Pulp
Ed Brubaker, writer; Sean Phillips, artist
Image Comics, 2020
Max Winters is a pulp writer in 1930s New York, churning out Westerns at five cents a word. It turns out that the Red River Kid (his signature character) is actually based on his earlier life in Wyoming as an outlaw known as the Red Rock Kid: that history is told gradually through flashbacks. After suffering a major heart attack (while trying to defend a Jew on the subway) Max has reason to recollect. When he decides to attempt a robbery he meets up with his past again, in the form of Jeremiah Goldman, one of the Pinkerton detectives who had pursued him back in the day.
Goldman isn't just there to protect Max from himself. He has a business proposition: he wants Max to help him steal a crate of cash from some American Nazis, claiming that the money is part of regular shipments to Germany. The robbery does not go as planned. Goldman was really after ledgers detailing prominent Americans who have been secretly donating to the Nazi cause. To make up for his deception, he gives Max the deed to a house in Queens and a bank account with $8,000 in it: the things Max wanted for his wife Rosa.
After getting out of the hospital Max reads about an exposed banker forced to resign in disgrace, and goes to see Goldman to congratulate him. He finds him dead, killed by Nazis in the building while trying to defend the sister of one of them. Despite a brief fantasy of living in Queens with Rosa, Max knew he was on borrowed time. So he chooses to go out like an outlaw, in a blaze of glory.
The Brubaker/Phillips collaborations have set a high bar, one which Pulp easily clears. A tribute to the pulp tradition (as the title promises), it is at the same time a meditation on justice, aging, violence, and societal change. The story line sets up a rich visual world shifting between the Wild West and New York City: exciting to read and beautiful to look at. A triumph.
Replies
I wouldn't have bought this one had the owner of my LCS not recommended it to me personally. Long story short: I loved it! (I posted some comments a week or two ago to the "What Comics Have Your Read Today?" discussion.) Highly recommended.
I loved this one, too. I mean, I tend to love ALL the Brubaker/Phillips collaborations, but this one was especially good.
I love that it started out with Phillips saying he wanted to draw a western, and Brubaker coming up with this -- mostly set in the 30s in NYC, claiming it was about as much of a western as he could muster. Still, so masterful from top to bottom.