Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Eisner nominee Flogny debuts with a striking blend of queer romance and hard-nosed crime drama. Jules Tivoli, a savvy young Italian immigrant, rises from underpaid shop flunky in 1938 Chicago to respected mob operator via his secret romance with Adam, a hunky but ruthless kingpin. After things go terribly awry with their Midwest organization, the pair hastily relocate to New York City. There, Adam’s machinations enable Jules to infiltrate a powerful East Coast mob family. “Adam had faith in me, and I had faith in us,” Jules recalls. But Jules’s friendship with charismatic fellow enforcer Eufrasio eventually leads to suspicions and deadly betrayals, putting everyone’s life at risk. Despite their love for one another, the calculating Jules and hard-hearted Adam remain largely unsympathetic antiheroes-in-lust (Jules, for example, is brisk and businesslike about inflicting damage on business owners who are tardy with their weekly protection payments). Flogny’s elegant artwork, though, goes down smooth as silk. She evokes the 1930s and ’40s in choice background details and tailored dress, while tastefully suggesting violence rather than depicting graphic bloodshed (though she never soft-pedals her characters’ dark deeds). Her figures move gracefully through the chaos. Fans of crime and romance will enjoy this lavender-hued riff on Goodfellas. (Oct.)