Sam And Twitch: The Writer

Sam and Twitch (collected editions)

by Luca Blengino, Luca Erbetta (Illustrator), Fabio Bono (Illustrator)

The famed Italian creative team of Blengino, Erbetta, and Bono spin a hard-boiled crime fiction tale in the boroughs of NYC. In the dead of winter with a snowstorm looming a routine homicide investigation has a literary twist -- the killer is writing a story on his victims' bodies across the city. Classic Spawn Detectives Sam Burke and Twitch Williams break out on their own in this fresh new story.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Crime, Pulp, Mystery

110 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 2010

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to say I was disappointed. When I found out an Italian comics creative team made a Sam & Twitch comic, I was excited. The art and coloring were top notch, but a curious design choice with the lettering made this extremely difficult to read. They decided to forego word balloons and apply the words directly on the art. White text on outside scenes during a snowstorm are extremely difficult to read. In addition the font was really small. They may have made this decision because there is a lot of text in this comic. More than some prose novels. If they had placed word balloons on the page, you may have not been able to see the art at all. Reading most of this was a tedious bore unfortunately.

The other strange thing in the book is one of the characters is worried about being deported back to Puerto Rico from New York. Puerto Rico is an American territory. He's an American citizen even if he only speaks Spanish. I get that Italian creators might not know that, but you'd think someone from Image would. Although nothing surprises me anymore about the willful ignorance of some Americans.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good hard boiled crime story. Sam and Twitch was really an underrated series, as it was one of the few (maybe the only) monthly crime comic on the stand at the time. This one keeps you guessing with several twists and turns. The ending may not have been the most original, but it wasn't something you'd see coming from the start either. The art fits the story well for another plus.

I'd recommend this for any fan of hard boiled crime comics, or any mystery fan that enjoys graphic novels.

[Jemir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even before the self contained mini-series and spin off's Detectives Sam Burke and Maximilian "Twitch" Williams were the characters I looked most forward to seeing back in the early days when I read Spawn (my connection with them deepened when the animated series - and the awesome voice done by James Kean {Sam} and Michael Mcshane {Twitch} - debuted). They're decorated homicide detective who operate in a corrupt setting where super natural things can haappen but aren't the norm.

In the case depicted in this collection - which I suspect someone that likes H.B.O's "True Detective" might enjoy - we get an apparent case of a serial killer, telling his or her story via passages left behind at each murder scene, building towards an end game Sam and Twitch have to figure out before it's too late.

The thrust of the story comes from getting to know the suspects, their possible motives and seeing how far even the virtuous may go to make sure the "appearance" of order was maintained even at the risk of seeing innocents put at risk. There are some sub plots and character arcs that seem like unneccesry, barely connected, distractions until the latter half of the story (which I only point out to a potential reader on the chance they get frustrated seeing the major arc get clipped on occassion for reason that may not make much sense with the intial read)but everything does manage to fall together nicely (storywise) and makes for an enjoyable read (note: avoidede typing the words "Good Read" so I wouldn't have to type "no pun intended" ... like I just did lol).

[Clinton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Detective Burke is a huge unlikeable asshole in this. I know that's his whole shtick, but at this point in his characters development, sitting within the general Spawn story, I'd think his character would be less of an ass. But instead he falls into the cliche trope of giving the new woman psychologist detective shit and she just takes it. Sam warms up to her, and there's a slight hint of sexual tension, which is unbelievable that this beautiful intelligent woman would for no reason like this abusive moron of a guy. Besides that, the story is average. The art is nice and imagines the characters of Sam and Twitch well.

[Vasilis Giannopoulos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Σχετικά αδιάφορη αστυνομικού τύπου ιστορία, η αλήθεια είναι ότι για κάποιον λόγο περίμενα κάτι πολύ καλύτερο, για αυτό άλλωστε αγόρασα κι αυτό το τομάκι. Ωστόσο, περισσότερο απογοητεύτηκα παρά δεν μου άρεσε. Πτώματα αρχίζουν να ανακαλύπτονται χαραγμένα με κομμάτια από ότι φαίνεται από κάποιο μυθιστόρημα. Οι ντεντέκτιβ του τίτλου, που από ότι κατάλαβα υπάρχουν κι άλλες ιστορίες τους εκεί έξω, ξετυλίγουν το νήμα λοιπόν, με λίγο σασπένς, λίγο υποβόσκον love story και ανατροπές. Όχι κακό, όχι τίποτα αξιόλογο.

[The Smoog · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this, but overall it’s forgettable. The artwork is ok, the story middling and kinda rambling at parts, one of the main characters is a douche while the other doesn’t really do much or figure into the story at all. Another major failing is the decision not to use speech bubbles, writing the text straight onto the artwork, which makes large portions of the book painful to read. If this is representative of the Sam & Twitch stories, then I’m not sure what the hype is about.

[ShahadDocs271 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detective awesomeness. Artwork was fire but the story was mid and kinda disappointing.

[Nicolas Gaultier]

D'kd