Moonshine Vol. 1
Brian Azzarello, writer; Eduardo Risso, art & colors
Image Comics, 2017
So great to see the 100 Bullets creative team reunited. The gangster theme
here has similarities to the clandestine organization in the Vertigo
series, as do the flawed noir characters and the extreme pulp-style
violence. But the setting is the United States during Prohibition. A New
York City gangster sends Lou Pirlo (one of his torpedoes) to the West
Virginia hills to negotiate with a bootlegger named Hiram Holt, who makes
some of the best moonshine whisky around.
It's a test for Pirlo, who quickly finds himself in over his head.
Appalachia is nothing like the city, and no one is impressed by his slick
looks or his connections. He's not without resources, though, and he
manages to find Holt's place, way up in the hills, and present his boss'
proposition. He gets a sound rejection and is sent away--but not before
seeing the remains of a group of FBI agents we saw torn to pieces by some
creature at the opening of the story.
The horror element is only implied at first, mixed in with the general
dread of the dark woods (and Lou's recurring visions of his late sister
Annabelle, who died by drowning as a child). A group of hoods from the city
show up to help Lou get the deal done. He tries to run away, but gets drawn
back into it--next thing he knows, he's waking up from a drunken stupor in
the midst of a bloodbath. But that's not the worst that can happen: that
would be his transformation into a werewolf, which is finally made explicit
at the end.
So there are a number of things set in motion by this first arc. It will be
interesting to see how the supernatural elements are balanced in the story,
now that they are no longer merely implied. The script is full of the sort
of regional accents Azzarello was known for in the earlier series, and
Risso's art is marvelous. His characterization (especially the facial
expressions), panel layout and coloring are vivid reminders of his mastery
of comics. The collection concludes with a variant cover gallery
(unfortunately not reproduced at full size).
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