One Plus One

by Neal Shaffer, Daniel Krall

David Coulson is a drifter by definition. He travels from place to place, leaving behind history and identity, bringing only enough of himself to get involved with the people he needs to get involved with. There are things no one can know about David, otherwise he won't be able to do his job. David is one of those people that roam our cities making sure destiny takes its proper course, that the bad guys get what's coming to them. His latest stop has brought him in contact with several interesting characters. Leonard, the writer cursed with visions of how people will look after they die; Celeste, the waitress with a secret of her own; and Eddie, the card sharp that David takes under his wing. What does it all add up to? Only David knows...

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

136 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 2003

Reviews

[Joe Kucharski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read from 2002
Hip, cool, weird, and damn unique.

Neal Shaffer with the words and Daniel Krall doing the art make for quite the team-up; these guys needed to do more together.

Central story focuses on card-shark Eddie, his now-pregnant girlfriend Celeste, hitman from beyond David Coulson, and barfly Leonard who is able to see how you die. Super-groovy elements that are all laid out in a slick noir fashion.

Shaffer and Krall build suspense, lay down the heartache, and keep the pages a'turning. The only detriment to the tale is that Coulson's involvement in Eddie's never reaches a full-on denouement. And, of course, that there was never a sequel.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid and eerie. I'm surprised Shaffer hasn't written more.

Great covers by Michael Avon Oeming

[Mjhancock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eddie is a small time cardshark, and in desperate need of a big score after he finds out his girlfriend is pregnant. (Although whether it's for a nest egg, or to flee town, Eddie isn't telling.) David Coulson's willing to give him the tips he needs to make it to the big leagues, but whether Eddie can handle it is a whole different question. Plus: Leonard, the bar patron who sees people as they'll look after they die. In essence, the story could be a Faustian morality tale, or an episode of the Twilight Zone. It proceeds in more or less the way I'd expect it to, and only Eddie's girlfriend presents something of a sympathetic character. (Leonard is also somewhat sympathetic, but he's mostly here as the story's edge from the fantastic into the marvelous, if you know your Todorov; he doesn't have a lot to do beyond look at people.) That said, it was also somewhat better than I was expecting. Yes, the story has an inevitable, even predictable, course, but Shaffer and artist Daniel Krall are willing to let it unfold slowly. There's a great sense of pacing and a lot of silent panels, which really lend the story a sense of gravity. Eddie doesn't even show up until issue 2. That pacing is a double-edged sword; at a 4.50 price tag for the single issues for the Canadian version (or so a Google search tells me), the story can't really justify five issues. But for a fairly breezy, well-told story of its type, it makes a worthwhile read if you find it on sale in a bookstore or in a library.