Streets Of Dublin
Posted on October 15, 2005
In Dublin City creator Gerry Hunt pastiches hip Irish film and TV drama to realise the familiar narrative arc of Streets Of Dublin, an attractive graphic novel deliciously designed and coloured by Toenail Clippings co-founder BrenB. Reading like an abridged adaptation of a misjudged screen-thriller that uncovers the grubby underbelly of the Capital's inner-city crime scene, it's not without its own ersatz charm, even allowing for the failure of its predominantly poker-faced parody to fully register.
When a wannabe urban-cowboy, the teenage Johnny, befriends gung-ho vigilante and part-time scrap-merchant Bernard (the father of Garda sergeant PJ), little do they realise that their lives are to further overlap under more trying circumstances. In his efforts to pay money owed a Triad splinter group, Johnny's older brother attempts to rob a pub, but in the process scuppers PJ's undercover infiltration of a gang of heroin traffickers. Inevitably things go from bad to worse, and only Johnny and Bernard can save the day.
Jammed with junkie scumbags, hard-nippled slappers and gun-wielding 'chinks', the heightened reality of Streets Of Dublin of course lacks the organic quality of In Dublin City, but retains the permeation of Irishness and the exquisitely rendered city buildings. With jarring figures replaced by old-style draughtsmanship of the Jim Baikie ilk, artwork is impressive; and with dubious transitions, plot-convenient coincidences and shambolic finale, the script perfectly employs the tropes specific to that hip Irish film coming soon to no cinema near you, sans parody.
In Dublin City creator Gerry Hunt pastiches hip Irish film and TV drama to realise the familiar narrative arc of Streets Of Dublin, an attractive graphic novel deliciously designed and coloured by Toenail Clippings co-founder BrenB. Reading like an abridged adaptation of a misjudged screen-thriller that uncovers the grubby underbelly of the Capital's inner-city crime scene, it's not without its own ersatz charm, even allowing for the failure of its predominantly poker-faced parody to fully register.
When a wannabe urban-cowboy, the teenage Johnny, befriends gung-ho vigilante and part-time scrap-merchant Bernard (the father of Garda sergeant PJ), little do they realise that their lives are to further overlap under more trying circumstances. In his efforts to pay money owed a Triad splinter group, Johnny's older brother attempts to rob a pub, but in the process scuppers PJ's undercover infiltration of a gang of heroin traffickers. Inevitably things go from bad to worse, and only Johnny and Bernard can save the day.
Jammed with junkie scumbags, hard-nippled slappers and gun-wielding 'chinks', the heightened reality of Streets Of Dublin of course lacks the organic quality of In Dublin City, but retains the permeation of Irishness and the exquisitely rendered city buildings. With jarring figures replaced by old-style draughtsmanship of the Jim Baikie ilk, artwork is impressive; and with dubious transitions, plot-convenient coincidences and shambolic finale, the script perfectly employs the tropes specific to that hip Irish film coming soon to no cinema near you, sans parody.
60 A4 pages, colour interior, square-bound, €9.95 – available from www.dublincomics.com