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Fade Out, The #6

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    Ian Jane
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  • Fade Out, The #6



    Fade Out, The #6
    Released by: Image Comics
    Released on: May 20th, 2015.
    Written by: Ed Brubaker
    Illustrated by: Sean Phillips
    Purchase From Amazon

    Issue 35 of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' The Fade Out saw Gil in hot water with Brodsky - another case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He saw some bad stuff, not the least of which was Kamp roughing up a whore. Meanwhile Charlie has been busy with rewrites but his flashbacks filled us in on a few things, things involving Dottie, Maya and Val and yes, the elder Mr. Kamp and his very specific hobbies. But Gil, in that last issue, he'd decided he'd had enough and that he was going to 'bring all these bastards down. No matter what.'

    Which sets up perfectly this current sixth issue. Charlie's getting dressed up an Gil is taking the piss out of him for playing the game. They're not getting along because, in issue #5, Gil wasn't around when Charlie called. The one thing Charlie had asked him to do, Gil was unable to follow through on because he instead went to the bar where it got all nitty-gritty with Brodsky. Leading man Tyler Graves has crashed his car and now the movie is wrapping early. Studio orders.

    Charlie winds up escorting Maya to the premiere because Tyler is in the hospital. This is arranged through Dottie and Charlie wants to spill it to her but he can't bring himself to do it. He gets in the limo with Maya and heads out on the town. But Gil? He sees Charlie as part of the problem as he heads to a meeting for blacklisted writers organized by Dashiell Hammett. Gil wants advice for that 'murder story' he's working on. Charlie's night with Maya isn't what he wants it to be. She's the center of attention and he's in the way. He heads into the back room to meet up with Jack Jones, the trumpet player in the band providing the entertainment. He talks to him about what he and Val saw out in the woods, with old man Kamp and his 'hobby.' It ties back to his past, her past and Jack was a part of that, but it gets to the point where Jack wants to let it lie. He's not talking. He splits, finds Maya… and they kiss. Then fuck. Maybe they make love, but they definitely fuck. Booze being the great equalizer here.

    That advice Gil gets? It's to stay away. But Gil's not going to do that. Booze being the great motivator here. Rich men trade in the currency of secrets because, as he's told, when you've got all the money in the world that's the only thing left to bargain with. Maybe Gil's got more money than he first realized.

    With each installment of The Fade Out, the plot thickens and at this point, it's getting so thick you'll need a chainsaw to cut through it - but that's a good thing, if not a great thing. This series does such a fine job with its various twists and turns that each new issues makes you want to go back and revisit some of the older ones, just to really let it all sink in. To notice some of those details you might have missed the first time around. Brubaker's script keeps things interesting, adding with these last two issues a few interesting elements. Not only do we get the hold 'old man Kamp' subplot turning into something seemingly much more important than simply the presence of an unhinged dirty old man, but we get Gil's political leanings coming into play in a much larger way. Maybe his blacklisting wasn't such a coincidence in the first place. And throughout all of this there's Charlie. Conflicted, falling for Maya and hear getting a piece of that but still drawn to Dottie. Determined to figure out what happened to the murdered woman that set all of this off but not wanting to get too far in over his head or even risk losing his job. A man's got to eat. Lots of food for thought here, and of course Phillips' art is just as moody and noirish and delicisously atmospheric this go around as it has been in the past five issues. Are Brubaker and Phillips the 'team supreme' of comic noir? Damn straight they are, and The Fade continues to see them firing on all cylinders. You can't go into this blind, you need to be caught up for this to make much sense, but do yourself a favor if you haven't already. Get caught up, re-read the first five issues, and then give this latest issue its day in court. You'll be glad you did.

    Oh, and as always, do take the time to read the text pieces in the back pages of this issue. There's some very cool info here about some of the people who appear in this issue and why they appear in the first place. Context is always a good thing and the research and attention to detail that goes into this series is a big part of what makes it such a consistently good read.
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