of place there, though they'd probably be more at home on the contemporary anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
Well executed, though I fear not exactly memorable.
Well executed, though I fear not exactly memorable.
September 25, 2023
This team always get me hyped for a book. Love criminal, but everything they do is either great, amazing, or atleast good.
I think sadly where the body was falls into the last for me.
It's really just a slice of life of this small little town with some pieces of shit people, but also multilayered people since no one is just "good" or "bad". I think the idea of this book is good but the characters, all of them, fall a little flat in the end. I didn't get attached to a single one which kind of surprise me. I did enjoy the overall plot but it also felt a bit aimless. This book wasn't as strong as their previous work. The art though, as always, remained pretty strong throughout.
A 3 out of 5. Thanks Netgalley for the advance review!
I think sadly where the body was falls into the last for me.
It's really just a slice of life of this small little town with some pieces of shit people, but also multilayered people since no one is just "good" or "bad". I think the idea of this book is good but the characters, all of them, fall a little flat in the end. I didn't get attached to a single one which kind of surprise me. I did enjoy the overall plot but it also felt a bit aimless. This book wasn't as strong as their previous work. The art though, as always, remained pretty strong throughout.
A 3 out of 5. Thanks Netgalley for the advance review!
May 8, 2024
Suburbia. 1980s. The setting for Ed Brubaker/Sean Phillips’s latest noir graphic novel, “Where the Body Was”. Like their previous stuff, it’s twisty and fast-paced and great. The difference, however, is subtle.
Rather than gritty and hard-core, this one is more melancholy and heart-warming. There are no serial killers in this, no mobsters with guns, no demonically-possessed suicidal college kids.
Sure, there’s a dead body. And a mystery. But it seems less important, somehow, than the pathetic lives of the numerous characters whose fates are all intertwined in this story.
There’s the guy who claims to be a cop, banging the bored housewife, who is married to the boring psychiatrist, who is treating the homeless Vietnam veteran with PTSD, who is friends with the 10-year-old Vietnamese girl who wants to be a superhero, who is not-so-secretly in love with her older nerdy neighbor kid who loves comic books, who is not-so-secretly in love with the teenage runaway on the lam from the police. Then there’s the nosy neighbor. And the private investigator in his Members-Only jacket.
This honestly feels less like a noir thriller than one of those rambling ensemble movies popular in the early 2000s, like “Crash” or “Traffic” or “Babel”. I kind of dug those films, so this was a winner in my book. It may not be for everybody, though. Especially for those Brubaker/Phillips fans expecting a little more edginess and lot more blood.
Rather than gritty and hard-core, this one is more melancholy and heart-warming. There are no serial killers in this, no mobsters with guns, no demonically-possessed suicidal college kids.
Sure, there’s a dead body. And a mystery. But it seems less important, somehow, than the pathetic lives of the numerous characters whose fates are all intertwined in this story.
There’s the guy who claims to be a cop, banging the bored housewife, who is married to the boring psychiatrist, who is treating the homeless Vietnam veteran with PTSD, who is friends with the 10-year-old Vietnamese girl who wants to be a superhero, who is not-so-secretly in love with her older nerdy neighbor kid who loves comic books, who is not-so-secretly in love with the teenage runaway on the lam from the police. Then there’s the nosy neighbor. And the private investigator in his Members-Only jacket.
This honestly feels less like a noir thriller than one of those rambling ensemble movies popular in the early 2000s, like “Crash” or “Traffic” or “Babel”. I kind of dug those films, so this was a winner in my book. It may not be for everybody, though. Especially for those Brubaker/Phillips fans expecting a little more edginess and lot more blood.
May 19, 2024
Vidas cruzadas con temática criminal en el que he disfrutado mucho la sucesión de testimonios a través de los cuales se construyen las visiones que tienen los personajes entre sí; cómo cambian con el tiempo cuando tienen/tienes más información; la manera en que las pequeñas miserias socavan sus vidas. La manera en que está contado, una especie de recapitulación varias décadas más tarde, termina dándole una connotación irónica que aleja Donde vi el cadáver de la extrema seriedad de otras historias de Brubaker&Phillips. Le imprime un punto meta que le sienta muy bien.
March 9, 2024
I expected a bit more than what was delivered here. WHERE THE BODY WAS won't make my list of favorite Brubaker/Phillips collaborations. Yet, I couldn't put it down and kept turning the pages - simply because that's how good these two are at engaging storytelling.
It's difficult to pin a single label on this one. It's different from the usual crime stories, more of a blend of crime, mystery, romance, and slice-of-life. Twist my arm, and I'll settle for slice-of-life - which is what kept me involved in the stories. There is no main character, but a bunch of them who all live on the same residential street and cross paths in different ways.
