While browsing through the section I see a familiar image - a set of blood-red lips on a blindfolded, bare-chested, choker wearing bombshell with a pair of black-gloved arms seductively cupping her breats. Even though you can't see her eyes, there's a look of being in on a joke that the viewer has yet to be told. Alluring, yet dangerous. Across the bottom of the cover in bold but simple type is the equally eye-catching title of the book in matching red, Black Kiss.This was, admittedly, the last thing I expected to find there, but what a prize. For anyone who is familiar with Howard Chaykin's body of work, BK was a sort of outrageously outrageous send-up, tribute or fuck you (I've never quite decided on which one...knowing Howard, it may be all of the above) to the whole industry (again, to which one, take your pick). A true product of the period it reflects, this story (originally published in 1988 as 12 comics from the fledgling indie company, Vortex) was Howard completely unhindered. If there was any censorship, it came from Chaykin himself, and what he crafted was a perversely fun, pulp fiction noir porno with a twist. And the beauty of the whole thing, as with anything in gross quantities, you're almost totally numbed to the sexuality of the content before you're even half-way through the story. Matt Fraction's review of the book said it perfectly when he stated:
With no fence to keep his id in check, Chaykin's sexual iconography becomes so deliberately well worn by book's end that even the naughtiest of naughty black negligees packs little more erotic punch than a janitor's uniform. The final irony of BLACK KISS is that Chaykin holds his subject matter, medium, and (one presumes) his audience in such contempt that he wont even let them enjoy the fucking in this, his dirty little fuck book. BLACK KISS is poisonous and bitter, an absurdly funny sucker punch demanding to be spat out.
To have the novelty of it stripped away like that and still have a complex and interesting noir story to follow is no mean feat. I don't think many writers/artists this side of the Atlantic would be able to pull it off with such relish.
I never did manage to complete my collection of original floppies, cheap as they tended to be, when I started picking up Chaykin's stuff in the back-issue bins, so this is a real treat to have it all right here, beautifully bound in the perfect cover for only $5.99 Canadian. The thing was so cheap, I wanted to grab another for a spare or to lend out as a reading copy to friends (although one could question how long they would remain your friends after the fact).
As an interesting side note, I hadn't seen any of Chaykin's work in black and white for some time so I was amazed at how similar this stuff looks to much of Frank Miller's output. The cover, and especially the lips, bring to mind images of Sin City when I look at them somewhat askew, and the interior linework has that rough and gritty edge to it that is kind of like Miller's Daredevil stuff. Considering how many times I've seen Miller's artwork in the last few years (much to my chagrin), I'm surprised that I never caught on to how much he's been riffing on Chaykin's stuff all this time. It makes me think that they should have made the on-again-off-again Black Kiss movie fifteen years ago when they had the chance instead of the murky and 'groundbreaking' quagmire that we got a while ago in cinemas.
Shame on you Frank.
For more on BK, check out the Wikipedia entry here.
That reminds me. I should format and post my old Chaykin interview over on Meanwhile..., too.
Anyway, I'm going to head back and watch the strangely watchable Dungeons & Dragons 2: Wrath of the Dragon God (or is that Elemental Might?). I've only got about 40 minutes left and then I can dispose of it, safe in the knowledge that I never paid a cent to watch it or its predecessor.
Later!
mike
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