Excellent idea support by a very skillful and effective execution. This very smart story is set in a Prohibition era style America where in the background of the underworld, demons are running the gangs and rackets, with the biggest racket being the trade in mortal souls. The protagonist of the story, Eddie, has been cursed by a set of demons, when he is killed, if he is touched by another that person dies in the same way and Eddie comes back to life, with a fresh scar to mark the passage. Eddie is called back from lying dead for three days by a major demon, Alphonse Aligheri, who needs Eddie to do some investigating for him. Aligheri and his main opponent had proposed a deal, to seal it required a third party, another high ranking demon, who had now gone missing. Eddie was to find the missing demon and that would clear his debts to Aligheri. The story unfolds in a very thoughtful and interesting way, the mix between the supernatural and the grim reality of the mortal world with it mixed cast of demons, gangsters and the cursed being skillfully drawn.
Critically the creative team have captured the cynical, mean-spirited core of the novels by W.R. Burnett as well as the style of the films that were made from them. Eddie is unpleasant man, what makes him work so well as a character is both his self knowledge and his feeling for a woman who has left him. These human traits make him a great flawed hero and give the book enough emotional weight to catch and involve the reader. The art is excellent, a suitably moody black and white that captures the shadows that hang over everyone even in broad daylight. The demons are just differentiated enough from the mortal cast that they could plausibly be existing in the same world, they are not overdone. The differences between most of them and the mortals they deal with is one of degree rather than absolutes. Skillful comics from a very talented team.
