They Found The Car back

In the very early hours of a freezing morning there is a phone call:

"They found the car."
"I don't get it."
"They found the car."

Latest Ignatz album from THE INNOCENTS' creator, with a stark, ominous title to suit this worrying tale perfectly. As Tom remarked, it's like a gritty Channel 4 or BBC drama: intimate but bleak, terrifying but compelling. Nothing glossy about it. I'm thinking French cinema again.

And I'm not going to say anything else about the story itself, except that there is a masterful stroke - utterly masterful - which I only half-saw coming and then a way after it was pulled. Oh, and that one of the two male protagonists has had a complete charm bypass.

As to the art, I love the strange contrast of stark, simple, even ugly, scruffy faces - hooked noses, ragged jaw lines and 4am stubble - and the loose washes of the majestic, full-page, low-horizon landscapes. The heavens are indeed celestial as diffused light attempts to break through the waterlogged skies. Even the inside back cover is an extra treat.

I'm going to do something I haven't done since Jon J. Muth's DRACULA and buy a second copy to cut up and frame those single images. Printed on gorgeous, thick creamy paper, the Ignatz line is thoroughly European in its luxury - a comicbook indulgence to be sure, but why on earth not? We're worth it.