This would be a good example of Brubaker/Phillips work to introduce new and younger readers to, much less brutal than some of their other stories. There's a minimum of violence and it's not excessive. Except for one thing - - there's a good amount of sex and it's visually graphic. Better stick to adults only.
It's difficult to pin a single label on this one. It's different from the usual crime stories, more of a blend of crime, mystery, romance, and slice-of-life. Twist my arm, and I'll settle for slice-of-life - which is what kept me involved in the stories. There is no main character, but a bunch of them who all live on the same residential street and cross paths in different ways.
This would be a good example of Brubaker/Phillips work to introduce new and younger readers to, much less brutal than some of their other stories. There's a minimum of violence and it's not excessive. Except for one thing - - there's a good amount of sex and it's visually graphic. Better stick to adults only.
April 4, 2024
A quick, intriguing read.
I loved the colours of this one - perfect for the 80s setting.
The story takes its time getting to 'the body' which I really liked - it becomes a character study, looking at the lives of a small group of people at a specific place in time. I really enjoyed the way it played out.
Clever title, in that it creates the mystery then and there and we spend the whole time wondering who did it before the body even turns up.
Really clever and the artwork complements the story beautifully. Highly recommend.
With thanks to NetGalley for a copy
I loved the colours of this one - perfect for the 80s setting.
The story takes its time getting to 'the body' which I really liked - it becomes a character study, looking at the lives of a small group of people at a specific place in time. I really enjoyed the way it played out.
Clever title, in that it creates the mystery then and there and we spend the whole time wondering who did it before the body even turns up.
Really clever and the artwork complements the story beautifully. Highly recommend.
With thanks to NetGalley for a copy
January 10, 2024
I was very tempted to give this a 3-star simply because it doesn't really stand-out among the large body of work Brubaker and Phillips have done together. It's merely another great short comic story by them.
Which after Sleeper, the Criminal books, Incognito, Fatale, The Fade Out, Kill or Be Killed, Pulp, the Reckless books, and Night Fever... well it's easy to start taking this creative team for granted.
Apparently Phillips requested a romance script, but I don't think Brubaker is capable of not doing crime comics at this point. This has a lot of themes of romance throughout, but they are all tinged with infidelity, drug-use, and betrayal.
It feels like it's going to be a murder mystery. It's framed with narrators from present day telling the story - sort of like a documentary show. Lots of great characters, many that will feel familiar to Brubaker readers. I loved the guy that pretends to be a cop, the young girl who tries to become a masked vigilante in the neighbourhood, and the homeless guy who assists her.
Which after Sleeper, the Criminal books, Incognito, Fatale, The Fade Out, Kill or Be Killed, Pulp, the Reckless books, and Night Fever... well it's easy to start taking this creative team for granted.
Apparently Phillips requested a romance script, but I don't think Brubaker is capable of not doing crime comics at this point. This has a lot of themes of romance throughout, but they are all tinged with infidelity, drug-use, and betrayal.
It feels like it's going to be a murder mystery. It's framed with narrators from present day telling the story - sort of like a documentary show. Lots of great characters, many that will feel familiar to Brubaker readers. I loved the guy that pretends to be a cop, the young girl who tries to become a masked vigilante in the neighbourhood, and the homeless guy who assists her.
December 18, 2023
Where the Body Lies takes place in the summer of 1984. It's a series of interconnected stories from various points of view revolving around the lead up to the discovery of a dead private eye in their neighborhood and what really happened to him.
I'm a big fan of Brubaker and Phillips and will read anything the pair publish. This has the typical pulpy feel to it that made me fall in love with pulp/noir to begin with. The art is great as usual, and I like the color palette that was used.
I highly recommend for fans of crime thrillers.
My thanks to Image Comics, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this graphic novel. My opinions are my own.
I'm a big fan of Brubaker and Phillips and will read anything the pair publish. This has the typical pulpy feel to it that made me fall in love with pulp/noir to begin with. The art is great as usual, and I like the color palette that was used.
I highly recommend for fans of crime thrillers.
My thanks to Image Comics, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this graphic novel. My opinions are my own.
September 10, 2025
Where the Body Was is the ultimate in (larger-than) slice-of-life, a microcosm of American suburbia - that is, American suburbia as it was on Pelican Street, circa 1984. It's a pacey, well-crafted whodunit with a cast of archetypal characters that never feel stereotypical; in fact, they're the beating heart of this story. Drawing inspiration from the "mapback pulp books" of the 1940s, Where the Body Was manages to feel both fresh and familiar, and never lets up on the fun.
Thanks to NetGalley and Image Comics for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks to NetGalley and Image Comics for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
February 12, 2024
This didn't quite hit me in the same way a lot of other Brubaker/Phillips stories do. I still enjoyed it, I love Phillips' art as always and I love the idea of looking at the 'burbs but it was just okay instead of being great. And that's fine because a Brubaker/Phillips "okay" is still fun with twists and turns and pulpy characters, and is so much better than a lot of the generic superhero stuff I've been reading lately.
