Britten and Brülightly

by Hannah Berry

A gorgeously drawn, strikingly original graphic-novel murder mystery

Private detective Fernández Britten is an old hand at confirming the dark suspicions of jealous lovers and exposing ugly truths of all varieties. Battered by years of bearing ill tidings, he clings to the hope of revealing, just once, a truth that will do some good in the world. It is a redemption that has long eluded him.

Then Britten and his unconventional partner, Brülightly, take on the mysterious death of Berni Kudos. The official verdict is suicide, but Berni’s fiancée is convinced that the reality is something more sinister. Blackmail, revenge, murder: each new revelation stirs up the muddy waters of painful family secrets, and each fresh twist takes the partners further from Britten’s longed-for salvation. Doing good in the world, he discovers, may have more to do with silence than truth.

A haunting story of love and grief, sharply written and luminously drawn, Britten and Brülightly is sure to establish Hannah Berry in the front rank of graphic novelists.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Noir, Graphic Novels Comics

112 pages, Paperback

First published May 6, 2008

Reviews

[Ksenia (vaenn)]

Я і друг мій - чайний пакетик.

На перший погляд Britten and Brülightly - це такий рознуаристий нуар: дощ періщить, суворі люди суплять брови, хтось вбиває (а хіба ні?), хтось самовбивається (а, може, ні?), хтось когось шантажує (а це вже точняк!), хтось комусь погрожує і поміж тим всім тиняється приватний детектив, якого регулярно б'ють і взагалі з ним всяке недобре трапляється.

На другий погляд Britten and Brülightly - це така ніжна й віддана, хоча й добряче пародійна шана класичному британському детективу 1930-40-х і взагалі і творчості Агати Крісті зокрема, чого й не збирається приховувати ("Ви з Еквадору? А я думала - француз"). І вся ота брутальність, як придивитися, крутиться не стільки навколо великого бізнесу (великий бізнес тут, до речі, видавничий) та мафіозних тьорок, скільки довкруж тонких переливів в стосунках між людьми та їхніми сімейними поєднаннями. Зрештою, тут і починається все з намагання Рокової Спадкоємиці довести, що її наречений собі віку не вкорочував.

А на третій погляд Britten and Brülightly - це така щемка до скупої сльозинки історія про безкінечну самотність і неможливість поставити життя на правильні рейки. Приватні розслідування - це справжнє покликання Фернандеса Бріттена, але майже вся його кар'єра крутилася навколо доказів шлюбної невірності, і як би він не мріяв переключитися на вбивства - "що б ви не робили - кожного разу кулемет виходить". Розбивач сердець (в поганому сенсі слова) - це діагноз. А коли з усього світу тебе підтримати може тільки сусід з офісу з його нескінченним потоком проповідей та чайний пакетик (так, пан Брюлайтлі - це чайний пакетик) - якось це дуже сумно. Але "та одну людину я від правди врятував" - іще сумніше.

[Trish]

I love the idea of graphic novels. I love the idea that drawings can instantly tell us things about people and situtions and language provides depth, gloss, and character. Persepolis gave us serious biography graphically, and now Britten and Brülightly takes us part of the way to what I imagine is possible for graphic literature. The art is superbly suitable for the noirish mystery. It was nuanced, and showed us slight variations in meanings. The choice of frames impelled the story forward at a reasonable clip (could, perhaps, have used a few more frames as I had to flip back a couple times). The authorial voice for Britten is dour and dry and funny. I loved the characterizations. I hated the ending, however. I do not usually criticize what the author has decided to present, but I do criticize how they present it. (Although I criticized the 'what' with Sharp Objects.) The story line here was perhaps not all I would have wished, but the effort is exceptional. I look forward to the direction this book has moved us.

[Adia]

a depressed, schizophrenic private detective is employed on a case of suspicious suicide with help from his partner, an upbeat yet lascivious teabag. the investigation reveals murder, blackmail and mutilation. the artwork is stunning, and fits the dark storyline well.

[Dov Zeller]

I think the only fair thing I can do in reviewing this book is quote from other GR reviews (ranging in their appointment of stars), which begins to feel like a bit of a mystery in itself. (I didn't love the book, but there is a lot in it to be admired.)

