{"id":7247,"date":"2013-12-16T10:02:42","date_gmt":"2013-12-16T15:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifisaturdaynight.com\/?p=7247"},"modified":"2013-12-16T10:02:42","modified_gmt":"2013-12-16T15:02:42","slug":"stop-hammer-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/scifisaturdaynight.com\/?p=7247","title":{"rendered":"Stop, Hammer Time."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JackHammer_cover[1]\"<\/a>Jack Hammer<\/em> is the latest in a slew of excellent comics coming from the team at Action Lab.\u00a0 Like the other titles from Action Lab, Jack Hammer<\/em> boasts an impressive combination of art and story telling.\u00a0 Unlike the other titles, Jack Hammer<\/em> takes on a genre that the team has not explored yet to my knowledge:\u00a0 Noir.<\/p>\n

Noir is one of my all time favorite genres and as\u00a0 I mentioned above, Action Lab has a great track record so I was excited to jump right in. Jack Hammer<\/em> does a lot of things to live up my high expectations and rarely falters.<\/p>\n

After a drunken couple stumble upon the body of Eddie Newman the police are called into investigate.\u00a0 Before then can even begin combing the crime scene for details P.I. Jack McGriskin arrives on the scene.\u00a0 Lead Detective Martin tries to tell him to beat it, but when Jack refuses the detective refers to McGriskin by his real name, Jack Hammer.\u00a0 To which he of course replies \u201cJack Hammer was along time ago,\u201d like any great noir hero would.<\/p>\n

Jack Hammer is the perfect character for this type of story. You feel like you know him from the moment he drops that line. He screams noir, from his dialogue to the way he is portrayed in each frame.\u00a0 Right from the get go without knowing any details or back story, you can tell he is a badass.\u00a0 You know his past haunts him, but why? All we know is it must have been bad if he is still a badass but wants to forget whatever came before.<\/p>\n

The comic is dialogue heavy but does a really good job of establishing the supporting characters and developing the story.\u00a0 All this while dropping hints about Jack\u2019s past and why he is no longer \u201cJack Hammer\u201d.\u00a0 The murder mystery, a clouded past, and some great shady bar scenes all tie in to the noir theme and make the comic a fun and interesting read.<\/p>\n

The art is awesome, from the pencils to the colors.\u00a0 Jack looks like the rugged half in the bag cop that we all know and love from our favorite detective stories.\u00a0 The expressions on each characters face help add to the story really work well with the dialogue heavy scenes.\u00a0 The only complaint I have is that the comic is colorful, and that’s my opinion more then a complaint. It uses darker shades of\u00a0 each and every color but for something that is so noir in every other way I would have l preferred even more shadows and less colors.<\/p>\n

That being said, perhaps the fact that they didn’t do something stereotypical\u00a0 is what makes the comic unique in its own right.\u00a0 All in all, Action Lab does it again and if you are a comic fan and you haven\u2019t started reading their stuff then do yourself a favor and pick this one up.<\/p>\n

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