Another day, another graphic novel for a cheat read.
Joe Hill is always a reliable source for a good story and this is no exception. Mallorie Grennan did bad things when stationed in Iraq, things she'd rather forget. Whilst working in a dive bar back home, she starts receiving strange notes - just thumbprints in the middle of a blank page.
It's very short but packs a punch. there's strong commentary about the mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq. the mystery isn't difficult to solve but the cast is limited by the shortness of the story. The very end of the graphic novel is a bit strange. the last panels don't make too much narrative sense.
The artwork is pretty good. No complaints there.
On top of the graphic version, we also get the original novella by Joe Hill. This has a few marked differences to the graphic version and gets us closer into her head. this makes for a slightly more sympathetic character as her guilty feelings are much clearer, although her actions are actually less forgivable. For example, a heartless petty theft that occurs in both versions is committed by Mallorie in the novella, but by the other bartender in the graphic version. The emotional impact of the war and the despicable acts she joined in with are seen to impact harder on her with the closer look at her psyche. The ending of the text story is a great improvement on the other.
We also have a third story - Kodiak. a fun little diversion which seems slightly out of place with the anti-war commentary of the main story. However, I've been looking for a copy of this since I saw it was listed in a Joe Hill Graphic novel compendium. It wasn't worth my while buying the compendium because I already owned copies of three of the other stories.
The artwork in Kodiak is top notch, much better than the main feature. The story is very slight though.