Stray Bullets Volume 2: Somewhere Out West

by David Lapham

Genres: Mystery

Synopsis

Somewhere out West is a town no one knows about-a desert town-whose inhabitants wait for the day a great earthquake will bring them beachfront property. Here, three desperate friends on the run from the Mob and a young runaway Virginia Applejack will try to escape the nightmares of their pasts. They'll band together to battle the demons that threaten to destroy them from within while taking on a corrupt town full of sex, drugs, and inbreeding. Eventually, they'll be forced to make horrifying choices when their dark pasts finally catch up with them...

About the STRAY BULLETS series:
Beginning in the 1970s and carrying on into the 1990s, Stray Bullets is a period crime drama with moments of humor and absurdity. David Lapham’s crime noir masterpiece follows the lost lives of people who are savagely torn apart by events beyond their control: The innocent world of an imaginative little girl is shattered when she witnesses a brutal double murder. An introverted young boy on the verge of manhood gets a lesson on just how far is too far when he falls for a needy woman who lives life in the fast lane. Or party with a pair of low-rent hoods who learn what is really important in life just when they shouldn't.

What makes Stray Bullets so brilliant is that it’s a crime comic, but it’s also about growing up, about being frustrated with your lot in life, about the disappointment of settling down, and the mundanity of suburban life. Lapham shrewdly presents almost every type of criminal behavior imaginable in stories that can be both unflinchingly honest and heartbreakingly sympathetic. The almost Altman-esque mix of characters provides seemingly endless pathos and drama, and there is a level of realism to the violence that makes it truly startling. If movies like Oceans 11 are about the sexy allure of the criminal worlds, then Stray Bullets is about the desperation and rage of characters whose lives are ultimately defined by a series of bad choices.

Release date: June 2, 2015

Publisher: Image Comics

Print pages: 240