In issue two of Deep Cuts, from Image Comics, we again go back in time to 20th Century US. In Chicago in 1928, Gail Gelstein is involved with musical theatre. Her new musical production will open soon, but its songs are not memorable. The financial backer is getting antsy, and the show needs a hit song. So Gail hits the road running, running here and running there, hoping for inspiration. But she only has a weekend in which to write that song!!
Writers Joe Clark and Kyle Higgins provide plenty of atmosphere in Deep Cuts 2, so the 2023 reader of this comic has a sense of what it was all like, back a hundred years ago. The Yiddish insults, the constant Gail-internal-dialogue, the trains, the timing, the musicians.
Artist Helena Masellis renders swell figures in period costumes, and pays careful attention to the environments throughout the story; the train stations, the clubs, the dance floors. It’s quite believable; the style of illustration fits the type of narrative that is Deep Cuts. Igor Monti’s colours capture the wood grain, the pale lights, the limelights. It’s a mix of fashion-retro and impressionist. Lettering is by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.
But there is something missing in Deep Cuts 2, and it’s that Gail’s story is a run-on. She needs a hit, so she goes here. She needs a hit, so she goes there. Whaddya gonna do, when you need a hit, you know? Second verse, same as the first. Perhaps we needed to see the story told from a few different points of view, or the introduction of a subplot or a ‘mighty game changer’ to keep us more involved.
Having said that, this is a nicely told period piece, a new stepping stone in this series of ‘fictional biographies that could be true but aren’t’ comics.
Additional material consists of a biography of a ’today’ musician, accompanied by a piece of their sheet music, along with a look at how one art page of Deep Cuts 2 went from rough drawings to inks and final art.
Image Comics, Deep Cuts #2, $5.99 for 60 pages of content, Teen +
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