One of my favorite things about cons is walking around and
picking up independently published comics and giving them a chance. Well Wonder
Con was no exception and I picked up several books that were pretty good. I
don’t tend to ignore the sales pitch and just pick up random books which
usually confuses the creator/seller as they think I know something about the
story and that’s why I’m getting the book; but really I’m just treating it as
if it were a new title arriving in my comic shop. I look at it a little and
then make a decision on if I should buy it or not.
That was the case with Trigger Men. On Sunday, I stopped by
the booth and met the artist and writer and even had them sign my copy of the
first issue containing the first two chapters of the story. The booth was in a
great location and always seemed to have someone stopping by and checking out
the book. So I too was sucked in… and I’m really glad I did stopped by.
The two chapters have two very distinct voices. The first
part of the story is very serious and emotional at times with hints of comedy, whereas the second is
light hearted and downright hilarious at times. The story itself is about two
high school friends that after being the nerds in school grow up to be hit men
aka Trigger
Men. That is until something happens in one of their lives that makes
him quit the business. However, when his best friend says he needs him for one
more job he gets sucked back into the world of the Trigger Man. It’s this one
last hit that is the catalyst of the story. Nothing seems right about it,
nothing goes right with it and now they have to get themselves out of a
jam.
At its core the story is hit-men kill a target that puts
them on the radar, they need to find a way out and have a timeline to keep if
their plan is going to work. What is different is the angle of them being high
school friends and acting practically like brothers. Because of this and their
younger age, they have killer dialog that is completely relatable to anyone
that’s had a friend that can’t do anything right. At times both characters
sound a lot alike, but this is forgivable since they have a long history with
each other. In general I was very impressed with writer Mike Anderson’s story
and dialog.
What I really enjoyed about the book (almost as much as the
pizza at a Chinese restaurant bit) was the art. The book is in all black and
white with grey tones and looks fantastic. I’m a big fan of black and white
comics and when they look this good, it’s hard not to like it. Artist Heather
Brinesh is great at drawing guns which seems stupid to say, but I’ve seen a lot
of poorly drawn guns in comics so it’s refreshing to see an artist that can
draw them in a variety of poses and keep them consistent looking. Brinesh also
manages to make several long (but enjoyable) conversations interesting to look
at while reading. The variety of angles to the scenes gives it a very cinematic
look and works with the story as well.
I was very happy with my purchase of Trigger Men and I’m
looking forward to the next chapters/issues. The book is the first release from
Triptych Books which was created so that the creators could do comics the way
they wanted and frankly I think it works. It breaks from the comic formula in a
good way. If you want to try the book out you can pick it up through Drivethru
Comics which will give you a watermarked pdf to read. You can find all their
details at Triptychbooks.com which will tell you all the ways to contact them
as well. This was definitely one of my favorite books that I picked up at
Wonder Con so give it a shot if you like stories about professional killers in
a dark comedy setting.
Overall Score – 9.0/10