"A graphic novel about a pair of detectives, one of whom is, indeed, a teabag (see if you can guess which from their names...). Fernandez Britten is weary of being 'the Heartbreaker', famous for investigating adultery cases and wrecking families. He takes on instead a case about an apparent suicide, possible a murder; but finds troubling links back to an unhappy investigation from years ago." - Jason Mills

"But I don't get the appeal of this book. (It's about a private eye whose partner is a lecherous teabag...)" -Dorian

"Don't let the fact that his 'unconventional' partner is a tea-bag fool you: this is a very depressing story, with a tragic ending. Every page is filled with a dark color scheme, and even darker meanings."
- Rachel

"Britten and Brulightly are both P.I.s, but one of them is literally a teabag. This absurd little detail is funny at first but sort of pointless in the end. Maybe if I were British it would have a deeper resonance for me." -Abby

"The teabag is a literal teabag named Stewart Brülightly (get it?), and unfortunately the reason behind his existence is never hinted at or elaborated upon. A coping mechanism for a schizophrenic gum shoe?" - Bethany

"Narrative voiced in cursive sounds like a gumshoe - speech bubbles for the rest of the characters. Love the tone of the narrator - cleverly depressed." -Raina

"There is an underlying absurdity that pulls the gritty and twisting mystery into a unique and appealing world." - Owen Watts

[Drew Canole]

Closer to a 4 than a 2. And I do want to check out more work by this creator.

The artwork is gorgeous but I didn’t get too interested in this complex Private Investigator story. Britten is hired by a woman to investigate her husband’s mysterious death which everyone but her assumes was just a simple suicide. He ends up exploring a dark side of a publishing business involving black mail, murder and secret love affairs.

[Jennifer]

This beautifully drawn GN debut chronicles the adventures of hopeless cynical detective Frenandez Britten and his um, unusual partner Brulightly, a wry, sarcastic, talking...teabag. Yes, I know. It was odd, but I went with it. It's not apparent whether Brulightly is
actually talking or if it's a figment of Britten's imagination. They strive to solve a convoluted murder disguised as a suicide, but I was confused by the unclear relationships between characters early on, and
stayed that way. The tone is very grim, existential and hopeless, punctuated by a few bright spots of Brulightly's humor (after getting soaked in Britten's pocket during a rainy chase, says, "I think I just infused in your pocket"). Also, the handwritten typeface was very hard to read, especially layered over the darkly tinted pictures. Gorgeous art, but confusing storyline.

[Chris Dietzel]

I saw this at a library book store and while I'd never heard about it and don't read many graphic novels I figured I'd take a chance. It exceeded my expectations and combined a nicely crafted story with really good art. If you like a good detective story or graphic novels you'll really enjoy this.

[Tom LA]

Very good graphic novel about a depressed private investigator and his colleague, who happens to be a physical, literal teabag (it’s never explained how or why, it’s a fantasy element).

The art is gorgeous, moody, it has personality. I loved all those vertical shots, very fine work that the author does with perspectives.

I found the deluge of hysterical praises on the back cover a little off-putting : why are they so over-the-top? Especially the one by the Daily Telegraph: “One of the most gloriously inventive and appealing comic book debuts in years”. They sound as if this book was at the “From Hell” level of greatness. While the story is very good, it’s not great.

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

A stunningly dark noir graphic novel. The plot is incredibly complicated, which is a feature of noir, but

[Rosamund]

The visual style of this novel particularly appealed to me and tallied with the noirish atmosphere and bleak humour.

[Travis Duke]

(1.5 stars) where do I begin? first of all, the handwritten font is just terrible and illegible. secondly the main character is drop dead boring, the story is a classic murder mystery and it is O.K. at best. The art is just O.K. as well. the book doesn't really deserve any more of my time, done and good riddance.

[Raina]

Love the illustration - although I'd love to see what Berry will do with a broader color palette, even though the minimalist color palette fit the tone of this piece extremely well. Noir investigation with a touch of a sense of humor. Narrative voiced in cursive sounds like a gumshoe - speech bubbles for the rest of the characters. Love the tone of the narrator - cleverly depressed.

"Given though I am to the occasional notion of counter-survival, I didn't enjoy the idea of a stranger assuming the role of my executioner.
It was presumptuous, and I resented it."

[Jessica Fure]

So maybe it's a bit Chinatown - is that really a crime? Does the protagonist remind one slightly - ever so slightly - of Poirot? Are there questions at the beginning that aren't answered in the end? Yes, but this book wanders around these issues in a manner that makes one forgive and forget the flaws.

[Petar Vučković]

I think I got it at the end. I think. You kinda have to go back to be sure. Names are very important because you can get lost like I did. It was dark but I couldn't put it down.

My sister got this from library and the art style of the graphic novel looked beautiful so I picked it up. I still think that I didn't get it. I might be wrong, but the experience of reading was very good. 4 stars

[jedioffsidetrap]

Beautifully drawn & laid out. I didn't follow the twists & couldn't keep the characters straight, but 4 stars for the art. And the talking tea bag.

[Asta Schmitz]

Really liked this, particularly the writing.

[Bry]

This was quite a strange little book.

This is the story of a "researcher" (apparently he dislikes the name private investigator) Fernandez Britten who is working the case of Bernie Kudos, an man who committed suicide...or did he?