January 23, 2024
A tale of love, longing, lies, and a little gum shoe from a local kid. I felt this had a nice nostalgic touch to growing up in a small town. Different points of views makes for some fun character development. Great art panels!
January 3, 2024
Every time I finish a Brubaker/Phillips book, I find myself astonished with how much character and story they can put into often less than a couple hundred pages. I want to read everything they’ve done right now and I say that every time I finish one of their books. This one is no different.
So many characters get their spot to shine in this one in so little pages, but it’s done so masterfully. I loved the documentary feel to this one with the future asides, especially. Crime storytelling at an absolutely perfect level. Phenomenal read.
So many characters get their spot to shine in this one in so little pages, but it’s done so masterfully. I loved the documentary feel to this one with the future asides, especially. Crime storytelling at an absolutely perfect level. Phenomenal read.
March 31, 2024
This book is an improbable mix between documentary, soap opera and crime. In a suburban early 80’s environment. Within this set of parameters it’s perfectly well done but it’s perfectly not extraordinary either.
The settings, the characters, even the crime are all mundane. So it feels like Brubaker’s cozy mystery. Above average but not that much.
The settings, the characters, even the crime are all mundane. So it feels like Brubaker’s cozy mystery. Above average but not that much.
November 8, 2023
Where The Body Was is an Image Comics graphic novel
written by Ed Brubaker, illustrated by Sean Phillips, and colored by Jacob Phillips.
Set in Southern California in the mid 1980s, there lies an ordinary suburban street. It could be any street in America. There is a boarding house full of transients, delinquent teenagers, a cheating housewife, a young girl pretending to be a superhero, the elderly woman who uses the neighborhood watch to spy on her neighbors, a beer store employee pretending to be a cop, and a homeless Vietnam veteran. All of these people’s lives and secrets will become entangled on one particularly bad day.
This isn’t like anything else I have read by the Brubaker and Phillips team but it was still fascinating in its pulp mystery simpleness. This is also a romance story in the weirdest Brubaker sense. Brubaker builds this little street and its neighbors so well that you know them, flaws and all. Like most Brubaker books, everything revolves around a crime but there is a nifty little twist with this one. If I had any nitpick is that I don’t feel the art is quite as detailed as some of Phillips’s previous work but that could all be boiled down the suburban setting. It is still a must read book for any fans of Brubaker and Phillips.
written by Ed Brubaker, illustrated by Sean Phillips, and colored by Jacob Phillips.
Set in Southern California in the mid 1980s, there lies an ordinary suburban street. It could be any street in America. There is a boarding house full of transients, delinquent teenagers, a cheating housewife, a young girl pretending to be a superhero, the elderly woman who uses the neighborhood watch to spy on her neighbors, a beer store employee pretending to be a cop, and a homeless Vietnam veteran. All of these people’s lives and secrets will become entangled on one particularly bad day.
This isn’t like anything else I have read by the Brubaker and Phillips team but it was still fascinating in its pulp mystery simpleness. This is also a romance story in the weirdest Brubaker sense. Brubaker builds this little street and its neighbors so well that you know them, flaws and all. Like most Brubaker books, everything revolves around a crime but there is a nifty little twist with this one. If I had any nitpick is that I don’t feel the art is quite as detailed as some of Phillips’s previous work but that could all be boiled down the suburban setting. It is still a must read book for any fans of Brubaker and Phillips.
January 9, 2024
Jako jo, furt je to asi skvelá vec, keď to vezmeme na pomery podobných vecí, a z všeobecného hladiska to je skvele napísané, skvele nakreslené, má to výborné tempo a každá postava dostane svoj priestor. Ale na to, aké skvelé veci som zvyknutá od týchto dvoch čítať mi to prišlo trochu meh, nepohlo to mnou ako ich ostatné výtvory a na konci som si proste povedala "it was good I guess" čo tak nejak odpovedá tým trom hviezdam.
June 24, 2024
It's Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, so it's terrific, even as it works hard to be different from their usual output. There's still a dead body (see: the title), but the who/why/how of the dead body isn't particularly important to the narrative in Where the Body Was. Instead, we follow a handful of residents on a single suburban road in the mid-80s.
Those residents are getting up to all kinds of things, as people are wont to do in the comfort of their homes. There's a tension between omniscient narration, first-person present narration, and first-person past narration, but it almost always works. I was just as deeply engaged with the minor goings-on of the neighborhood residents as I was with the murder mystery. Ed Brubaker could write a CVS receipt and I'd gobble it up.
