Mayday #3

by Forrest.H on June 24, 2015

Writer: Curt Pires
Artist: Alex Diotto
Breakdowns: Chris Peterson
Colors: Dee Cunniffe
Letters: Colin Bell 
Produced by: Matt Pizzolo 
Production artist: Matt Harding 

Publisher: Black Mask Studios
Release Date: June 24, 2015
Cover Price: $3.99

Pires and company do it again with a smart, enthralling and brutal issue of the infinitely mind-bending Mayday for Black Mask.

This issue is short on the cultural references and satirical leanings that made the first two issues compelling in a Hunter S. Thompson kind of way but, it’s heavy on perfectly executed action and, some interesting although not perfect narrative shifts.
I don’t know how Pires, my favorite writer in comics right now, is doing what he’s doing with having three books (The Tomorrows, The Fiction and, Mayday) releasing in tandem. My theory is that he must be tapping into some eternal and forgotten well of creativity known only to a select few.

No matter the reason however, he delivers here yet again with a quick, break neck paced issue that doesn’t leave its emotionally complex focal points in the wake.

There’s peril, gun fights, pig masks and bloody black stars all filtered through this lens of surrealism, personal identity crisis and moral ambiguity in the face of the façade that is Hollywood. That’s all without mentioning the heartfelt and, non-exploitive look at transgender issues in that façade.

Yes, it’s smart, it’s a thinking person’s acid trip but, it’s also genuine. There’s moments of sheer fun like the “Cops!” “Cops!” “Cops!” exchange that exemplify just how truly well Pires understands pace and tone as he crosses between current, flashback and future in somewhat jarring but interesting ways.

Equally impressive here is the art by Peterson and Diotto. Explosive, bloody, pulpy and poppy all at once. It’s a ride through Satanism and police precincts that keeps up with and, delivers on everything that Pires writes.  It’s Warhol covered in blood and holding a gun emerging from a techno-tinged grave.

This is a near perfect issue held back only by its erratic nature which some readers might have no problem with at all. Mayday is the comic book form of reading Nietzsche while shot-gunning beers and picking up prostitutes for sacrifice to some higher power. Don’t miss this. 

 

Our Score:

9/10

A Look Inside