Brubaker, Phillips turn to supernatural horror in 'Fatale'

I have less free time these days and a dwindling budget to go along with it, so it’s rare for me to pick up any new book or comic book without knowing anything about it.

Any Ed Brubaker/Sean Phillips collaboration gets tucked right away into the ‘buy now’ pile. Their latest, Fatale, hit the shelves last week and it does not disappoint.

Brubaker and Phillips have worked together on several different critically-acclaimed titles; from the crime series ‘Criminal’ to their take on super-powered characters in ‘Sleeper’ and ‘Incognito.’ Their stories are dark and gritty; relentlessly paced.

Fatale is heavy on the noir like those titles are, but adds in a mystical element of Lovecraftian horror. The story is told by Nicolas Lash, the godson of the Dominic Raines, a writer of trashy—but popular—detective novels and revolves around a mysterious woman he meets at Raines’ funeral. From the beginning, he is captivated with Jo, and then he pulls a picture with a woman bearing her likeness from an unpublished manuscript The story then flashes back to that time, when two crooked San Francisco police officers are looking into a bizarre series of murders. Jo’s look-alike, who goes by the name Josephine, is there, too—along with a reporter named Hank Raines, who is trying to prove just how crooked the two cops are. Josephine is the link between them.

Brubaker’s story is impeccably timed, the characters well defined and distinctive. There are a few clichés thrown in, which took me by surprise, but the story itself is intriguing enough to overlook those minor annoyances. Phillips’ distinctive artistic style, which had always seemed perfectly attuned to the back alleys and sleezy bars of the Criminal arcs, is a more than adequate match for the grotesque and creepy places the corrupt cop Booker and his partner are drawn into, as well.

The first issue of Fatale has been out for a couple weeks and might be hard to find. If you can, it’s worth picking up. The second issue drops on Feb. 1.

So long, and thanks for trying

I've been lax at this whole blog writing thing lately (having missed the entire month of December and the last couple weeks of November) and realized I owe a belated thank you to Susan Rowe, a former member of the Wayne City Council.

As my Wayne friends know, Susan served on the council for eight years and, instead of running for re-election, decided to run for mayor when her second term was up. She ran a good campaign but lost to incumbent Al Haidous.

I don't live in Wayne any more or attend those city council meetings, but I always respected what she tried to do as a councilwoman--even though it didn't always make her popular with her colleagues. We didn't always agree on things, but there were plenty of times when she was the only one that I thought made any sense up there. I think the citizens will miss her presence.

I have three distinct memories of her that I would classify as favorites.

The first was when the city council convened in the Wayne Community Center to appoint a replacement for Don Hartford, an outspoken councilman who resigned in the middle of his term to move to Georgia. There was quite a bit of speculation on who would be appointed, and plenty of young 'fresh faces' who put in for the spot. Optimism was high. Before that optimism could run rampant at that meeting--in fact, before anyone could say much of anything at all--the council appointed a former councilman (Al Damitio, who is still serving). No offense to Al or anything (I've since grown to like him) but the energy just kind of sulked out of the room. I swear I could actually hear it dripping down the legs of the chairs, trudging across the carpet and sliding down the drains of the showers in the other part of the building. Here was the old guard, reappointing the old guard.

"Can we at least read the names of everyone else who applied?" Susan asked, a resigned look on her face.

The second was during the tax increase campaign two years ago. John Zech, the city manager at the time, had prepared two budgets--one that was mildly painful in terms of cuts and reduced services and another 'doomsday budget' that would be approved if both millage requests were rejected by voters. Those issues were both approved and the day was saved, sort of. Susan was the only one on the council who advocated to put the 'doomsday' budget in place, anyway, because she alone seemed concerned about the city's history of spending everything it could. I thought that was the smart way to go, too--as painful as it would have been--and editorialized it about the time, too. Six months later, the city was convening emergency budget meetings because Ford Motor was contesting their tax bill and it seemed the city would have been a bit wiser to save money, after all.

The third was more recent, with her questioning of the time frame between (a) the council's approval of a budget that included funds for an economic development specialist, (b) the removal of the 'interim' title from interim city manager Bob English's title and (c) English's hiring of councilman Mathew Mulholland to fill that position--after it had been combined with another part-time position to make a full-time spot. That would have all happened within a matter of weeks, without the position even being posted externally.

I like Matt, too, but wished I still had a newspaper column when all that was going down. Unbelievable.

On a grander scale, Susan was a cautious spender, very conscientious with public money, and I appreciated that, too. She was often the only one who questioned things. She was active outside of her role on the city council, as well, with organizations like the Southeastern Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) and the Michigan Municipal League. Her advocacy efforts recently earned her a Woman of Distinction Award from the YWCA, and I think that was well-deserved.

I also want to thank her for following her words with actions, something sorely lacking in politics today. She said she was still going to be involved in the city and has been working with the Wayne Ripple Effect, a grassroots group of citizens determined to revitalize the town. She's also been sending info to the city administration from the many municipal list services she's still subscribed to--and would have been at the last city council meeting, too, if not for what she described as a terrible cold.

Maybe she'll run for office again in two years, maybe she won't. She hasn't said, but at least she hasn't ruled it out. Whether she does or not, I'm confident that she'll be around town, helping out and trying to make things better--and for that, I say thanks.