Written by: Fabien Nury
Illustrations: Pierre Alary
Coloring: Bruno Garcia
Publisher: Glénat
Silas Corey Het Zarkoff-Testament 1/2 – Comic Book Review
Whilst private eyes in reality often have cases where they have to spy on a suspicious acting boyfriend or some minor investigatory cases, movies and comic books often portray these inspectors as superior detectives or even as handsome James-Bond-like agents, and Silas Corey proves to be no exception. Flash back to the end of the first World War and you find yourself in the midst of celebrations but also a lot of chaos, as many towns and cities were deemed ‘inactive’ as their governments of services completely shut down. If you have to find an heir of an arms dealer in the midst of all of this, you certainly have some work carved out for you. This brings us to Silas Corey, a handsome blonde detective, that has to track down the single heir of one of his arch nemesis’.
November 1918, Germany has signed its unconditional surrender and celebrations break out all over Europe. In the center of these festivities a private eye, Albert Percochet, gets stabbed, yet manages to wander off to the hotel where Silas Corey, another detective, is currently staying. Sadly, the soon-to-be-deceased Percochet only finds Nam, Corey’s assistant, thus he decides to pass on a small but important message. Nam immediately heads out to find Silas, who is currently having some fun with a few drunken soldiers.
When Nam finally gets Silas back to their accommodations, Silas remains surprisingly calm after seeing the dead body of one of his ‘colleagues’. He decides to investigate Percochet’s office, in order to acquire some details as to which case the deceased private eye was working on. Upon his arrival, he finds that a visitor is lurking in the shadows. After ‘persuading’ the rude visitor, Silas finds out that the man is a lawyer of miss Zarkoff, an arms dealer who has many deaths on her conscience. The fact that Silas already had some issues with her in the past, makes him curious and he tells the lawyer that he will take over the case, with Percochet out of the picture. During his trip he finds out that Zarkoff is deadly ill, and is looking for her only heir. This throws many of her other associates in the equation, as they would rather inherit all of her possessions instead.
The story in this two part series moves at a rather rapid pace, with the right amount of information thrown into the mix, in order for you to fully enjoy all of the action sequences this issue throws at you. You’ll be going from one exciting situations to another, making sure that every single page is either an exciting one, or one that prepares you for the action to come. Fabien Nury does a great job in presenting the user with an authentic detective story that would even stand its ground in a proper Hollywood film.
Illustrations were handled by Pierre Alary, who managed to truly bring this issue to life. Whilst the characters look a tad ‘comical’ at times, the amount of details makes everything look authentic and simply stunning. Add in the well chosen colors, by Bruno Garcia, and you will have a great looking comic book. For this series, it’s great to see how the coloring was used to truly set the tone and atmosphere about the events currently going on, or those about to come.
Conclusion
Silas Corey Het Zarkoff-Testament 1/2 is a great opening to the second Silas Corey diptych, that already has a sufficient amount of action in it. You’ll be presented with a fairly safe, but interesting storyline, but above all the action and of course the handsome Silas Corey will steal the show. This is no land for amateur sleuthhounds, but only for those with a license to kill.
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