{"id":26324,"date":"2022-08-12T08:00:14","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T08:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=26324"},"modified":"2022-08-11T17:02:21","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T17:02:21","slug":"mesmo-delivery-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2022\/08\/12\/mesmo-delivery-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Mesmo Delivery"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Rafael<\/strong> Gramp\u00e1<\/strong>, with Marcus Penna<\/strong>, translated by J\u00falio Mairena<\/strong> (Dark Horse Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-61655-457-6 (HB) 978-1-59582-465-3 (TPB)<\/p>\n

In an industry and art form that has become so very dependent on vast interlocking storylines, an encyclopaedic knowledge of a million other yarns and the tacit consent to sign up for another million episodes before reaching any kind of narrative payoff, the occasional short, sharp, intensely stand-alone tale is as welcome and vital as a cold beer in the noon-day desert.<\/p>\n

Just such a salutary singleton was Mesmo Delivery<\/strong>, first solo English-language release of singularly gifted writer\/artist Rafael Gramp\u00e1, who originally devised the macabre and gritty thriller in his native Brazil back in 2008.<\/p>\n

Picked up and translated by Dark Horse two years later, this stark and spookily effective grindhouse\/trucker movie amalgam delivers dark chills, gritty black humour and eerie, compulsive mystery in equal, intoxicating amounts\u2026 and it all starts, unfolds and ends right here. No muss, no fuss, no busload of tie-ins.<\/p>\n

Aging, raddled Elvis impersonator Sangrecco<\/em> is an extremely odd deliveryman, working for a rather unique haulage business. For a start, he can\u2019t actually drive, which is why hulking, gentle, cash-starved ex-boxer Rufo<\/em> has been temporarily hired by the boss to operate the truck on a run through some very bleak bad country.<\/p>\n

Rufo doesn\u2019t ask questions. He just pilots that huge container rig with its mysterious and unspecified cargo – that he’s not allowed to see – to God knows where, listening to the obnoxious, pompous Sangrecco mouth off about his many, unappreciated talents.<\/p>\n

Things take a bad turn when they break at the isolated Standart Truck Stop<\/em>. The Elvis freak is too lazy to even fetch his own beer, and when Rufo takes care of business and grudgingly tries to pay, a sleazy pack of locals trick him into an impromptu street fight on a cash-bet.<\/p>\n

The ploy is a set-up and when Rufo proves unexpectedly tough, the prize-fight gets too serious and results in a fatality – and possibly more\u2026<\/p>\n

Street-fighting boss tough Forceps<\/em> then convinces his \u201ctownie\u201d cronies and the other onlookers that they need to get rid of all<\/em><\/strong> the witnesses. And that\u2019s when old Sangrecco reveals what his speciality is\u2026<\/p>\n

Stark, brutal, rollercoaster-paced and rendered with savage, exhilarating bravura, this thundering, down-and-dirty fable grips like a vice and hits like a juggernaut, providing the kind of excitement every jaded thriller fan dreams of.<\/p>\n

Also included in this brief, slim, scary and mesmerising tome is an effusive Introduction<\/em> from Brian Azzarello, pin-ups by Mike Allred, Eduardo Risso, Craig Thompson and F\u00e1bio Moon plus stunning 16-page sketch, design and commentary section \u2018Making of Mesmo Delivery\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Since Mesmo Delivery<\/strong>, Gramp\u00e1 has gone on to shine with his deliciously eccentric Furry Water<\/strong> as well as on such established titles like Hellblazer<\/strong>, American Vampire<\/strong>, Strange Tales<\/strong> and Uncanny X-Force <\/strong>amongst others, but this superbly visceral, raw storm of sheer visual dexterity and narrative guile is an ideal example of pared back, stripped down, pure comics creativity that no mature lover of the medium can afford to miss.
\nMesmo Delivery \u2122 & \u00a9 2008, 2010, 2014 Rafael Gramp\u00e1. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rafael Gramp\u00e1, with Marcus Penna, translated by J\u00falio Mairena (Dark Horse Books) ISBN: 978-1-61655-457-6 (HB) 978-1-59582-465-3 (TPB) In an industry and art form that has become so very dependent on vast interlocking storylines, an encyclopaedic knowledge of a million other yarns and the tacit consent to sign up for another million episodes before reaching … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Mesmo Delivery”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[75,66,125,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-comics","category-horror-stories","category-humour","category-mature-reading"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-6QA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26326,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26324\/revisions\/26326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}