Explore Lou Rossi’s world in the neon-drenched streets of Miami in this new crime noir from Rich Tommaso. Read on for our review, which contains minor spoilers
Written and Illustrated by Rich Tommaso
RICH TOMMASO is taking a short hiatus on SPY SEAL and releasing a new crime series in the meantime, one set in the late 1980s of Miami that follows a young Generation Xer who plays amateur detective in order to find a missing lady he’s recently fallen hard for.
Lou Rossi is a typical noir protagonist. Flawed, self-destructive, past his prime, and living a lonely life. The difference between Lou and Sam Spade is Lou is a not-so-successful cartoonist instead of a private detective and instead of the mysterious femme fatale walking into his shadowy office one a rainy night, they meet on a quiet Friday, in the laundromat.
Rich Tommaso’s work always manages to blend comedy and drama in a way that makes everything feel that much more realistic and grounded. Similarly, the unbelievable sits side by side with the mundane, making everything feel relatable, even when things are a little south of normal.
Tommaso’s cartooning style contributes to this swirling of juxtaposed sentiments. His simple, expressive style feels very slice-of-life like we’re seeing this happen outside our window. Lou’s first-person narration (seeped in noir tropes) is presented in yellow lined caption boxes as though we’re reading his rough journal on a legal pad over his shoulder. We’re also introduced to the crime elements of the story slowly, and in fact it’s not until the final scene of the issue that we even get a hint of the setup for the story we’re being led towards.
That’s not to say that “Dry County” #1 doesn’t lay the breadcrumbs, as there’s a clear throughline of noir that runs from the first page to the last. Lou, the aforementioned hapless hero, is drawn into a dangerous world far removed from his own, by a gorgeous woman no less. Lou’s attention to detail, both in his narration and his actions, lend themselves towards a good detective story, and it makes you sit up and pay attention yourself, as though you’re already on the lookout for clues.
The coloring in “Dry County” is superb, and instantly evocative of Miami. There’s a certain shade of pink that permeates through the book: it’s used as shading on the cover, it adorns chairs and clothes and buildings and curtains, and there’s a particular scene where a sunset is pink clouds on a baby blue background. This particular palette choice lends a certain mood to the book, one of an unnatural yet inviting world, a dreamlike existence offset by the realistic tones of Lou and his apartment. It’s also a very retro wave color palette, invoking a certain feeling of nostalgia and of a certain period in time that “Dry County” seems to attach itself to.
The opening pages of “Dry County” #1 establish Lou as a fish out of water, as well as setting the artistic tone of the series. In a large, almost full page panel, we see Lou alone, surrounded by dancing bodies. The writhing arms, legs, and heads are almost indistinguishable as people, and Lou’s dialogue box tells us that he’s in a ‘dance club.’ Tommaso uses various people to create the feeling of movement, each person’s hair being flung in a different direction as they dance. The page is drenched in a flat blue, with random streaks of white casting strange shadows on the scene. This is a familiar chaos, one of a crowded dance floor, the strobe lighting making frantic movement feel like a series of photographs. Lou is dead center, his body straight and unmoving. This is a still image, and yet Tommaso elegantly tricks our eyes into seeing a whole page of movement except for a single, lonely man.
That one page almost summarises the journey Lou is embarking on. A lone figure surrounded by chaos, in a world he doesn’t belong, with us as readers trying to figure out what’s going on around him. From the nightclub to the laundromat and a chance encounter with the enigmatic Janet Laughton, around which the rest of the story unfolds. Tommaso’s deliberate pacing and thoughtful narrative through Lou makes “Dry County” #1 feel more like an indie romance than a crime story, and in a way that’s what it is, at least for this first issue.
“Dry County” #1 is a slow burn tale, one that draws you in with all-too-ordinary foundations upon which an extraordinary story can be built. By firmly establishing the mundanity of Lou’s life, the arrival of Janet stands out more prominently, as, by extension, do the events that follow her. This is an excellent opening to a larger story, one that’s soaked in the noir tropes inherent in the genre, from the femme fatale in a bright red dress to the gaggle of unsavory secondary characters, all with their own story to tell. By the end of this issue you, like Lou, are drawn into a world too deeply to back out.
Final Verdict: 8.4 – A richly compelling start, “Dry County” is soaked in noir tropes and teases the story to come.
