‘PRECIOUS METAL’ GN Review – Silver Vol. 1: Stephan Franck (Dark Planet)

Day two of our graphic novel review a day here at TRIPWIRE and today it’s Volume 1 of Stephan Franck’s pulp noir story Silver, published by Dark Planet.

Con man James Finnegan who gets wind of a huge hoard of vampire silver and with the assistance of Dracula’s Jonathan Harker’s descendant, a woman who is still based in Transylvania, sets about trying to steal it. While it is a very familiar sort of story, complete with lovable rogues and tough female characters, Franck has a very clean line to his art and he manages to make something very hackneyed feel quite fresh and enjoyable. He has worked as an animator and this comes across in the immediacy of his drawing.

Silver also has a very European feel in terms of its pacing and look. He is an artist cut from the same cloth as Tim Sale or Matt Wagner and this makes for a tale that is fast-paced and very easy to read. My only minor criticism is that the first collection only reprints three issues and it would have been a meatier trade if it included either the first four or even six chapters. But Silver is a thoroughly engaging and accomplished piece of comics pulp noir. From this evidence, Franck should have a long career in comics ahead of him…

www.DarkPlanetComics.com