Created by Adam Sternbergh "It's hokey but it's true. You learn things hauling trash." -- Shovel Ready In his relatively well-received debut, Shovel Ready (2014), Adam Sternbergh, culture editor for the New York Times Magazine and former editor-at-large at New York Magazine, paints a suitably bleak but well-rendered picture of a post-apocalyptic Big Apple that's … Continue reading Spademan
Tag: Assassin
Joe (You Were Never Really Here)
Created by Jonathan Ames A dark and disturbing character study dressed up in action flick clothes, You Were Never Really Here (2017) stars Joaquin Phoenix as JOE, an unstable former FBI agent and Marine, plagued by thoughts of suicide. He hunts down missing girls in the New York City area, but he's not some slick, handsome private eye … Continue reading Joe (You Were Never Really Here)
Jackie Fuentes (Killer Groove)
Created by Ollie Masters and Eoin Marron It's the early Seventies, and the Swingin' Sixties are definitely over, but that doesn't mean musicians aren't still pouring into Los Angeles, desperate to stoke the star-making machinery of the popular song, in the 2019 five-part comic mini-series Killer Groove. Struggling singer-songwriter Jonny is one of them. He's a … Continue reading Jackie Fuentes (Killer Groove)
Quarry
Created by Max Allan Collins (1948--) The first series I know of to be based on the exploits of a hired killer, predating both Loren Estleman's Peter Macklin and Lawrence Block's Keller, was the QUARRY series penned by baby boomer renaissance man Max Allan Collins, creator of Nate Heller, Ms. Tree, Mallory, Nolan, et al. … Continue reading Quarry
Michael Finnegan & Katalin Fiero (St. Nicholas Salvage & Wrecking)
Created by Dana Haynes Former New York City cop and U.S. Marshall MICHAEL PATRICK FINNIGAN, tired of being told what to do, and former Spanish soldier and sometime assassin, KATALIN FIERO, who never had much use for rules anyway, team up to form St. Nicholas Salvage & Wrecking, an off-the-books bounty hunting operation, in a promising … Continue reading Michael Finnegan & Katalin Fiero (St. Nicholas Salvage & Wrecking)
John Rain
Created by Barry Eisler Poor JOHN RAIN. He seems to be the ultimate divided man. Child of an American mother and a Japanese father, he's a konketsu (a "half-breed"), a man of honour who kills for a living, a soldier/assassin, samurai/ronin. He's hard and disciplined, but also haunted and paranoid as hell. He learned his … Continue reading John Rain