Writer: Ann Nocenti / Penciller: Flavia Biondi / Colour Artist: Lee Loughridge / Letterer: Sal Cipriano / Editor: Karen Berger / Assistant Editor: Rachel Boyadjis / Logo & Book Design: Richard Bruning / Digital Art Technician: Adam Pruett / Collects Ruby Falls #1 - #4 (2019) / Berger Books / Dark Horse Comics
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25th January 2021 (Released 10th June 2020)
The Pitch: In this gripping neo-noir mystery, Lana is about to wake up in the middle of her hometown's biggest secret: the "disappearance" of infamously progressive Betty Gallagher during the mobster-ruled heyday of the old mining town. When her grandmother Clara starts to share dementia-blurred, violent memories of this cold-case murder, Lana becomes obsessed with cracking the case, even if it means splintering the peaceful town and putting everyone she knows in grave danger.
Memories. Sometimes they're like ghosts. Undefined, barely glimpsed, but filling you with an icy, cold dread. Those memories, smoke-like and vaporous can move sharply into focus when you least expect it, as is the case of Lana's grandmother, a woman suffering from dementia. But when she remembers a decades-old murder, it's Lana who must dig up the ghosts for her. This is a unique book in so many ways. Firstly, its protagonist is somewhat directionless. Mildly coddled by her father and girlfriend, Lana would be an annoyance as handled by many other creators. But Noncenti and Boindi paint her as a woman desperately looking for direction. She's embarrassed by her station in life, jobless, aimless. Secondly, there's its treatment of noir tropes, like the stripper girlfriend familiar from so many '90s thrillers. Here, Lana's lover is an aerialist and trapeze artist, whose talents become crucial later in the book. These might seem like small graces, but they resonate throughout the story influencing the flow of plot and art. Biondi makes the art weave like Blair's aerialist moves.
THE BOOK IS CONCISE, STREAMLINED. NOT A MOMENT SLIPS BY WASTED
The central thriller element is concise (as evidenced by the book's scant four-issue run), and streamlined. Not a moment or beat slips by wasted. It's a testament to Nocenti's skills, built over her time in the trenches creating seminal runs for characters like Daredevil. Here, themes like age versus youth spin out playfully and skilfully. Lana's father, a doting patriarch, can't grasp the onrush of technology that seems to be taking over his small town and could save – or damn – his business. And then there's Lana and Blair themselves, framed against Lana's old high school as they practise dangerous moves. Framed against a past Lana can't or perhaps doesn't want to pivot away from. Then there's the fact that Lana won't listen to Blair's instructions on the trapeze: surely a sign that Lana isn't ready for an adult, real relationship with Blair? Nocenti and Biondi weave a web, one that isn't predatory, but dangerous just the same. Full of cul-de-sacs, people staying in one place, not moving on. Trapping others there with them.
Biondi's art is stylised, seemingly using few lines but actually highly detailed. Loughridge's colours reinforce the 'autumn of your life' that the presence of Clara (Lana's grandmother) brings to the book. Like Biondi's art, it's misleading and sparse, but reveals itself the longer you look at the pages. Cipriano's lettering style fits beautifully, letting the simmering, 'relaxed angst' of Nocenti's writing cook through to the voices of the characters. The small-town stifling of behaviours is rife in the story. The murder that provides its central mystery is used as a warning to those that might express themselves, marking Lana and Blair as outsiders from the get-go and the design, colours and feel of the book support that mood in every issue. If you've spent any time in the company of Brubaker and Phillips, then this book is for you.
Buy Dark Horse Comics here and support The Comic Crush. Buy Ruby Falls from Gosh Comics or order a copy online from Bookshop.org.