I will say I really enjoyed the art in this graphic novel. It had a very dark watercolor look to it. My only complaint was that the action scenes were so dark that it was hard to see enough details to follow what exactly was happening. The lines were all very soft, despite all the characters having very hard features. It walked the line between hard and soft very well.

A big issue I had with it though was the text fonts. Both the dialog font and the narrative font were handwriting fonts (maybe the authors?) and very hard to read. The narrative font was a cursive and the dialog font was a all uppercase style font. Both were much too close together and a bit chicken scratch-y.

Where this book lost me was the overall plot and the ending. It got very convoluted as all the characters were introduced and their story lines were revealed. I felt like I needed to make a family tree for half the characters just so that I could understand the subplots.

Plus what the hell was up with his partner??? Brulightly, Brittens partner was a teabag. Yes, you read that right a TEABAG. A teabag, that talks, and at one point accidentally infuses himself with Britten's vest (which he rides around in) when Britten is caught out in the rain. I seriously thought Britten was a Schizophrenic for half the book just for the reason that he was talking to a teabag!

Then there was the ending, and not the murder mystery ending, but the ending for the character Britten...on the very last page shows Britten lying in bed surrounded by pills and a glass of water after burning his life's work and thinking pretty depressed thoughts. I seriously thought he was committing suicide. True the pills could have been pain pills for his hand, but they were scattered about and the bottles looked pretty empty. So was he committing suicide??

All in all it was an interesting read and I am sure lots of people would enjoy it, but I just found it a bit too strange, and the hard to read fonts were very annoying.

[Owen Watts]

Another purchase from a local "Ladyeez Do Comics" event (Spring 2013 in Bristol) from speaker Hannah Berry. This, her first graphic novel, is a dark noir following a morose private investigator (Britten) and his partner who is a talking teabag (Brülightly). There is an underlying absurdity that pulls the gritty and twisting mystery into a unique and appealing world. Visually it's stunningly rendered and has a palpable physicality - Britten resembles a character from Chomet's Triplets of Belleville (and is frequently mistaken for being French presumably as an acknowledgment to this) - the moody greytones never quite spill over into full black-and-white and some of the more rainwashed scenes are breathtakingly atmospheric. The lettering is all freehand as well - and mostly works well although Britten's inner monologue is in a fussy joined-up handwriting that is sometimes difficult to read - and also the placement of some passages go against the reader's eye. This doesn't occur frequently however and it is not enough to prevent it being a thoroughly absorbing and remarkably unique graphic novel that marks Berry as a name to shout about. Her second book, an out-and-out horror called Adamtine, is going straight on my to-buy list.

[Jason Mills]

"Don't be lecherous. You're a teabag."

A graphic novel about a pair of detectives, one of whom is, indeed, a teabag (see if you can guess which from their names...). Fernandez Britten is weary of being "the Heartbreaker", famous for investigating adultery cases and wrecking families. He takes on instead a case about an apparent suicide, possible a murder; but finds troubling links back to an unhappy investigation from years ago.

The story is complex, the dialogue dry and witty, but underlying the sordid intricacies of human machinations is Britten's growing disillusionment with the value of "truth" and his recognition of the harm his work has caused. The atmospheric artwork uses watery palettes and distancing perspectives that make the dark, cramped city seem like a rat run. Berry is good at conveying story through pictures too, although the wordless spread where Britten puts it all together made my brain hurt - in a good way! :) An original and intriguing debut.

[Katie]

"Nowadays I don't get out of bed for less than a murder."


Fernandez Britten, "researcher", and his less-than-conventional partner, teabag Stewart Brulightly, are on the case when approached to solve a suicide-deemed-not-a-suicide by the man's fiance. What follows is true noir fiction. Hannah Berry both wrote and illustrated the graphic novel, and the artwork is truly gorgeous.

Despite Britten's pessimistic attitude (he is known as The Heartbreaker, for before this suicide, his cases only concerned digging up dirt for jealous lovers), the novel is infused with subtle humor. My favorite scene concerns an adventure in the rain, in which Brulightly must apologize for "infusing" in Britten's pocket.

Berry is one to watch.

[Mark]

“Ten years ago I began a private investigation agency with the glorious aim of serving humanity and righting wrongs. In all those years the only wrongs righted have been on my tax returns.”
Meet private detective Fernandez Britten, although he actually prefers private “researcher”. He is hired by a young woman to look into the mysterious suicide of her fiancé. Along with his highly unconventional sidekick Brulightly, Britten begins to investigate and quickly finds himself entangled in a complex web of danger and deceit.
This wonderfully atmospheric graphic mystery, has a classic noir texture, echoing both Chandler and Hammett. The illustrations, shaded in blues and grays, are beautifully rendered. This is Berry’s first novel and it’s a knock-out.

