Bigger Fish, Reviewed. A 70’s New York story of dirty cops, powerful mobs and dodgy drug deals

How about a 70’s New York set story of dirty cops, powerful mobs and dodgy drug deals in a dirty neon digital anime art style? Well, Ed Whiting and Hakan Aydin are serving a slice with Bigger Fish.

Ed Whiting, Hakan Aydin, J Francis Totti and Robin Jones released Bigger Fish in April this year. It's a forty-page one-shot that aims at the Nixon era war on drugs for its setting. Using the dawn of this historic event, Bigger Fish offers a story of underground criminals being, well, criminals with one unsavoury individual being not quite who he seems. It's almost like an R-rated Starsky and Hutch, sort of. I love comics, I really do, and I always try to see them through the lens of the audience they are aimed at. Bigger Fish is a different kettle. It was difficult to find the exciting aspects, there's just something in the delivery that fell short of the mark, and made me feel that this one is more style over substance. It's not bad, but it doesn't really fully deliver. A particular shame after the art and colours suck you in.

There is clear talent on display here that must be appreciated but there's definitely something for me that's just a bit too clunky. Maybe it's being confined to a one-shot, maybe it's the few technical issues, maybe it's just the middle of the road story. Either way, I don't believe this is a great reflection of the talent involved, which is a shame as there are moments of class that I'll try to focus on.

So, let's start with the art. This without a doubt is the strongest and most satisfying part of this comic. Hakan Aydin provides a very appealing digital anime style. This highly polished art works really well and does a fine job carrying this comic. I found the odd panel to be a little off in places and it seems like the art is so well accomplished in the greater majority it forced those slightly askew panels to stand out. The character design is splendid, offering the first accomplished factor to the comic. The front cover is the best example of the art on display yet also a good example of the overall delivery of the comic. It looks pretty but there's not a lot going on. As the story ramps up Hakan's art starts off building really well until, just as the action hits its peak, the panels begin to lose cohesive continuity. Things get a little muddled and jarring in this sense. This is a shame as the art doesn't lose any of its finer qualities, it just loses narrative power. These small moments really took away from me the experience the comic was aiming for.

For me, the biggest factor of the finest qualities of the art of this comic has to be J. Francis Totti's colours. The dirty neon colour palette really elevates the style on offer and certainly provides the most enjoyable aspects of the overall product. The colours never falter or waiver and deliver some inspired technical moments. Fully accomplished delivery. If the rest of the comic was executed to the bar set by J. Francis Totti's colours, I think we'd be looking at a totally different level of comic.

Finally, for the art, it's Robin Jones on lettering. It's professional and has the underappreciated factor of being less remarkable when done right, which it is. Robin is an accomplished pro throughout and would be flawless except for a couple of unfortunate hiccups. Where the buck stops for these missing and reprinted words it's hard to know. However a thorough proofread would and should have caught this. Were not all perfect, granted, it's just in a comic presenting something so polished it sort of demands attention to detail and that's what lets part of this comic down. If it's any consolation I saw very similar mistakes in Spawn Universe so these things happen to the best.

Now to the story. Ed Whiting presents a crime story set in June 1971 New York City to be precise. The dawn of President Nixon's "war on drugs". In fact, it’s Nixon's speech on this matter that provides the soundtrack to the opening scene, that literally kicks off this comic, and with a bang. We meet Boyd Dolan and his partner Gene Wurlitzer of the N.Y.P.D. A pair of straight shooters, in as much as they have no problem straight up shooting unarmed criminals for information. They are performing something more than civic duty. From here it's a neck-snapping hard cut to meet former soldier Mike Pereta and his friend/employer Danny Cortese. Danny's got big dreams regarding his own criminal career path under his uncle, The Don Joe/Joey/Joseph Zappella. So here's your setup.

Danny's got a job for Mike and obviously, it's not the 9-5 type. As these things often are, it's a big-time drug deal that Uncle Joey is not wise to. What's more, the dirty cop duo is wise to it and on a collision course with a conflict of interest. It's a pretty good premise, it offers plenty of action and the storytelling skips along at a fairly entertaining pace. However, this story is where I started to lose enthusiasm. The delivery just stumbles. The dialogue is formulaic, reading like any 70s set gangster piece of entertainment. There's nothing to break any moulds here. There are the "period accurate" racial slurs that at very best add a heavy-handedly cliched tarnish. The racism offers no commentary and serves no purpose truly. The middle section of the story, in the heat of the action sequence, just becomes very squiffy. Combined with the panel sequencing issues it becomes a quite jarring muddled experience that's difficult to follow. The reading felt like hard work. It took a few reads and notes to nail down the names of the main characters for instance. I don't mind a bit of digging in a story for little easter eggs but wading through standardized dialogue for small nuggets of basic information became tiresome. Attempts have been made but I found it to have more style than substance.

For fans of pretty, digital anime art with a dirty neon palette, for fans of paint by numbers, 70's New York gangster stories then you can find it in Bigger Fish. available on getmycomics.com or blacklight comics bigcartel at £6.00 for physical and £2.00 digital.

Rating: 2.5/5