Femme Noir ( Ape Entertainmentt & Atomic Pulp / Mills / Staton / Stegbauer)
“Who the hell is Femme noir, you may ask? Well, here’s how the official advance publicity for Femme Noir goes:
Who is Femme Noir?
Is it Dahlia Blue, the scarlet-tressed songstress who holds court nightly at the trendy Club Selene? Or is it lovely Laurel Lye, ace crime reporter for the Port Nocturne Eclipse? Could it be the raven-haired mob princess Vanessa DeMilo, daughter of Port Nocturne’s late crime kingpin, Don Gino DeMilo?
Who is Femme Noir?
She’s a very private private eye working the mean streets and bloody alleys of a city where crime and corruption are the status quo and the nights seem to last forever. She takes on the cases that the cops can’t or won’t solve, and if the system fails — which it does with an alarming regularity — she exacts harsh, swift justice with a pair of pearl-handled automatics.
Who is Femme Noir?
Depending on which side of the law you’re on, she can be a dream come true…
…or your worst nightmare.”
Are you a fan of hard boiled action, organized crime, street level vigilantes, tons of mystery, justice given with a gloved fist, high heels, and .45? Then you should be reading Femme Noir. Christopher Mills and Joe Staton have created a world that jumps right out of a 1936 radio or a dime store pulp novel. As I was reading the first two issues, I was enthralled with the story and completly wrapped in the art. The city the story takes place is like giant combination of Gotham City, Dark City, and New York’s Hell’s Kitchen all rolled into one. Obviously not a place you want to visit, but a place people love to read about.
What stood the most for me in Femme Noir had to be that the readers have no idea who out heroine is. Is she the spunky journalist, the sultry night club singer, or crime family heiress? It could be any of them and that adds a new level to the story that hooks the readers in. I can’t wait until the next issue is available.
Check out Femme Noir on MySpace and ComicSpace
Grade: A