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STRAY BULLETS : SUNSHINE AND ROSES #1

Story & Art: David Lapham

Publisher: Image Comics/El Capitan

It’s no secret that Stray Bullets is one of the best comics being published today, possibly ever. David Lapham’s latest Sunshine and Roses remedies the missing gratuitous violence of Killers at the cost of diverting from that arc’s engaging plot. However, this is the most brutal and meaty the Stray Bullets series has been in awhile, and that speaks volumes for what you’ll find in these pages.

Linear storytelling has never been Lapham’s aim for the series. It’s allowed him to take chances and experiment with the world he’s created. David Lapham has done some traumatic breaking of characters, jumped time periods on a whim, and killed his cast in ways that haven’t even been invented yet. Stray Bullets Sunshine and Roses #1 follows the story of Kretchmeyer, a suave would be gangster trying to get in the game. He begins a romance with a feisty east coast woman named Beth. Unknowingly, the secrets of their lives begin to intertwine and unravel in a crime/love story that hasn’t been told this well since True Romance.

Black and white comics might not be for everyone but if they’re done right you hardly notice the lack of color. Laphan does it right. His art has a way of simplifying the complexity of the narrative down to raw emotion. It’s a treat to ride this tense roller coaster of lust and violence because each page is more striking than the one before it.

If you’ve never read Stray Bullets, the beauty of the series is its never closed nature. Almost every issue is a self contained story. Whether you start with the original number one or this latest Sunshine and Roses arc you’ll never feel as though you’re in a story that’s already years in unfolding. For long time Stray Bullets fans… rejoice! It’s back and it’s just as good as ever!

Dave currently playing :Grimm Fandango, currently eating: cereal, currently complaining about: fat free milk @bouncingsoul217

It was great news when it was announced that Stray Bullets would be returning to comic stands again, with the new series Stray Bullets: Killers. I’ve been a fan of David Lapham’s work since 1995, when a local comics shop owner handed me a copy of Stray Bullets #1, and said, “I know you like different stuff. You should try this.” Well, Stray Bullets was different than your average super-hero/cartoon comic book, that’s for sure. It read like a mixture of Pulp Fiction, and Mean Streets. The series was self-published, and self-marketed for 10 years, with 40 issues produced, which is quite an impressive feat in the volatile comics market. Lapham took a break from Stray Bullets in 2005, and did writing/drawing work for many of the major publishers, including Young Liars for DC/Vertigo, Daredevil vs. Punisher for Marvel, and Crossed for Avatar Press.

It makes perfect sense that he would take the long awaited final issue of Stray Bullets, #41, and the spin off series Killers to Image Comics, since the publisher has now become a safe haven for the type of original, creator owned comics that David Lapham was an early pioneer of.

In addition to Stray Bullets: Killers, Lapham recently completed his first all-ages series, Juice Squeezers, and he’s currently writing the comics adaptation of the hit FX TV series(and series of books) The Strain, both published by Dark Horse Comics.

You can follow David Lapham on Twitter here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com - Andy Yates

The post Comics Illustrator of the Week :: David Lapham appeared first on Illustration Friday.