Kane: Greetings from New Eden

Kane: Greetings from New Eden 

By Paul Grist (Dancing Elephant Press)
ISBN: 1-58240-340-6

The first volume of Paul Grist’s quirky cop drama re-introduces the visually compelling and taciturn detective back into the hurly-burly of the New Eden police force, after an absence caused by a scandal. Kane and his partner Dennis Harvey were a perfect team. Right up until the moment Kane tried to arrest Dennis for taking bribes. Their friendship pretty much ended when Kane shot him.

Now Kane’s back and he’s just as effective but a damned sight less popular with his fellow officers.

From these derivative scraps of cop-show folk-lore Grist weaves a spellbinding little masterpiece of unparalleled graphic ingenuity. It sounds like Hill Street Blues. It feels like The New Centurions or The Choirboys. It is in fact a unique voice and major comics stylist simply telling stories in a subtle and irresistible way with sly wit and jovial cynicism, not to mention with an utterly British dash of whimsy that just takes the breath away.

I really don’t want to say anything else about the plot. I want you to get the book and the ones that came after it and discover the magic for yourselves, so you’ll just have to content yourselves with ploughing through some more of my effervescent hyperbole. Or jump to the next review if you want. Or get weaving and get Kane.

Still here? Okay, then.

The stark yet inviting black and white design, refined and honed and pared down to a minimalist approachability has an inescapable feeling of Europe about it. If ever anyone was to create a new Tin Tin adventure, Grist would be the ideal choice to draw it. Not because he draws like Hergé, but because he knows his craft as well as Hergé did.

I love this stuff, and if you buy it, so will you. Collect ’em all, fanboy!

©1993, 2004 Paul Grist. All Rights Reserved.