Those residents are getting up to all kinds of things, as people are wont to do in the comfort of their homes. There's a tension between omniscient narration, first-person present narration, and first-person past narration, but it almost always works. I was just as deeply engaged with the minor goings-on of the neighborhood residents as I was with the murder mystery. Ed Brubaker could write a CVS receipt and I'd gobble it up.
December 3, 2024
Não sei mais como elogiar a dupla Ed Brubaker e Sean Phillips, toda HQ dos mestres é qualidade garantida. Onde o corpo estava não é exceção, e novamente, um excelente quadrinho de crime policial/investigação, porém dessa vez, Brubaker vai além no roteiro e consegue inserir romance e drama de maneira genial, de forma que todos esses elementos se entrelaçam e formam uma história cativante.
Onde o corpo estava conta a história de um bairro no verão de 1984, em que na ocasião, apareceu um corpo morto na calçada. De início, nada além disso é revelado, apenas o ano, o bairro e o local em que o corpo foi encontrado (o gibi vem com um mapa do bairro).
A partir disso, somos apresentados aos personagens da trama, que com maestria, são muito bem desenvolvidos e explorados, cada qual com suas individualidades bem destacadas, a ponto de não conseguirmos identificar qual o personagem principal da trama, pois todos tem extrema importância, tendo em vista que todo o quadrinho é contato a partir da perspectiva de cada personagem sobre o fatídico dia em que o corpo foi encontrado.
Tal maneira de contar a história faz com que o leitor não consiga parar de ler, querendo descobrir quem é o culpado e o que aconteceu de fato com o corpo (que também não sabemos de quem é)
Entretanto, se engana quem pensa que esse quadrinho é apenas mais uma historia de investigação, pois como destaquei anteriormente, Brubaker mescla diversos gêneros, logo o universo se expande, e além de conhecermos a história do corpo, exploramos também as histórias de cada personagem da obra.
Onde o corpo estava conta a história de um bairro no verão de 1984, em que na ocasião, apareceu um corpo morto na calçada. De início, nada além disso é revelado, apenas o ano, o bairro e o local em que o corpo foi encontrado (o gibi vem com um mapa do bairro).
A partir disso, somos apresentados aos personagens da trama, que com maestria, são muito bem desenvolvidos e explorados, cada qual com suas individualidades bem destacadas, a ponto de não conseguirmos identificar qual o personagem principal da trama, pois todos tem extrema importância, tendo em vista que todo o quadrinho é contato a partir da perspectiva de cada personagem sobre o fatídico dia em que o corpo foi encontrado.
Tal maneira de contar a história faz com que o leitor não consiga parar de ler, querendo descobrir quem é o culpado e o que aconteceu de fato com o corpo (que também não sabemos de quem é)
Entretanto, se engana quem pensa que esse quadrinho é apenas mais uma historia de investigação, pois como destaquei anteriormente, Brubaker mescla diversos gêneros, logo o universo se expande, e além de conhecermos a história do corpo, exploramos também as histórias de cada personagem da obra.
November 13, 2024
A slice-of-life tale focused tightly on the intersecting lives of neighbors on a suburban street. There's a crime, but from the title you know that the body is missing. The unfolding events, the multiple POVs and timelines all make for an interesting graphic novel. For adults only.
June 11, 2024
Four stars but taking it down to 3.5 because one of the characters is supposed to be “chunky”. I think. Sometimes she’s thin, sometimes fat, sometimes called fat while drawn thin. It’s 2024, drawing women’s bodies shouldn’t be so confusing.
May 9, 2025
Another Storytoob recommendation. An interesting graphic novel that looks like a murder mystery, and it is, but not in the way you think. It's more of a look at the characters on this street and the way their lives are intertwined.
July 14, 2024
I devoured this in one day. Excellent standalone graphic novel. Brubaker has clearly seen Kurosawa's Rashomon and taken its lessons to heart. While it's not as gritty or action-packed as a typical noir tale, it's a good personal and introspective story about shedding the innocence of childhood and the idealistic feeling of first love, written from the perspective of someone who clearly has regrets about their own past. It's impressive how much character work and plot detail the team was able to fit into a seemingly limited number of pages.
August 9, 2023
Where the Body Was is a compelling and intriguing murder mystery presented in comic form by some of the most revered artists in the game. Set in the eighties, the house at the end of Pelican Road was once owned by newlyweds Louise and Henry Robbins before becoming a boarding house that attracted students, beatniks and hippies. Then they both passed away and a legal battle ensued and soon down-and-outers began using it to take drugs and play loud music. Enter (Detective) Palmer Sneed who sees the thugs off with great aplomb. Palmer is sleeping with bored housewife of the street Toni Melville who finds excitement by cheating on her miserable, inattentive husband. We then meet Vietnamese Lila Nguyen who as an eleven-year-old dressed as a superhero and roller-skated around the neighbourhood returning escaped canines to their worried owners, feeding the homeless and spying on anyone who looked suspicious. We hear from Sam Walker, the manager of the liquor store where Palmer used to work; he claims Palmer was never a cop. Palmer admits to stealing his father's detective badge from his coffin right before burial and unintentionally ending up using it in certain situations. It made people respect him more and also attracted Toni.
