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“Murder Mysteries”

By | June 28th, 2016
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P. Craig Russell has spent most of his career adapting stories from one medium (prose, opera) into comics. In 2002, he tackled a Neil Gaiman short story about a murder in Heaven, and it’s not simply the story that’s compelling, but also all the work that went into the presentation.

Written by Neil Gaiman (original) and P. Craig Russell (adaptation)
Illustrated by P. Craig Russell and Lovern Kindzierski

Constructing and maintaining all of heaven and earth is an immense task, which God has divided up among the various ranks and stations of angels. As with any such huge effort, there are bound to be casualties. This unique passion play sheds light on the hands behind creation, as well as one lonely man in LA who gets to hear the whole story of a most unspeakable crime: a murder in paradise!

There’s this video from Tony Zhou, the film essayist behind “Every Frame a Painting”, that proposes the reason why the Coen Brothers’ films work so well results from the rhythm established in the editing. Impersonators and copyists often fail to achieve that mood and tone from a Coen Brothers picture because they can never quite match that beat. While I’m resultant to assign film terms to comics, I think this rhythmic idea in cutting, transitioning, and staging does translate mediums. It also helps explain one of the many reasons P. Craig Russell’s work remains so effective. It’s not simply the strong material he decides to cull from. It’s not just his striking imagery with their epic scale and classical staging. So much of what leaves me in awe of Russell’s output comes from that beat he establishes to control the tone, pace, and structure of his narratives.

This is none more evident than in “Murder Mysteries.” Adapted from a Neil Gaiman story (and script, since it had also been previously adapted into a radio drama, elements of which Russell uses for his piece) in 2002, the story balances two narratives. The first involves a young man missing gaps in his memory, stranded and aimless in Los Angeles. The other story is told by a homeless man in exchange for a cigarette and involves a murder among the angels way back when the universe was being crafted. Naturally, as the story unfolds, the two narratives start intersecting and intertwining, twisting themselves into “Murder Mysteries”‘s flooring conclusion.

No one breaks a page or stages a scene like Russell, and each every piece he’s contributed only goes to cement him further as a master of the medium. In “Murder Mysteries”, Russell breaks down the page into a dozen or so panels as he sees fit. “If it has 40 panels, then I’ll do 75,” he admits in the afterword to the second edition of the graphic novel. And while there’s a ton of images, Russell’s pages never come off overwhelming or overdone. He’s conducting us, leading us from the top of the page to the bottom with a sensual flourish.

In order to show you what I’m talking about, I’ve brought these couple pages — a smaller part of the larger piece. The first is from about the middle of the book, when Raguel interrogates Lucifer about the death of another angel. For some context: this story does take place before Lucifer’s rebellion and Fall from Heaven.

Murder Mysteries pg. 30

Just look at that staging! Russell starts off with an arrogant and cocky Lucifer. It’s established he’s basically number two in all of Heaven, and he think he’s safe from any line of inquiry, thinks his status gives him special privileges. Even though Raguel stands over him, Lucifer still has control of the scene. At the same time, he’s always questioning, always wondering. Russell makes sure to keep Raguel in frame every time someone asks a question, as if all these questions — not necessarily Raguel’s active questions — are constantly on Lucifer’s mind, weighing him down. In fact, Russell positions Lucifer’s questions right over his head for the page. We learn that Lucifer has been wandering the dark part of the world, and you can see that continually creeping up on him. There’s black shadows lingering within every panel.

Continued below

And then there’s an abrupt shift in tone. Raguel flashes some color, the only warm and furious colors we see — which, incidentally, lands almost at the center of the page. Suddenly, the tables have turned and Raguel controls the scene. Lucifer, formerly so cocksure and confident, cowers shrinks from, and tries to escape this line of questioning. He’s been humbled, as if a secret’s about to be uncovered.

Russell delivers this in 12 panels, moving and shaping them as the characters speak. Lingering on Lucifer at the lake with a larger panel lets the flash of Raguel’s frustration more shocking and impactful. It’s in that flash of red — lustful, powerful — that we get a hint at where this story’s going. In that flash and sudden shift in control and tone that epitomizes the themes and thesis of the story.

All right, now Russell rearranges his setup a bit for a more sensual variation on his theme. Saraquel has just confessed his love for Carabel, the murdered angel and reminisces about how and why they had gotten together.

Murder Mysteries pg. 43

Russell allows the panels to go big, letting you linger on the images and get more easily swept up in the sensuality. He references baroque paintings for the compositions and it’s dramatic and powerful. And these hang over Saraquel in the last tier, talking about how he would do anything for Carabel, so lonely now and sad. For much of the book, the other characters have been remarking on how Carabel threw himself into his work, and I think you get a sense that Saraquel wonders if he was ever more than work for the other angel.

Most of the narration is included directly in the panels, without caption boxes or any other indicator to separate them from the artwork. Although Russell doesn’t provide the final letters himself, he generally makes a rough copy of the text placement and draws the balloons directly on the page before handing the work off to his letterer, in this case Galen Showman. This close arrangement allows this section of the process orchestrate better with the full performance. There’s only one line in the gutters — “His welfare mattered more to me than my own” — separated because it’s a selfish thought in a congenial moment.

The story ends with Russell positioning the angels so their wings suggest a heart. And in the moment, not only do you feel the same sensation as the characters, but also this pang of sadness that their passion was so temporary and fleeting.

These are just a few moments throughout the book, which is something like 60 pages. Russell expertly conducts the whole piece, leading us up and down in and out through the narrative. You don’t want to step away from the story until it’s all finished. Oddly enough, that meticulous precision also plays up the story’s Major Themes: the balance of free will and orchestration. Of choice and direction. Of action and consequence.

Of course, this is only a small part of what we could talk about with “Murder Mysteries.” I’ve touched a little bit on the themes, of character motive and narrative structure, of memory and ignorance. Same with how efficiently the two narrative threads blend together. Or just how enjoyable and compelling the central mystery is. It’s a fantastic little comic and a staggering achievement in the oeuvre of a cartoonist who produces continual achievements.


//TAGS | Dark Horse at 30 | evergreen

Matthew Garcia

Matt hails from Colorado. He can be found on Twitter as @MattSG.

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