Pistolwhip: The Yellow Menace

    (Top Shelf, 2003)
™ and © Top Shelf

Although shunned by this year’s Eisner Awards, Hall and Kindt’s sequel to their 2001 graphic novel Pistolwhip is nevertheless one of the best graphic novels from last year. And with Diamond recently re-offering this follow-up, those unaware of this book’s excellence have been given another reminder to take a look.

Potential readers should not be put off because this book is a sequel; if not for the review snippets on the back cover, this is a fact that likely wouldn’t even be noticed. Readers will pick up that the book’s protagonist is Mitch Pistolwhip, a rookie private eye in the 1930s who finds himself teamed with a man assuming the guise of the fictional, multi-media super-hero Jack Peril — who, in turn, is on the trail of a not-so-fictional mass-murderer calling himself The Yellow Menace.

From there, Hall’s story unfolds into a complex weave of mystery, one that also involves an anti-comics crusader with a message and a surprising connection to a dead radio actor. It’s not easily absorbed; Hall heaps on layers of Chaykin-esque complexity, dropping clues like breadcrumbs: crumbs that later make a trail toward the story’s resolution. Kindt takes a cue from the likes of Andi Watson, whose characters are simply rendered but uniquely identifiable, and this helps the reader through the book’s early pages.

Hall intersperses the story with simulated comic-book pages, radio-show dialogue, and cinematic clips that enrich the story like peanuts in a box of Cracker Jack. The story’s climax, although not entirely unpredictable, is made more surprising by an unusual revelation. And the epilogue neatly and poetically ties off all loose ends.

It’s going to take a little perseverance, both to find and to read this graphic novel. But it’s worth it.

— Jim Johnson
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