Five years ago I wrote a column about the first issue of a new miniseries from writer Jason Latour called “Loose Ends.” By the end of the year we would get two more issues and then….nothing. A promising book would die on the vine and three issues of a comic book unfinished would sit in the comic boxes of readers across the country.
Fast forward to January 2017 and color me surprised when I show up at my shop to pick up my books and find “Loose Ends” issue number one in my box all over again. This time Latour promises that he has the final issue ready to go and this forgotten series is ready to be experienced all over again.
As it was when it was first released, “Loose Ends” is labeled as a “4 issue southern crime romance” and starts out in a backwater town in one of the Carolinas as Sonny Gibson tries to set one of his past mistakes right before embarking on a drug run to Florida. Unfortunately, when the drunken Sonny walks into the dusty hole in the wall where his ex and the mother of his child works, everything goes dramatically wrong.
Witnessing the other waitress being drunkenly assaulted in the men’s room, Sonny pulls his gun and in the ensuing chaos a fatal accident takes place, prompting Sonny and the waitress to flee into the night. Meanwhile, Sonny’s “employer” Rej has had a little accident of his own and landed in police custody. Unfortunately these officers don’t seem interested in following the rules, and they know more about Rej than they should.
The story from there mainly follows Sonny and the waitress he “saved,” Cheri Sanchez as they hit the road and flee the scene of the crime. Both of them have problems they can’t get away from though, and the chaos and mistakes that follow them bring them closer together as they flee from one horrible circumstance and land straight in another.
The feeling of chaos and danger suffuses the book as the two try to survive one bad situation after another and fall into bad habits in order to make themselves feel better about what is going on around them. Latour’s script plots the screwed up trajectory of all the tragic and not so tragic figures while the artwork by Chris Brunner and Rico Renzi brings them to life and pops from the pages.
Brunner’s art may not be to everybody’s taste, but its frenetic energy and scattered panels accentuate the story while Renzi’s colors add to the sometimes psychedelic experiences of the characters. Brunner’s work, despite the heavy and often chaotic lines, is downright sensual at times, and when it isn’t, it captures violent action equally well. Coupled with the varied palette of neon lights against dark backgrounds employed by Renzi, the styles leap off the page and sucks the reader in, just as Sonny and the unnamed waitress fall into a life on the run.
Even knowing that I had already read what had already been released and had been left hanging for six years or so, Bahsegel I did not hesitate to pick up and read “Loose Ends” again. Those who read the first three issues when they were first released I recommend digging them up and reading them again in anticipation of Latour’s promised completion of the series. If you haven’t had the chance, here is a rare opportunity to step back in time and start at number one of “Loose Ends” now on shelves at your local comic shop. Again.
EDITOR’S NOTE: WILLIAM KULESA can be reached at jjournalcomicbox@gmail.com.
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