OLD HAUNTS by Rob Williams & Ollie Masters, writers; Laurence Campbell, art; Lee Loughridge, colors (AWA/Upshot, February 2021) Trade Paperback, 112 pages. ISBN # 1953165001/9781953165008
Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .
Three Made Men, standing at the brink of retirement, find their unbreakable bond put to the ultimate test when they are suddenly assaulted by the ghosts of their past.
Confronted by decades of buried secrets - resentments, affairs, double-crosses, and murders - the three friends have no choice but to unearth the deepest, darkest sin from their past and pray they don't find an empty grave.
My Four-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .
A brooding, moody, slow build of a crime noir story with supernatural elements. Three retiring gangsters get together for one last reunion before they turn over their business interests to the new player in town. Guilt and regrets haunt them.
But are those ghostly vultures real and not the symbolic manifestation of their fears? Things don't go well, as might be expected. Some of the trio can't distinguish between real and imagined threats and things get violent. Add a badass FBI agent determined to get revenge for the murder of her partner more than a decade before and it's an intriguing mix.
Just enough diverse elements here to make me forget the crime novels and/or crime films I'm striving to compare it to. This would be just an ordinary story were it not for the art team, whose fabulous work here elevates this book to a four-star rating.
Laurence Campbell's illustrations are gritty and expressive. The major star here is the color work by Lee Loughridge, which needs to be viewed to be appreciated. I would hope to see Loughridge's name among the nominations for best colorist of 2020.
I read this work in the monthly single issues as they were released. A second reading at one sitting increased my admiration for this work.
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