Cover

5 SHOTS

CREATIVE ELAMENTZ STUDIOS
WRITER: Jemir Robert Johnson
ARTISTS: Luis Sierra, Bill Young, Matthew Wilbekin, and Shawn Decker
ISBN: 9780615161402; paperback
99 pp, B&W, $9.95

5 Shots is a graphic novel/short story collection by author Jemir Robert Johnson and released through his publishing outfit, Creative Elamentz Studios.  Named for the five stories it contains, 5 Shots focuses on the adventures of Jay Nova, an African-American woman private eye.

5 Shots recalls mid-20th century pulp mystery tales and American P.I. and hardboiled detective fiction (Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett).  It leans towards such modern day crime dramas and police procedurals as “Law and Order” and “The Wire,” and has the flavor of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ comic book series, Criminal.  Nova does have peculiar mind reading abilities, so the concept’s inherent quirkiness and slight fantasy leaning makes it seem like an oddball union of Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins book series and the late TV series, “Veronica Mars.”

In the first story, “Dead Line,” Jay Nova tears through the tough streets of NYC to find an object, one in which she has no choice but to find it.  Jay’s partner, Randy Michaels, is waiting in the client’s office – waiting while the client holds a gun to Randy’s head.  And time isn’t on Jay’s side.

Drawn by Luis Sierra, “Dead Line” is not the best of the lot, but it’s a good way to introduce Jay and Randy and to give the reader a taste of just how brutal and dangerous their world is.

Sunset, drawn by Bill Young, really gets into the rotted meat of this engaging concept’s setting.  Jay and Richard are looking for a missing debutante, and Johnson sort of sneaks up on the reader with what the cynical and dark ultimate truth is.  Johnson isn’t cynical in that half-assed sort of way young people are because they don’t know crap and the way old people are because they’re bitter and/or had a rough life.  Jemir’s cynicism is born of being a salesman of the ugly realism that is the underbelly of American prosperity.  Bill Young’s hack and slash version of Walt Simonson is the perfect compliment to Jemir Johnson’s mood for “Sunset.”

“The Knight in Question” (drawn by Matthew Wilbekin) is gritty and has street credibility, but it works best as a satirical excursion into the world of hip hop.  As Johnson examines what it means to “keep it real,” and what it means to be authentic and true to yourself, he takes a sharp edge and slices into rappers and their love of posing, posturing, and pretending.

Artist Bill Young returns for a little tale that’s deadly as a baby rattlesnake, “Fast Forward.”  It’s a visceral piece about going undercover that rings as true as it is chilling.

The art team of Shawn Decker (pencils) and Matthew Wilbekin (inks) illustrate Johnson’s richest and most complex 5 Shots tale, “Burning Flag.”  Not quite an origin story, “Burning Flag,” gives readers a look at Jay Nova’s chronological beginnings, but it is especially a trip into the environment that shaped her.  Johnson uses the story as something like a psycho-social examination of who and what Jay is.  It’s also a taut criminal thriller that goes deep, deep into the heart of the self-perpetuating disease of urban crime.

5 Shots is a good opening shot from Jemir Robert Johnson and Creative Elamentz, and, of course, there is room for improvement.  The artists are good at storytelling, but in the nuts and bolts of drawing – the draftsmanship, so to speak – they have room for improvement and the potential to do it.  As for Johnson, the fantasy aspects of his stories won’t be missed if they go away.  He’s written some good crime stories, and like Los Bros. Hernandez (Love and Rockets) before him, Johnson may decide that the drama is just fine without the genre trappings of sci-fi/fantasy.

Visit www.creativeelamentz.com for more info.