We also meet several other residents of the street who share a little about their lives with us. Then one afternoon in early September, Lila happens upon the dead body of private investigator Jack Foster in the middle of the street. He had claimed to have been snooping around lately trying to track down a missing teenager, but no one really knew whether that was the truth or not. Sneed had seen the body and felt if he didn't hide it then when the neighbours mentioned a cop living in the vicinity during police canvassing he would be caught for impersonating a police officer. Oh, how one deception leads to some even greater ones down the line. Dr Ted Melville had returned home to find wife Toni in bed with Palmer and had taken a shot at him with a pistol; he had planned on murdering his wife and making it look like a psychotic patient, homeless Ranko, had carried it out, however, Tommy Brandt and Karina Lane had been burgling the Melville house when the doctor came home to carry out the deed and so witnessed everything from the safety of the closet. You'll have to read it if you wish to find out who killed the P.I. and how the neighbours on the street fared after the drama was over.
This marks only the second comic/graphic story I have ever read, and from what I can gather about Image Comics and their roster of storytellers/artists as well as how compelling I have found said crime caper to be, I don't think I could've chosen a better publisher to properly introduce me to the genre. The inhabitants of Pelican Road are a fascinating bunch each with their own trials and tribulations with each coming across as very human. Each person seems to have an uncanny knack for attracting full-scale drama. Full of mystery and suspense, the story builds as it progresses and you try to work out where all the puzzle pieces fit. There is also plenty of attention given to the notions of nostalgia, bildungsroman, memory, love, loss and allusions to the past being a foreign country. A lot of this story is true, including some of the crazier parts which is wild but not entirely surprising given what we know about humans and human nature. Many different stories commingle and overlap on one street and the map at the front is a nice touch as is the cast of character pictures. We follow where they go, what they care about, and what secrets they keep. You can feel a lot of heart and soul went into creating the street, the characters and a fully rounded story, and that makes it a joy to read.
We also meet several other residents of the street who share a little about their lives with us. Then one afternoon in early September, Lila happens upon the dead body of private investigator Jack Foster in the middle of the street. He had claimed to have been snooping around lately trying to track down a missing teenager, but no one really knew whether that was the truth or not. Sneed had seen the body and felt if he didn't hide it then when the neighbours mentioned a cop living in the vicinity during police canvassing he would be caught for impersonating a police officer. Oh, how one deception leads to some even greater ones down the line. Dr Ted Melville had returned home to find wife Toni in bed with Palmer and had taken a shot at him with a pistol; he had planned on murdering his wife and making it look like a psychotic patient, homeless Ranko, had carried it out, however, Tommy Brandt and Karina Lane had been burgling the Melville house when the doctor came home to carry out the deed and so witnessed everything from the safety of the closet. You'll have to read it if you wish to find out who killed the P.I. and how the neighbours on the street fared after the drama was over.
This marks only the second comic/graphic story I have ever read, and from what I can gather about Image Comics and their roster of storytellers/artists as well as how compelling I have found said crime caper to be, I don't think I could've chosen a better publisher to properly introduce me to the genre. The inhabitants of Pelican Road are a fascinating bunch each with their own trials and tribulations with each coming across as very human. Each person seems to have an uncanny knack for attracting full-scale drama. Full of mystery and suspense, the story builds as it progresses and you try to work out where all the puzzle pieces fit. There is also plenty of attention given to the notions of nostalgia, bildungsroman, memory, love, loss and allusions to the past being a foreign country. A lot of this story is true, including some of the crazier parts which is wild but not entirely surprising given what we know about humans and human nature. Many different stories commingle and overlap on one street and the map at the front is a nice touch as is the cast of character pictures. We follow where they go, what they care about, and what secrets they keep. You can feel a lot of heart and soul went into creating the street, the characters and a fully rounded story, and that makes it a joy to read.
January 27, 2024
Typical Brubaker/Phillips and yet ... they manage to surprise the reader again. Of course there is the necessary portion of blood, drugs and mystery to be found on the pages but you can actually get a few good laughs out of reading 'Where the body was'. Really, really, really liked it !
February 13, 2024
Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips deliver an ambitious and wide-ranging murder mystery in Where The Body Was, which peels back the layers of suburban violence. The creators subvert expectations and explore the interconnectivity of characters, examining society in microcosm. Where The Body Was is a gripping and emotional graphic novel that solidifies Brubaker and Phillips' legacy as masters of crime/noir comics.
