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Writer: Ryan K. Lindsay
Artist: Sami Kivela
Colorist: Lauren Affe
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Genre storytelling can be a challenge. There’s that balance of providing something new but at the same time living up to the expectations of the given genre. Imagine doing a sports story without on montage. Why even bother doing it? Noir is especially tricky because there are so many elements that have become the norm. So how did you live within that world but not just regurgitate what came before? Well with Deer Editor #1 Ryan K. Lindsay, Sami Kivela, Lauren Affe, and Jim Campbell are putting their twist on the classic crime caper.
What is that twist? Well, as the cover and name indicate it comes in the form of the protagonist. His name is Bucky, he is a journalist, and also he is an anthropomorphized deer. No this is not the case of a mad scientist or The High Evoluiontaty having lowered expectations in their creators. Just the way the world is, and unlike something like Blacksad Bucky is the only creature of this society so far. Everyone else is just a normal human–as normal as this story will let them be.
Surpsigingly changing the main character of a noir story to a deer does not alter that much. As often is the case it begins with a dead body that has more questions than answers. Being the editor of a crime newspaper makes Bucky the one trying to find answers to those many questions. Is this a John Doe who was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time, or is there a reason he needed to be taken out? Bucky quickly discovers his answer and finds himself on the wrong side of some of the city’s most powerful people.
As a major noir fan, this gives me everything I want with the genre. Starting with crisp narration that made me completely forget I was looking at a deer rather than an actual man. That narration is key to keeping the plot moving to each major beat without ever becoming overly convoluted. Noir can often get lost within itself and that does not come close to happening here. Plus it has that moody atmosphere and it does it the hard way. It’s not just reliant on shadows and overcast sky it gets there. We get a grander scale of this entire world to see Bucky is fighting a losing battle.
Major credit for that should go to the colorist Lauren Affe. Instead of just going with classic black and white Affe uses shades of blue. It is a bit of a softer color, but when you get those dark shadows they hit even harder. Bucky’s silhouette becomes an iconic image well before this issue comes to an end.
Artist Sami Kivela is a big part of that equation as well and has a knack for cinematic storytelling. He moves the camera so well shifting from a long panel close-up to an establishing shot to provide the complete picture of a given scene. Plus he made a deer have more stoic human emotion than I thought was possible. That is not an easy thing to do.
So the question becomes why make the main character a deer if you are not going to change that much about the story? To be fair there are small moments like Bucky having a great sense of smell and being able to use his antlers to ward off an attacker to show they did not forget the premise of this concept. Part of me wonders if it was simply for the thrill. To have to tell a crime story so well that even making the main character a deer would not hinder someone from taking the story seriously. As a fan of the genre, I got what I came for. This first issue has a lot of story to the point where I was beginning to think it was going to be a one-shot and end in the final pages. Luckily we have some more issues incoming. I do hope it builds upon its concept a bit more in upcoming issues, because if you are not a fan of the genre there may not be enough here. If you are like me though this was a treat from beginning to end.
Score: 4/5
