Stray Bullets

Stray Bullets 1-4

Issue two is one of the most disturbing things that I’ve read in my life, because it’s something that happens in real life - child on child violence, as brutal as anything that adults can inflict on one another.  I remember how horrified I was when I reached the final page of the issue, positive that Ginny Applejack was dead on the forest floor on Halloween night. Combined with the injustice of the circumstances that put her in that position in the first place and the inhumanity of the multiple cover ups that follow, the whole thing adds up to create inside my soul a seething hatred of all that’s wrong with the world.  

Impressive for a twenty seven page floppy.  I said yesterday that David Lapham was extraordinary, and this was the issue that first convinced me of that.  

Victimology is only one of four stories in the first trade, and while it’s the only one that I still vividly remembered almost twenty years later, the others are almost as strong.  The names came rushing back to me with a familiarity that I had long forgotten - Spanish Steve, Monster, Nina and Beth, Joey - I don’t recall what happens to any of them, but it was still like seeing old friends.  Except I would never want to be friends with any of these people.

But I sure am looking forward to spending the next few days with them.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Good