Stray Bullets is a classic. Altough an overworked notion, classics are the essential reading that make us understand the best and the worse about Humanity. Stray Bullets fits that definition to a tee.
Before the fifties, crime comics were all the rage until some deluded psychiatrist decided that society needed a scape goat for its faillings in educating its youth - this is a common and repeting phenomenon. That scape goat was comics - violent and bloody comics. - so a self-imposed regime was maunfactured to keep comics youth friendly.
Fast forward ten years and underground comics emerged from that repressed mindset and comics were once again free to express themselves - or did they?
Another twenty years pass and comics are still trapped by the past, filled to the brim with spandex-clad heroes that are now violent and "realistic", a misinterpretation of what Watchmen and DKR tried to teach us. Instead of growing up, comics became what Dr. Wertham thought of them, immature drivel. 
This was particulary notable by the mid-nineties. Meanwhile, David Lapham was going back to crime comics in the best kind of way. Realistic stories with well developed characters driven by their needs and expectations. All this wrapped up in his beautiful black and white  line.
Please, go read this and forget the past.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Follow the lost lives of people who are savagely torn apart by events beyond their control. 
As the innocent world of an imaginative little girl is shattered when she witnesses a brutal double murder. 
Or an introverted young boy on the verge of manhood gets a lesson on just how far is too far when he falls for a needy woman who lives life in the fast lane. 
Or party with a pair of low-rent hoods who learn about what is really important in life just when they shouldn’t. 
And even learn the story of the most infamous gangster who ever lived, Amy Racecar, who talks to God, lunches with the President, and just may be responsible for the end of the world. 
These are some of the tales that will rip out your guts and break your heart. 

This book collects the first seven issues of Stray Bullets.

This is a collection of 7 loosely connected crime stories. For the most part, they have all the ingredients (in stories) that I like: violence that is definitely right there, but never over the top silly; characters that I can connect with - both good guys and the baddies; and razor-sharp dialogue that actually brought this book from 3 stars to 4. 

The artwork was the surprise, though - it was very, very good and really did a lot of the work for the reader. It is dark and moody, creating an atmosphere that words alone cannot do. 

Why only 4 stars? I would have liked all of the stories to have been connected in a more cohesive way. They weren't bad stories, I would have just liked to have had a sense of continuity to the plot of the book.


Paul
ARH