In the End We All Die: A Graphic Novel

Swiss artist Aeschbacher debuts with a comedic and oddly sweet neo-noir laced with nonchalant violence and theatrical dialogue. Eric, the mulleted, mustachioed leader of a trio of goofy gun-toting goons, tries to recover an improbably valuable stolen vase. The group barges into the apartment of the petty thieves, a low-rent Bonnie and Clyde, only to discover that the vase was pawned off on a neighbor. Eric’s command to “blow these fuckheads away” sets off a violent chain of encounters throughout the apartment building, starting with the pervert running a hidden camera from the apartment below. A stoner duo, a contract killer with a lonely cat, a prostitute entertaining her client’s bizarre pharmacological fetish, and an elderly couple with a death wish soon find that their fates are inextricably linked. The delightfully improbable scenario unfurls in parallel narratives that evoke 1990s indie films like Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train. The distinctive cartooning recalls a gritty Tintin, and it elevates the excessive gunplay to the poetic absurd, endearing characters to readers just moments before they meet their untimely ends. This tale of low-level criminality gone horribly wrong will appeal to fans of David Lapham’s Stray Bullets and Jason’s I Killed Adolf Hitler. (June)