Stray Bullets is a tricky series to talk about. The numbering almost seems pointless given how random David Lapham picks up his story - he doesn’t tell things chronologically. For example this first part of Sunshine & Roses (aka Book 7!) takes place between the first and second books (Innocence of Nihilism and Somewhere Out West), both of which came out in the late ‘90s! This is a storyline that’s been going on for 24 YEARS and shows no sign of resolving itself anytime soon.
Not that I’m complaining one bit - Stray Bullets is an unquestionable masterpiece from a genius cartoonist. If you’re a fan of crime comics, this is a must-read series. And the all-over-the-place approach basically means you can pick up any book in the series and start there. You can read them in any order you want and still get the same story, which is amazing in itself.
But I think you’ll get more out of Sunshine & Roses if you’ve read the previous books before. So in Book 2: Somewhere Out West, Beth, Orson and Nina made it out of the city and away from Harry, the gangster who runs the town, having ripped him off for a shitload of cash. Sunshine & Roses, Part 1 takes us to the time before that, showing us how our heroic trio did just that. Or at least the beginnings of that happening which all began when young thug Kretchmeyer almost started a war by recklessly executing a rival mob boss of Harry’s.
In the meantime we get to know the supporting characters better like Monster and Roses. So the subtitle: Sunshine is Joey, the brain-damaged kid, who draws weird suns everywhere, of Roses, the consistently stoned/drunk whore who’s in love with Orson. Why’re these two singled out in the title? No clue. They’ve been around as long as the other characters and aren’t as compelling as the likes of Spanish Scott but maybe we’ll find out why later on in the series (Sunshine & Roses is currently four volumes long).
Lapham’s writing and artwork is as sharp as ever. He was a master 24 years ago and he’s only gotten better since. The Pulp Fiction-style storytelling still works beautifully and it remains interesting to catch the little bits here and there that fill in the blanks of the ever-nebulous story. The characters continue to be enthralling to read about - you never know when one of them’s going to pull out a piece and pop someone in the face - and the menacing dark tone underlying everything and the unpredictable violence makes for a tense read.
The only part of the book that didn’t work for me was the now-obligatory Amy Racecar chapter that appears in every Stray Bullets book. Amy is a futuristic supervillain version of Beth in a wacky parallel/dreamlike/who knows realm, who relives events that are going on in the real world in a cartoonish way. Sometimes these bits are fun and make a nice change from the grimy realism of the main Stray Bullets world and sometimes, like now, it can be a bit tedious and unnecessary.
Otherwise, Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses, Part 1: Kretchmeyer, is yet another cool beans addition to a very underrated and superb series.
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