Who killed Sarah Shaw?
writer: Frankee White
Artist/Correspondence: Adam Markiewicz
Publisher: no doubt
Who killed Sarah Shaw? – New book by author Frankee White and artist Adam Markiewicz -Originally published in small chunks Markiewicz’s Patreon Throughout 2023-2024. It’s a small-town mystery with NSFW bits and pieces, done in a familiar direct-market comics style. I was about 1/3 into the process and I immediately found it fascinating how effective small incremental releases of pages can be for the stories the creators are telling. I think it’s definitely worth talking about now that the book is raising funds for a full print run via Kickstarter.
This book reminds me of other webcomic projects in some ways and will soon be getting a physical version which I wrote about earlier this month Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon’s audience. Both comics do a good job of understanding that the internet can be a very horny place, and that much of online evolution, as well as technology evolution in general, is driven by pornography. Now, to be clear, Who killed Sarah Shaw? Not that much sex or nudity audience Did that, but the sexual relationship between the book’s two protagonists is an important part of the story.
That said, the NSFW elements make this comic more suitable for a webcomic channel than a direct market, or maybe a direct market. audience. Another element that helps here is the titular mystery. If you’re using a format that publishes in near-real time increments, I think having a clear engine that makes readers want to come back and check back every week rather than waiting for the project to be completed is something creators will definitely achieve here. Although, on my recent revisit to the book, it was also a pleasure to have the engine in full reading.
The plot of the book is that two true crime documentarians (related, as mentioned above) have gone to a small town and hatched a plan about a cold case. Their streaming show (which looks and sounds like a bad show, TBH) is about to be canceled, but they’re hoping that if they solve the mystery with the last episode, it might save the show, or otherwise contribute to Their substantially enhanced careers. This complicates things when it hangs all the time. So with this book we have elements of romance, media opportunism, insular small town culture and of course a hardboiled murder mystery.
Because this is a cold story, White’s The plot had to juggle two timelines, essentially, with two sets of characters – one in the present day and one in the past, which includes some characters who looked and acted just a few years ago. Or maybe remember things differently. Perspectives are a large part of the questions asked. This makes for a very engaging story, even if there are a lot of tropes deployed here, true crime stories tend to be true crime stories. Something just clicks in your brain that makes you want (or need) knows whodunnit. True crime stuff is popular for a reason, and that’s evident in this comic, which delves into the characteristics of the people who make the true crime industry run.
Indeed, what is more interesting is the personal relationship between our two prospects and their relationship to ambition. There’s murder and a water town thing, but it’s all very familiar. There’s a certain electricity in watching two relatable people unabashedly trying to stir things up and exploit tragedy for their own careers. There are also some real suspense sequences (especially towards the end) that put our potential clients in danger, and White’s script nails the pacing and tension of the situation.
Markiewicz’s artwork and lettering fit perfectly into the entire story. In short, the art in this book is impressive, excelling in facial acting and great, wordless visual storytelling. Markiewicz knows when to zoom in and give us a lonely vibe, like a lonely car driving on a country highway. There are a lot of simple visuals here that do a lot of storytelling to the artist’s credit.
I also think black and white and gray tones are a good choice. Back to publishing format, audience This color scheme was used similarly and I suspect it worked well on both books to meet the release schedule. But it’s also a comic that takes place in a small town during the winter, where life isn’t expected to look bright, so it makes the tone the same as black and white rather than pastel colors.
But, as with any murder mystery, revelations play a large role in how the book ultimately lands. Who killed Sarah Shaw? A few conveniences are used to get us to our ending, such as glued diary pages that have gone unnoticed for years, but what we learn in the end does make for an engaging character arc. The story is also filled with satisfying ambiguity and doesn’t overexplain every last possibility or clue. It’s an old case, and while our heroes do discover new things about it, they don’t everythingit feels very natural.
i really like Who killed Sarah Shaw? As I was re-reading it over the holidays I was also listening to Lonely Island and the Seth Meyers Podcast (Bear with me here…). They’re doing a thing where they’re ranking the SNL digital shorts that the Lonely Islanders did by several criteria. The best of the best basics is a collection called The Criterion Collection, while a comedy that people deep into comedy might enjoy is called Kim’s Videos, after the famous video rental store in New York City. Kim’s video skits are real comedy and Sickos suggests turning people on to something new, different and interesting outside of their normal viewing tendencies.
for me, Who killed Sarah Shaw? Firmly stuck in Kim’s video award. This is the genre I pass on to my comic friends who love press reviews and sexy murder mysteries and watching budding writers and artists do new things and take big risks. It’s definitely worth your support on this month’s Kickstarter.
Who killed Sarah Shaw? Now on Kickstarter
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