By Rick Geary (NBM/Comics Lit)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-555-9
Master cartoonist and dedicated criminologist Rick Geary returns with another compelling and witheringly comprehensive episode of his latest series of crime reconstructions in this superb black and white hardcover. Combining his unique talents for laconic prose, incisive observation and detailed extrapolation with his proven fascination for the darker, human-scaled aspects of history, Rick Geary’s forensic eye rolls back the last hundred years or so as his latest ‘Treasury of XXth Century Murder’ re-examines the landmark homicide that shaped early Hollywood and led in large part to the swingeing self-censorship of the Hays Commission Production Code.
Some things never change. In 1911 the first moving picture studio set up in the sunny orange groves of rural Hollywood. Within a decade the place was a burgeoning boom town of production companies and back lots, and movie stars were earning vast sums of money. The area had become a hotbed of vice, excess and debauchery.
William Desmond Taylor was a man with a clouded past and a tremendous reputation as a movie director – and ladies man. On the morning of Thursday, February 2nd, 1922 he was found dead in his palatial home by his valet, opening one of the most celebrated (and still unsolved) murder cases in Los Angeles’ extremely chequered history. Uncovering a background of drugs, sex, booze, celebrity and even false identity, this true crime became a template for every tale of “Hollywood Babylon” and more than even the Fatty Arbuckle sex scandal drove the movers and shakers of Tinsel-town to clean up their act – or at least to keep it out of the public gaze.
Geary is meticulous and logical as he lays out the crime, examines the suspects – major and minor – and dutifully pursues all the players to their recorded ends. Especially useful are snippets of historical minutiae and the beautifully rendered maps and plans which bring all the varied locations to life (the author should seriously consider turning this book into a Cluedo special edition) and gives us all a fair crack at solving this glamorous Cold Case.
Geary presents the facts and the theories with chilling graphic precision, captivating clarity and devastating dry wit, and this volume is every bit as compelling as his Victorian forays: a brilliant example of how graphic narrative can be so much more than simple fantasy entertainment. He is a unique talent in the comic industry not simply because of his manner of drawing but because of his method of telling tales. This merrily morbid series of murder masterpieces should be mandatory reading for every mystery addict and crime collector.
© 2009 Rick Geary. All Rights Reserved.