Comics Bulletin logo
Search
  • Columns
    Random
    • Annually—A Once A Year Treat!

      Jason Sacks
      September 13, 2010
      Busted Knuckles, Columns
    Recent
    • Revisiting the Witchblade/Fathom/Tomb Raider Crossover

      Daniel Gehen
      February 8, 2021
    • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – The Wanderer’s Road Part 2

      Daniel Gehen
      December 4, 2020
    • The Full Run: Usagi Yojimbo – The Wanderer’s Road Part 1

      Daniel Gehen
      October 30, 2020
    • What Looks Good
    • Comics Bulletin Soapbox
    • The Full Run
    • Leading Question
    • Top 10
    • The Long-Form
    • Jumping On
    • Comics in Color
    • Slouches Towards Comics
  • Big Two
    Random
    • 4.5

      Review: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #37 Offers Slice-of-Life Enjoyment

      Jason Sacks
      January 9, 2020
      Big Two, Big Two Reviews, Marvel Comics, Reviews
    Recent
    • 3.0

      Review: X-MEN LEGENDS #1 Delivers A Dose of Nostalgia

      Daniel Gehen
      February 22, 2021
    • 4.5

      DCeased: Dead Planet #7 Presents a Hopeful Future (Review)

      Daniel Gehen
      January 22, 2021
    • Retro Review: Detective Comics #826 Remains a Holiday Classic

      Daniel Gehen
      December 3, 2020
    • DC Comics
    • Big Two Reviews
    • Marvel Comics
  • Indie
    Random
    • Revisiting Matt Kindt’s Covert SHADOWMAN Run

      Jason Sacks
      May 15, 2020
      Comics Bulletin Soapbox, Indie, Valiant
    Recent
    • 4.0

      Review: Beast Wars #2 another chance to change the past

      Stephen Cook
      March 3, 2021
    • 4.5

      Review: THE LAST RONIN #2 Hurts So Good

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • TIME BEFORE TIME—A HIGH STAKES TIME TRAVEL SCIENCE FICTION SERIES SET TO LAUNCH THIS MAY

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • Reviews
    • Archie Comics
    • Boom! Studios
    • Dark Horse
    • IDW
    • Image
    • Oni Press
    • Valiant
  • Reviews
    Random
    • 5.0

      Webcomics Profile: Iris Yan

      Jason Sacks
      December 24, 2014
      Digital Ash, Digital Comics, Reviews
    Recent
    • Singles Going Steady – Vowels, Who Needs Them?

      Daniel Gehen
      March 8, 2021
    • 3.0

      Review: X-MEN LEGENDS #1 Delivers A Dose of Nostalgia

      Daniel Gehen
      February 22, 2021
    • 4.5

      Review: THE LAST RONIN #2 Hurts So Good

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • Singles Going Steady
    • Slugfest
    • Manga
      • Reviews
    • Small Press
      • Reviews
      • ICYMI
      • Tiny Pages Made of Ashes
  • Interviews
    Random
    • Interview: Klaus Janson Grows and Improves

      Jason Sacks
      September 5, 2014
      Interviews
    Recent
    • Interview: Jon Davis-Hunt Talks SHADOWMAN

      Daniel Gehen
      June 8, 2020
    • Interview: Becky Cloonan talks DARK AGNES and Her Personal Influences

      Mike Nickells
      March 4, 2020
    • Simon Roy

      Interview: Simon Roy on His Inspirations and Collaborations on PROTECTOR

      Mike Nickells
      January 29, 2020
    • Audio Interview
    • Video Interview
  • Classic Comics
    Random
    • Classic Interview: Michael Netzer Pt. III - Coast to Coast with 10 Bucks

      Jason Sacks
      January 8, 2016
      Classic Interviews
    Recent
    • VISITOR is the Quintessential “SPIRIT” Story

      Daniel Gehen
      March 26, 2021
    • Countdown to the King: Marvel’s Godzilla

      Daniel Gehen
      May 29, 2019
    • Honoring A Legend: Fantagraphics To Resurrect Tomi Ungerer Classics

      Daniel Gehen
      February 15, 2019
    • Classic Comics Cavalcade
    • Classic Interviews
  • News
    Random
    • Kickstarter Spotlight: Banzai Girl Graphic Novel Volume 1 by Jinky Coronado

      Jason Sacks
      August 3, 2014
      Kickstarter Spotlight, News
    Recent
    • TIME BEFORE TIME—A HIGH STAKES TIME TRAVEL SCIENCE FICTION SERIES SET TO LAUNCH THIS MAY

      Daniel Gehen
      February 19, 2021
    • Image Comics and TMP Announces SPAWN’S UNIVERSE

      Daniel Gehen
      February 18, 2021
    • SAVAGE DRAGON IS A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH THIS MAY

      Daniel Gehen
      February 17, 2021
    • Press Release
    • Kickstarter Spotlight
  • Books
    Random
    • Review: 'Apollo' is Great with Facts, Less Great with Mythologizing

      Jason Sacks
      June 25, 2018
      Books, Reviews
    Recent
    • Collecting Profile: Disney Frozen

      CB Staff
      November 22, 2019
    • Collecting Profile: NFL Superpro

      CB Staff
      August 31, 2019
    • “THE BEST OF WITZEND” is a Wonderful Celebration of Artistic Freedom

      Daniel Gehen
      September 15, 2018
    • Review: ‘Machete Squad’ is a Disappointing Afghan Memoir

      Jason Sacks
      July 31, 2018
    • Review: ‘Out of Nothing’ is the Antidote to Our Sick Times

