Comics Alternative

his week the Two Guys with PhDs return with the second of their two-episode look at recent crime, detective, and noir comics. In this installment, they begin with a discussion of more conventional detective/crime comics and then turn their gaze to noir with a psychological twist, where the protagonist's mental condition creates confusion and uncertainty. Regarding the former, Derek and Andy look specifically at From the Files of...Mike Hammer: The Complete Dailies and Sundays, Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth’s Stumptown, Roger Gibson and Vince Danks's Harker: The Book of Solomon, Andy Diggle and Jock’s first issue of Snapshot, and Jay Faerber and Koray Kuranel's Point of Impact.  Next, they segue to several recent examples of psychological noir, including Jay Faerber and Simone Guglielmini's Near Death, Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson's mini-series Happy!, Nathan Edmondson and Tonci Zonjic's Who Is Jake Ellis? and the first two issues of Where Is Jake Ellis?, and Joshua Hale Fialkov and Noel Tuazon's gr