Miss: Better Living Through Crime - Softcover

Thirault, Philippe

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1401206360 ISBN 13: 9781401206369

Publisher: Humanoids, Inc., 2005

Synopsis

Set during the early 1900s in New York, Miss tells the tale of two unlikely partners in crime, Nola and Slim. Nola is a poor white girl who has learned to survive by hook or by crook since being expelled from an orphanage. Slim is a black pimp with an uncertain past, trying to keep one foot out of the grave. When their paths cross and their options run out, Nola and Slim forge a partnership as murderers for hire. This is their story...what it takes to survive when all you have is a gun.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Trust that the French would be the ones to create one of the richest, most riveting accounts of early 20th-century criminal life in New York City to be tackled in graphic novel form. Set in the 1920s and '30s, the story centers around an unlikely pair of murderers-for-hire: Nola, a tough-minded femme fatale whose wit has been sharpened by orphanage life and grim poverty, and the dapper Slim, a Harlem pimp on the run from old debts. The two make good partners. Nola, who is white, lines up clients among the white well-heeled, and Slim provides useful connections, know-how and strength. Their interracial pairing in the conventionally racist 1920s adds the element of surprise to their arsenal. Their victims seem able to see only one color at a time and one of the two almost always remains invisible until called upon for help. The beautifully integrated logic of this kind of fictional history is just one example of the layering of character and context that gives the book a literary depth. Although published in color in France, the highly stylized expressionistic drawings have been rendered in nuanced tones of gray for the U.S. edition; they expertly capture the story's complexities. This is not a typical noir tale of morally high-contrast black and white people, but one of overriding moral ambiguity. As with all good love stories, however, it's force of character that holds the book together. In place of morals, Slim and Nora substitute a fierce devotion to one another.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

...One of the richest, most riveting accounts of early 20th-century criminal life in New York City to be tackled in Graphic Novel form. --Calvin Reid, PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY

...You should read MISS and put it on the shelf where it belongs, next to Dashiell Hammett and Jim Thompson. And like me, you should anxiously await your chance to revisit this world. --Ed Brubaker, writer of CRIMINAL, INCOGNITO, & CAPTAIN AMERICA

About this edition

• Publisher: Humanoids, Inc.
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1401206360
• ISBN 13: 9781401206369
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192