      Jason Sacks
      July 23, 2018
    • Review: ‘Bizarre Romance’ Shows Rough Edges in the Early Days of a New Marriage

      Jason Sacks
      July 10, 2018
What's New
  • Collecting Profile: Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Collecting Profile: 1990 Marvel Universe Trading Cards
  • Collecting Profile: Red Sonja
  • Collecting Profile: Dr. Doom
  • VISITOR is the Quintessential “SPIRIT” Story
  • Collecting Profile: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
  • RSS Feed
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Contact Us
  • Write for us!
  • Visit Video Game Break!
Home
Reviews

Dead, She Said #1

Jason Sacks
May 26, 2008
Reviews

Joe Coogan is a private eye with a bit of a problem. See, one morning he wakes up hurting, feeling the pain of a rough night he had the evening before. But it’s not just a hangover Joe feels. Something really nasty happened to Joe that night, something that has literally resulted in a near-death experience. Near death? Ha! More than that. Rigor mortis has already begun settling in. Joe is dead, and determined to find the person who killed him.

That’s the plot of the new Steve Niles / Bernie Wrightson book Dead, She Said. Niles and Wrightson present an interesting story, complete with a lot of obvious questions. Such as, how in the world is Coogan able to walk around in the real world despite his deadly injuries? What happened to him the night before? Who killed the man who would be the prime suspect in Coogan’s murder? And who in the world would do something like that to the detective?

Niles’s story is interesting and darkly amusing. Spooky as it is, Coogan’s situation is also pretty funny. How does a man deal with finding out he’s dead? With a mix of innocent befuddlement and the intense need to find his murderer, that’s how.

It’s a nice twist on a classic film noir setup. Readers basically already know the end of this bizarre story; now we want to fill in the middle pieces and figure out just what in the world happened to Coogan.

Bernie Wrightson’s art is perfect for this story. The legendary cartoonist delivers the level of work that readers have come to expect from him. His characters have a certain amount of depth of inner life that few other cartoonists present. Coogan looks like a man whose life has been one challenge after another. He’s a man who seems to have been fighting a never-ending battle just to keep his head above water. Wrightson draws Coogan wonderfully as a man always on the lookout for his enemies, a man ready on the defensive.

Wrightson’s also great, of course, with the blood and guts scenes. We see Coogan’s guts hanging out in all their glory while he’s lying in his blood-covered bed, and a later scene shows an even gorier event. Wrightson clearly loves this stuff after all these years based on the loving attention he pays to the gruesome details.

But Wrightson’s at his best as he draws the subplot of the book, in which we see a family meet a nasty end while on a camping trip. Wrightson’s depiction of the kids and parents are heartbreaking. We know these people are going to meet a dark and horrible end – this is a horror comic after all – but Wrightson heightens the horror by making them seem real. He draws these people to seem so real and so emotionally connected to their fellow family members that it makes the eventual horror of their situation even more horrific.

I can’t wait to see where this series goes. Niles and Wrightson are doing solidly wonderful work in this book.

Bernie WrightsonIDW PublishingJason SacksSteve Niles

Share On:
Tweet
Sunday Slugfest: Star Trek–Assignment: Earth #1
Green Day: Bad Kitty: Reinventing the Black Cat

About The Author

Jason Sacks
Jason Sacks
Publisher Emeritus
Google+

Jason Sacks has been obsessed with pop culture for longer than he'd like to remember. Jason has been writing for Comics Bulletin for nearly a decade, producing over a million words of content about comics, films and other media. He has also been published in a number of publications, including the late, lamented Amazing Heroes, The Flash Companion and The American Comic Book Chronicles: the 1970s,1980s and 1990s. Find him on Facebook and Twitter. Jason is the Publisher Emeritus of Comics Bulletin.

Related Posts

  • 4.0

    Review: Beast Wars #2 another chance to change the past

    Stephen Cook
    March 3, 2021
  • 2.0

    Review: Transformers/Back to the Future #1 exists to sell toys

    Stephen Cook
    October 12, 2020

Latest Reviews

  • Singles Going Steady – Vowels, Who Needs Them?

    Daniel Gehen
    March 8, 2021
  • 3.0

    Review: X-MEN LEGENDS #1 Delivers A Dose of Nostalgia

    Daniel Gehen
    February 22, 2021
  • 4.5

    Review: THE LAST RONIN #2 Hurts So Good

    Daniel Gehen
    February 19, 2021
  • 2.3

    Review: SAVAGE #1 Needs Taming

    Daniel Gehen
    February 16, 2021
  • 4.3

    Review: RADIANT BLACK #1 Shines Brightly

    Daniel Gehen
    February 12, 2021
  • 2.7

    Review: DEEP BEYOND #1 Can’t Commit to a Premise

    Daniel Gehen
    February 4, 2021
  • 2.0

    VINDICATION Falls Short of its Lofty Goals (Review)

    Daniel Gehen
    February 1, 2021
  • 4.5

    DCeased: Dead Planet #7 Presents a Hopeful Future (Review)

    Daniel Gehen
    January 22, 2021
  • Review: The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist

    Daniel Gehen
    December 14, 2020
  • Retro Review: Detective Comics #826 Remains a Holiday Classic

    Daniel Gehen
    December 3, 2020
RSSTwitterFacebookgoogleplusinstagramtumblr

Comics Bulletin is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for website owners to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, audible.com, and any other website that may be affiliated with Amazon Service LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate, Comics Bulletin earns from qualifying purchases.

All content on this site (c) 2018 The Respective Copyright Holders