Issue two of Apache Delivery Service escorts us into the jungles of Vietnam, searching for a missing treasure. The pursuit is the next step in Ernie Nez’s new assignment: do work for Sobrat, and ferret out what is going on. 
Sobrat, oily and obsessed with this mythical treasure, and keeping his cards close to his chest. Sobrat, who may or may not be trustworthy. Can you turn your back on him after hearing his back story, the origins of the obsessions…
It’s deep in mystery, steeped in atmosphere. Matt Kindt’s writing is sparse and descriptive; the locations are spooky, the narrative is shaded and shielded in sporadic lying or invention. There is real danger all around, slipping quietly into the subtext, the subterranean homesick blues.
Speaking of blues, and of greens and deadly nightshades, the artwork by Tyler Jenkins (colours by Hilary Jenkins!) is really fitting. It fits like a glove, the impressively loose renderings of night, of stalking through the vines and the closely-knit soldiers of misfortune. The drawings are just realistic enough to convey a strong understanding of value, shape, and decomposition. The evil plotting, the wonderfully poetic summing up of the ups and downs of tracking a pile of gold.
It’s a quick read and an entertaining one!
Dark Horse, Apache Delivery Service #2, $3.99 for 26 pages.
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