If noir has a name in comics, it would have to be Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. The pair have consistently put out the finest crime/noir tales in comics over the years at Image Comics, establishing themselves as one of the most celebrated writer/artist duos in the whole of the comics industry. Now, they return with their latest work, Where The Body Was, an epic hardcover graphic novel that sees the pair tackling a murder mystery, with a twist.
First teaming up in 2001 for the DC Elseworlds book Batman: Gotham Noir, Brubaker and Phillips later collaborated on works such as Sleeper, Criminal, and Incognito. The publication of Fatale in 2012 saw the duo make their debut at Image Comics, where they’ve proceeded to produce a number of acclaimed titles like The Fade Out and Kill or be Killed. With the release of their 2020 title Pulp, Brubaker and Phillips moved away from monthly comics and instead chose to focus on long-form graphic novels like the Reckless series and last summer’s Night Fever.
Where The Body Was continues Brubaker and Phillips’ journey into long-form graphic novels, and is easily their most ambitious work yet.
Where The Body Was opens with a double-page spread of a map of the neighbourhood where the bulk of the action takes place, along with a page detailing the cast of characters appearing therein. It sets the stage nicely for the story that unfolds over the 134 pages that follow, a crime fable peeling back the layers of an average American suburb to find the rot seeping in at the cracks. “Epic” is a term that is thrown about rather loosely these days, but Brubaker and Phillips truly earn that label with this latest project, a story that is wide-ranging in both scope and story content.
Set in the summer of 1984, Where The Body Was takes place primarily in the suburb of Pelican Road, whose inhabitants find themselves twisting through each other’s lives in a swirl of sex, lies and attempted murder. The cast of characters is expansive, with Brubaker and Phillips using this tried-and-true plot of a murder mystery to uncover the secret lives of very distinct characters living in the same suburb. From the young junkies in love to the cheating wife to the war vet living in the tent on the outskirts to the young girl tasking herself with dressing up like a superhero and protecting the neighbourhood, Brubaker and Phillips use the “murder mystery” plot as an excuse to examine the lives of these characters in a very specific moment in time.
What is most immediately apparent about Where The Body Was is the willingness of the creators to take classic genre tropes and turn them on their ear at every turn. When the reader first meets the characters in the story, they may think they know what role they will play out in this grand “murder mystery” tableau, but each of them carries a secret and none are as simple on the surface as they may appear. This approach even extends to the titular “body” of the title, the mystery of which is not revealed until the very last scene of the book, as Brubaker and Phillips subvert expectations at every turn. There is a murder attempt and there is a dead body found, but the victim isn’t who you think and nothing plays out how you think it will.
What Brubaker and Phillips are really doing here is examining society in microcosm. The “body” of the title isn’t just referring to the dead body found on the Pelican Road sidewalk on that quiet summer afternoon in 1984, but also the various bodies making up the larger body of society. The creators take an interesting approach to the story by having many of the characters in the present day narrate the events of the past, making the book feel like a documentary or true crime podcast.
By taking this approach, Brubaker and Phillips highlight the interconnectivity of characters as they weave in and out of each other's lives, the repercussions of their actions motivated by the characters’ loneliness, alienation and heartbreak.
Like a good novel, Where The Body Was closely examines each character chapter by chapter, as the story slowly comes together when their lives begin to intersect in interesting and surprising ways. Most surprising of all is how Brubaker and Phillips bring the characters to the climactic confrontation that winds up uniting them all, a moment of violence that is quickly wrapped up so that the story can take a more melancholic tone as the story draws to its denouement. The final moments of Where The Body Was are some of the most emotional pages Brubaker and Phillips have delivered thus far, as readers discover what happens to each character in the decades since that fateful summer.
If there’s anything to criticize in Where The Body Was, it’s that the story is perhaps too short. Each character is fascinating in their own way, but there are some who get more focus than others. Upon reaching the end of the story, one can’t help but feel certain characters could have used more page time, like the homeless Vietnam veteran Ranko, who plays an integral role in the story, yet somehow feels rushed and short-changed in his characterization. Ditto for neighbourhood snoop Mrs. Wilson, who comments upon the action like a Greek Chorus throughout the story, but more often than not feels more like a convenient vehicle for exposition rather than a flesh-and-blood character.
Still, if the only real criticism one can find with any given work is that they are left wanting more upon reaching the conclusion, that only speaks to the overall excellent quality of the work in question. There is no doubt that Where The Body Was is the work of masters operating at the height of their craft, delivering an original graphic novel that is unpredictable, emotional and thoroughly gripping throughout. From the opening map setting the stage for the story to come to the final reveal of what happened to the “body” in the title, the creators have taken the murder mystery format and delivered a sly and unique take on a well-worn genre. Where The Body Was from Image Comics continues the impressive winning streak of creators Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, and solidifies the pair’s legacy as the finest names out there in crime/noir comics.
