The Big Burn
Creative Team
writer: JOE HENDERSON
illustrator: LEE GARBETT
colorist: LEE LOUGHRIDGE
letterer: SIMON BOWLAND
publisher: DSTLRY
There are plenty of reasons to pick this graphic novel up. At heart this is a bank heist story but with multiple twists, romance, and action.
The story starts off within the reader’s comfort zone, a routine heist about to go wrong. Owen walks into a bank to pull off a heist, but someone has beaten him to it. Her name is Carlie, a newcomer to bank robberies, but daring and clever. So starts a crime team that are in love with pulling off bank heists as much as they are in love with each other. The rollercoaster of heists ends abruptly when they are arrested. The intrepid couple turn for help praying for an escape when the Devil turns up and offers their freedom for their souls. Facing prison with a chance of freedom there seemed little to think about. How could they miss their souls when they had each other? It seemed like an offer that they couldn’t turn down. So they sell their souls. Reality, however, is harshly different without a soul love can’t exist; nothing matters. Carlie checks herself into a psychiatric hospital where her life gets even darker. Left alone Owen tries to find answers and comes across research that Carlie was doing to find others like themselves who had sold their souls.
The story line from Joe Henderson is fresh, funny, and keeps you turning the page, and it’s made even more riveting with the stunning artwork from Lee Garbett.
The narrative and building of the characters are so well constructed that even when the story line becomes fantastical, it still carries the reader along with it. It’s not always the case that the writing, art and page layouts come together as whole with each creator supporting the other, so it’s a double delight when it does.
Henderson and Garbett are a slick professional team who can deliver. The colorist Lee Loughbridge highlights the narrative without overwhelming it. The stylish A3 format from DSTLRY publishers reeks quality and makes this a graphic novel that feels so good to pick up and read. It all comes together perfectly.
It seems though that there is no way to deal with the devil. A few twists in the narrative later it is clear, only one solution makes sense, to carry out one last daring heist to get their souls back.