Graphic Novel Review... Deep City

Deep City by Carlos Sampayo & F Solano Lopez, Catalan Communications

A COLLECTION of short stories revolving around a former boxer and now police commissioner named Evaristo, set in the politically corrupt and socially troubled 1950s of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

When this English language edition first saw publication back in 1986 writer Carlos Sampayo had been receiving critical acclaim in the USA for translations of other crime noire material produced in collaboration with artist Jose Munoz, notably their Alec Sinner series. Franciso Solano Lopez was pretty much unknown to North American readers though, whereas over in the UK kids had been brought up on a weekly diet of comics featuring strips drawn by him as diverse as the football strip Raven on the Wing and that cursed time traveller Adam Eterno.

A looser art style than Brit kids were accustomed, more open panels too; as if inviting us in to the brutality reality of hard life under a corrupt regime, cast in black and white with so many grey areas to circumnavigate philosophically. The translation tends towards abruptness and while fitting in with the crime noire genre you feel it’s not as complete as Sampayo may have intended. Possibly neither of the creators’ best work but worth experiencing as a singular read; bleak though it is. There are apparently a lot more pages never translated and the series as a whole may have more to offer in terms of emotional catharsis.

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