Underheist

by David Lapham (Writer / Artist / Letterer), Maria Lapham, Hilary Jenkins (Colorist)

David’s gambling addiction brings him to rock bottom–the lowest point he’s ever hit in life, and it’s made him desperate. But the forbidden fruit of a nefarious opportunity arises… a heist, and one that could finally be the answer to his financial woes.

The thing is, David’s old line of work made him familiar with the nearby NYC subway tunnels, and the perfect man for this particular job. But the path to hell is paved with less-than-legal intentions, and David truly has no idea what he’s signing up for, or the dark rabbit hole he’s about to fall down…

A hard boiled heist series with a supernatural horror twist from the hit Stray Bullets creative team of David & Maria Lapham, exploring how seeking out atonement can lead truly desperate people to the worst places, and make them do the unthinkable.

Collects Underheist #1-5.

Genres: Comics, Comic Book

144 pages, Paperback

Published December 24, 2024

Reviews

[Rick Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Underheist is a surrealist dark fantasy crime tale from the Stray Bullets husband-and-wife team of David and Maria Lapham. The story details out a planned heist set forth by a debt-ridden man named David, that includes a small team of similarly desperate individuals. David has discovered that a team of bank robbers will be using tunnels to stash their loot and make their escape, and thus proposes to lift the money from underneath them. But things go wrong (as is to be expected from any heist tale), and David and his partners find themselves in more danger than they could have ever anticipated.

Underheist unfolds as a Lynchian take on the heist genre, with significant supernatural undertones. The story is ambitious, but I unfortunately found the narrative quite confusing and underdeveloped. The five-issue structure doesn't help the rather lofty scope of the series, and one might imagine this could have been better served as a film rather than a comic. The Laphams use their distinctive six-panel grid structure frequently, but the artwork doesn't look near as sharp as their work on Stray Bullets. There are interesting ideas here for sure, but I found this to be a rather underwhelming effort from the creators of one of the best crime comics series of all time.

[Drew Woodworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Laphams do it again with a humanistic heist tale gone wrong. However, this feels more like Young Liars than Stray Bullets with its supernatural turns and Lynchian structure. It is not always easy to follow, but if I paid close attention, the markers were usually there to make sense of the various twists and turns. Also, you have to approach it with the understanding that not everything will fit into neat little boxes. My only gripe was the coloring was a little dingy and dark and didn’t always mesh with Lapham’s austere linework. Or maybe I’m just used to his work in b&w.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stop Making Sense--David Byrne and Talking Heads

So, as of today this comic series volume 1 (or is it one and done?) , Underheist by David and Maria Lapham has a 2.53 rating, which is to say comics readers think it sucks. I kept wiondering what my comics reviewer go-tos--Sam Quixote, Rod Brown, Chad, Rick Ray, others--might think of it, and sure enough I wake to see Chad and Rick think it is one hot mess. And so did I, most of the way. And maybe still do. But I loved the crazy, inventive, diy, orginal, messy, funny/violent Stray Bullets by the Laphams, so I want to give them a little slack on their intentions. So I maybe think it is an intentionally hot mess, probably.

Never cookie cutter comics creators, the Laphams here create a series that is surreal, fantasy, with touches of the supernatural/occult. So it's a tribute, in a way, to David Lynch, throwing in elements mainly for the hell of it such as in Twin Peaks. The plot? Well, on the surface, it is about failed gambling addict David who hears of a way out of his paying bookies forever: A Heist that involves the NYC subways, where he once worked. Easy peasy. Get out of jail free card! What's not to love? And along the way, there are two women vying for his attention, that look alike, much like in Twin Peaks and other works. Doppleganger effects? And David's addiction mentor chides him for the heist plan but gets involved, anyway? It's like the therapist in Twin Peaks who is involved in the underbelly/underworld crime scene while claiming to help Laura.

The plot is crazy but I'll say not the point. The point, as with Twin Peaks, is invention, surreality, irrationality, sheer noir fun. Then I think of Jung and the sub-conscious, or the unconscious, the world underneath the world we think of as reality. Psychologival thriller. References are made throughout to David's wondering if any of this actually exists. And it probably doesn't. It's a nightmare vision of his life, a fantasy feverdreamesscape through the improbably dream of One Big Heist, solving his love problem along the way. Wounds get healed miraculously, as in dreams. Making sense is not the point. The occult designs tattooed or sewed into the necks or bellies of people? What's the point of that? Just to say: We are not in Kansas, anymore, Dorothy.

I dunno, it is probably still a bad comic, but it has some homage to Lynch intentions, and some batshit crazy purposely nonsensical elements I just went with, ultimately. The artwork is mostly digital, though still messy in a recognizable Lapham style, but unlike Stray Bullets, is not black and white, but colored sort of brightly in places by Hilary Jenkins.

[Aaron Martz · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some memorable, satanic images in this book, and one truly haunting scene where a man kills himself two times in six pages and you discover that he died twice before that ("God ... David. I'm under the bed."), but that's about all this book has going for it. I think the Laphams were going for a waking-nightmare time loop vibe here, something akin to Jacob's Ladder or Soul Survivor (to name one good and one bad example), but the book is too scattershot to pull it off, and just comes off as confusing and abbreviated, like half the original material was removed to cram it all into five issues. What you get instead is intended, or perhaps unintended, surrealism, which certainly adds to the waking-nightmare element. But even with surrealism you need characters and an emotional throughline, and that's what's missing here.

[Christopher Geraghty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like this graphic novel's protagonist David, I truly had no idea what I was signing up for when I bought this book. Nor did I have any idea of the "dark rabbit hole" I would fall into when I began reading it. Nor did I understand anything that I had read when I finished this book! What a book to finish 2024's reading challenge with!

[Matt Clark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love the concept and Underheist definitely has some striking moments, but as a whole this was a truly convoluted effort. Some of that certainly falls on the writing, but I also think the visual storytelling wasn't up to the task of effectively communicating a tale of doppelgangers and overlapping realities.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

I forced myself to get halfway though, couldn't go further.

A heist comic that doesn't establish it's leads, or show the heist, or give us anything to care about, that suddenly starts slipping in horror...it's a shitshow.

Avoid.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought the Laphams were better writers than this. It starts off about a heist gone wrong under Manhattan. Then it turns into some Jacob's Ladder scenario except I couldn't figure out what was actually happening through most of this. It's written so poorly. It's hard to believe this is from the same people who wrote Stray Bullets.

[Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can usually barge my way through a comic, even if I hate it...

Couldn't make it past the first 5 pages of the 1st issue. Nothing about this was engaging. Plenty of other comics to read that deliver on their premise.

[Eric Knapp · Rating 1 out of 5]

Barely comprehensible would be putting it mildly. There is no logical pacing or sequencing, the characters have little to no backstory or development, the protagonist is unlikable, the antagonist(s) make no sense. Avoid like the plague.

[Alican Kunta · Rating 3 out of 5]

way too inscrutable overall, and just when I was getting the hang of it the book ends abruptly.
I adore david lapham and stray bullets series, and I was going to read anything that he would create anyway but this won't even work on the most hard-core fans.