If noir has a name in comics, it would have to be Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. The pair have consistently put out the finest crime/noir tales in comics over the years at Image Comics, establishing themselves as one of the most celebrated writer/artist duos in the whole of the comics industry. Now, they return with their latest work, Where The Body Was, an epic hardcover graphic novel that sees the pair tackling a murder mystery, with a twist.
First teaming up in 2001 for the DC Elseworlds book Batman: Gotham Noir, Brubaker and Phillips later collaborated on works such as Sleeper, Criminal, and Incognito. The publication of Fatale in 2012 saw the duo make their debut at Image Comics, where they’ve proceeded to produce a number of acclaimed titles like The Fade Out and Kill or be Killed. With the release of their 2020 title Pulp, Brubaker and Phillips moved away from monthly comics and instead chose to focus on long-form graphic novels like the Reckless series and last summer’s Night Fever.
Where The Body Was continues Brubaker and Phillips’ journey into long-form graphic novels, and is easily their most ambitious work yet.
Where The Body Was opens with a double-page spread of a map of the neighbourhood where the bulk of the action takes place, along with a page detailing the cast of characters appearing therein. It sets the stage nicely for the story that unfolds over the 134 pages that follow, a crime fable peeling back the layers of an average American suburb to find the rot seeping in at the cracks. “Epic” is a term that is thrown about rather loosely these days, but Brubaker and Phillips truly earn that label with this latest project, a story that is wide-ranging in both scope and story content.
Set in the summer of 1984, Where The Body Was takes place primarily in the suburb of Pelican Road, whose inhabitants find themselves twisting through each other’s lives in a swirl of sex, lies and attempted murder. The cast of characters is expansive, with Brubaker and Phillips using this tried-and-true plot of a murder mystery to uncover the secret lives of very distinct characters living in the same suburb. From the young junkies in love to the cheating wife to the war vet living in the tent on the outskirts to the young girl tasking herself with dressing up like a superhero and protecting the neighbourhood, Brubaker and Phillips use the “murder mystery” plot as an excuse to examine the lives of these characters in a very specific moment in time.
What is most immediately apparent about Where The Body Was is the willingness of the creators to take classic genre tropes and turn them on their ear at every turn. When the reader first meets the characters in the story, they may think they know what role they will play out in this grand “murder mystery” tableau, but each of them carries a secret and none are as simple on the surface as they may appear. This approach even extends to the titular “body” of the title, the mystery of which is not revealed until the very last scene of the book, as Brubaker and Phillips subvert expectations at every turn. There is a murder attempt and there is a dead body found, but the victim isn’t who you think and nothing plays out how you think it will.
What Brubaker and Phillips are really doing here is examining society in microcosm. The “body” of the title isn’t just referring to the dead body found on the Pelican Road sidewalk on that quiet summer afternoon in 1984, but also the various bodies making up the larger body of society. The creators take an interesting approach to the story by having many of the characters in the present day narrate the events of the past, making the book feel like a documentary or true crime podcast.
By taking this approach, Brubaker and Phillips highlight the interconnectivity of characters as they weave in and out of each other's lives, the repercussions of their actions motivated by the characters’ loneliness, alienation and heartbreak.
Like a good novel, Where The Body Was closely examines each character chapter by chapter, as the story slowly comes together when their lives begin to intersect in interesting and surprising ways. Most surprising of all is how Brubaker and Phillips bring the characters to the climactic confrontation that winds up uniting them all, a moment of violence that is quickly wrapped up so that the story can take a more melancholic tone as the story draws to its denouement. The final moments of Where The Body Was are some of the most emotional pages Brubaker and Phillips have delivered thus far, as readers discover what happens to each character in the decades since that fateful summer.
If there’s anything to criticize in Where The Body Was, it’s that the story is perhaps too short. Each character is fascinating in their own way, but there are some who get more focus than others. Upon reaching the end of the story, one can’t help but feel certain characters could have used more page time, like the homeless Vietnam veteran Ranko, who plays an integral role in the story, yet somehow feels rushed and short-changed in his characterization. Ditto for neighbourhood snoop Mrs. Wilson, who comments upon the action like a Greek Chorus throughout the story, but more often than not feels more like a convenient vehicle for exposition rather than a flesh-and-blood character.
Still, if the only real criticism one can find with any given work is that they are left wanting more upon reaching the conclusion, that only speaks to the overall excellent quality of the work in question. There is no doubt that Where The Body Was is the work of masters operating at the height of their craft, delivering an original graphic novel that is unpredictable, emotional and thoroughly gripping throughout. From the opening map setting the stage for the story to come to the final reveal of what happened to the “body” in the title, the creators have taken the murder mystery format and delivered a sly and unique take on a well-worn genre. Where The Body Was from Image Comics continues the impressive winning streak of creators Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, and solidifies the pair’s legacy as the finest names out there in crime/noir comics.
