This strange, but colorful, neo-noir adventure is reminiscent of L.A. Confidential. A columnist for a local gossip rag acts as our guide through a sordid and unfamiliar world, reporting on all the gory details of who’s getting arrested and who’s getting killed by whom—and how. Our story’s beginning even has the same catalyst as L.A. Confidential: the sudden arrest of the city’s major crime boss and the subsequent power vacuum it leaves in the criminal underworld.

In this case, the locale is Stellar City, a town populated by a wide variety of alien creatures, in a wide variety of colors and shapes, and the fallen crime boss is Lady Haste. 18 months after Haste’s arrest, the city is lousy with drugs and murder, and the Stellar City Police Department is stretched thin trying to deal with it all. So, when three more bodies turn up, killed in a mysterious and gruesome way, the only officers left to take the case are a washed-up has-been and a disgraced nobody.

The has-been is Detective Sawce, whose partner was one of the three bodies discovered. His new partner was recently suspended for taking bribes—Officer Trustah. Officer Donut Trustah. Something tells me maybe we shouldn’t trust her.

Then again, maybe the name is a red herring, and she’ll turn out to be OK. It’s too early to tell much of anything in this story. All you can really do is go along for the ride—and what a ride it is. Jordan Thomas’ story is a loving homage to noir and neo-noir, with a variety of popular tropes and familiar characters, done in fun, new ways. The story is complemented perfectly by Shaky Kane’s artwork which brings this strange, new world vividly to life in glorious technicolor.

Between the language and the violence, this comic is definitely for more mature audiences. It gets a bit graphic at times, but it’s a lot of fun. As a big fan of both noir and aliens, I’m really looking forward to seeing where things go from here. If you like stories with organized crime, colorful characters, and a healthy dose of sordid weirdness, you’ll want to check out Weird Work.

Creative Team: Jordan Thomas (story), Shaky Kane (art), Letter Squids (letters), Daniel Gruitt (design)
Publisher: Burnt Barn Comics
Click here to support the Kickstarter campaign for Issue #2 – coming soon.