[Abby]

British noir comic that is quite beautiful to behold with all its gloomy grey washes and two page-spreads of pencil shaded city landscapes. Britten and Brulightly are both P.I.s, but one of them is literally a teabag. This absurd little detail is funny at first but sort of pointless in the end. Maybe if I were British it would have a deeper resonance for me. A fun read but not earth-shattering.

[Mara]

"Absolute morality is a luxury for the short-sighted."

Gorgeous graphic novel. Some of the cursive could be difficult to read at times. Great mystery and Fern (who is not French!) is a sad and thoughtful "researcher." The illustrations perfectly capture the mood and tone of the work.

[Jason]

Interesting, intricate plot but ultimately hard to follow. The narrative script was difficult to read. Gorgeously illustrated, though--I can't state that enough. I would probably have appreciated it more with a second read through. Maybe another time, but probably not.

[Jim]

i sure this is the wierdest book i'll read this month

[Jason]

Nice debut, and a good wee crime noir with a very novel premise, and i like to be suprised, art work was excellent and captured the mood. Looking forward to her other work.

[Dominick]

Hannah Berry offers a respectable but not entirely successful take on the noir mystery. The muddy palette serves the noir mood well, along with the moral greyness typical of noirs; it keeps the reader almost subliminally depressed/on edge as protagonist Fernandez Britten (known as Fern and repeatedly taken for French, for reasons not entirely clear). Typical noir elements are present, naturally--blackmail, betrayal, adultery, murder, sexuality--but there are tongue in cheek elements such as the gang of murderous waiters, or the fact that Britten's partner Brulightly is a teabag. Like, literally. (Brew lightly: get it?) Why Britten talks to a teabag he takes everywhere is opaque to me and does not really seem to add anything here, other than a signal eccentricity for our protagonist. The fact that he's even more of a depressive than the typical noir detective probably was enough to establish that however; he seems to end the book having finally acted on the suicidal impulses he has referenced several times earlier. The mystery itself perhaps leans too hard into noir conventions, and the first-person narrative voice is hard to read, as it is hand-written in black ink on a usually grey background (the one technical element here that Berry does not master; typically, she has an excellent sense of design and pacing), but fans of the genre might enjoy it. Others might be more puzzled than anything.

[Dale Parnell]

A beautifully drawn graphic novel, Britten and Brulightly follows a private investigator struggling to come to terms with the misery his numerous investigations have wrought. Nicknamed "The Heartbreaker", Britten and his very unusual partner, Brulightly, are called upon to investigate the apparant suicide of an outwardly happy man by his grieving financee. As Britten digs into the story, threads and past encounters weave together in a typically noir fashion - and at the end, Britten has to decide just what cost the truth is worth paying.
There is a melancoly that pervades this book, the bleak skylines and almost constant rain, paint a world that is being washed away at the edges - matching perfectly the sadness that pours out of the main character, Britten. Hannah Berry presents a man beaten by life, and the unanswered questions surrounding his unusual partner, Brulightly, add a strange texture to the story. Hannah doesnt offer any backstory or explaination, and as the reader you are left wondering if you are supposed to take it on face value, or question what it possibly says about Britten himself. Personally, I enjoy the ambiguity, and different readings illicit a different theory each time.
This is a wonderful graphic novel, sad and affecting, whilst having an engaging and exciting plot that holds your attention to the very end. A truly remarkable debut!

[Janet]

Fernandez Britten is a depressed private investigator in this inventive noir graphic novel.

He's seen so many cases that have ended badly for the people that have asked him to do investigations that he's earned the nickname “Heartbreaker”.

But he agrees to take one more case, the apparent suicide of a client's fiance.

I so wanted to love this novel. How many detectives have a partner, who, is in fact a teabag (Brulightly) which he keeps with him and consults about cases? And the artwork is darkly wonderful with many faces and figures hidden in clouds and reflections.

And yet, I didn't love it. The written text was sometimes hard to read against the gray background, and when the dark gray pictures became the story line I also found it hard to follow. I actually read it several times, looking for what I missed.

This one just didn't quite work for me.

[Andrew]

This is a fairly well-written and well-drawn noir mystery graphic novel. There is one rather surreal element to it, and it's mentioned in other reviews, but I won't spell it out here. I don't think it was really necessary though, and I'm not sure why it was done.

The conclusion of the mystery is a bit clichéd, but this book is more about the journey than the destination, I think. It's quite moody and atmospheric.

Most of the text is first-person narration from the main character, Britten, and is done in a kind of sloppy handwriting style. That looks good on the page, and matches the art well, but it's a bit frustrating to read. I wish they'd made a different choice on that.

Overall, I'd recommend this if you want to read an offbeat, moody, noir comic, and you don't mind a bit of surrealism and some iffy lettering.