cover image Bury the Lede

Bury the Lede

Gaby Dunn and Claire Roe. BOOM! Studios, $19.99 trade paper (128p) ISBN 978-1-68415-427-2

A modern take on crime noir, this elaborate thriller stars the ambitious, bisexual, and occasionally devious Madison Jackson, a news intern at the Boston Lede. While the gig starts out as making coffee or grabbing quotes for senior staff, Madison is both shaken and elated when she happens to stumble in as one of the first reporters on the scene of a crime. Dahlia Kennedy, the wife of a wealthy man, is being arrested for the murder of her husband and won’t reveal the location of her missing son. Every newspaper in the city is clamoring to get the scoop from the stoic Dahlia; inexplicably, she decides to “confess” to Madison, and refuses to talk to anyone else. Unprepared for the spotlight, Madison tries to solve the mystery from within the middle of the scandal, unsure if she’s reporting the story or part of it. Between chasing plot-twisting leads, she tries not to fall for the flirtations of Dahlia (while also diving into dalliances both with a senior reporter and one of her best sources, a cop). Dunn delivers a script packed with a diverse cast with distinctive personalities, while Roe’s angled, organic renderings of characters’ body language are starkly framed in the panel design, recalling classic noir cinema. Fans of the genre will be sucked in by this fast-paced tale of manipulation, intrigue, and self-discovery. [em](Oct.) [/em]