September 15, 2024
Según cuenta Ed Brubaker en el ya tradicional epílogo de cada tebeo suyo, Sean Phillips le pidió hace tiempo que escribiera alguna vez una historia romántica para dibujarla. Y el propio Brubaker confiesa que tenía ganas de escribir el tipo de historia que requiere incluir un plano en las primeras páginas de la obra. De este doble deseo nació la idea de Where The Body Was, un título que en inglés tiene una ambigüedad semántica muy significativa y muy buscada por el autor que por desgracia se ha perdido al traducirlo.
Porque, también nos cuenta Brubaker en el epílogo, esta historia quiere ir bastante más allá de ser un simple relato detectivesco. Y este objetivo quedará bien claro en su desarrollo: lo que pasó en esas calles en aquel verano de 1984 no es más que la excusa para hacer el retrato de un momento, un lugar y, sobre todo, unas personas que empezaban a vivir su juventud o justamente sentían que sus años jóvenes estaban llegando a su fin. En una época, además, en la que reinaba el pleno convencimiento de que era posible llegar a ser exactamente la persona en la que uno quisiera convertirse.
Tebeos de superhéroes, relaciones extramatrimoniales, drogas y rock and roll… todos los clichés de los años 80 están perfectamente representados en esta historia, incluyendo al inevitable detective privado y al no menos inevitable veterano del Vietnam que vive al margen de la sociedad. Pero detrás de esta fachada tan reconocible nada es lo que parece en una historia que además está contada de forma coral y en retrospectiva, con intervenciones cada vez más frecuentes de los personajes que desde la actualidad explican, comentan o justifican sus actos de aquel entonces. La nostalgia va a tomar de esta manera un giro inesperado, porque no se trata solamente de la reconstrucción de una época en la que los cuerpos y las ilusiones todavía estaban intactos. Desde la perspectiva de hoy, el balance de las diferentes vidas vividas desde aquel entonces va a acabar imponiendo el peso de la realidad y de la sabiduría adquirida con los años.
Me parece que este tebeo va a tener lecturas muy diferentes dependiendo de la fase vital en la que se encuentre cada lector y su grado de empatía con lo que Brubaker quiere contar aquí entre líneas, ayudado por los dibujos de Phillips que son por momentos de un realismo muy desasosegante. En cualquier caso, quien no ande necesitado de tantas sutilezas a la hora de leer un cómic se va a encontrar con el relato coral de un suceso intrigante que no va a revelar todos sus secretos hasta el último momento. Como mínimo, el entretenimiento está garantizado.
Porque, también nos cuenta Brubaker en el epílogo, esta historia quiere ir bastante más allá de ser un simple relato detectivesco. Y este objetivo quedará bien claro en su desarrollo: lo que pasó en esas calles en aquel verano de 1984 no es más que la excusa para hacer el retrato de un momento, un lugar y, sobre todo, unas personas que empezaban a vivir su juventud o justamente sentían que sus años jóvenes estaban llegando a su fin. En una época, además, en la que reinaba el pleno convencimiento de que era posible llegar a ser exactamente la persona en la que uno quisiera convertirse.
Tebeos de superhéroes, relaciones extramatrimoniales, drogas y rock and roll… todos los clichés de los años 80 están perfectamente representados en esta historia, incluyendo al inevitable detective privado y al no menos inevitable veterano del Vietnam que vive al margen de la sociedad. Pero detrás de esta fachada tan reconocible nada es lo que parece en una historia que además está contada de forma coral y en retrospectiva, con intervenciones cada vez más frecuentes de los personajes que desde la actualidad explican, comentan o justifican sus actos de aquel entonces. La nostalgia va a tomar de esta manera un giro inesperado, porque no se trata solamente de la reconstrucción de una época en la que los cuerpos y las ilusiones todavía estaban intactos. Desde la perspectiva de hoy, el balance de las diferentes vidas vividas desde aquel entonces va a acabar imponiendo el peso de la realidad y de la sabiduría adquirida con los años.
Me parece que este tebeo va a tener lecturas muy diferentes dependiendo de la fase vital en la que se encuentre cada lector y su grado de empatía con lo que Brubaker quiere contar aquí entre líneas, ayudado por los dibujos de Phillips que son por momentos de un realismo muy desasosegante. En cualquier caso, quien no ande necesitado de tantas sutilezas a la hora de leer un cómic se va a encontrar con el relato coral de un suceso intrigante que no va a revelar todos sus secretos hasta el último momento. Como mínimo, el entretenimiento está garantizado.
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