Mike S. Miller’s Deal with the Devil
Alias Enterprises
Created and Written by Mike S. Miller
Art and Letters by Sherwin Schwartzcock
Colors by David Curie
Ever since Ed Gein came into the public eye, serial killers have been a staple of crime drama. Norman Bates, Hannibal Lecter, Michael Meyers – we’ve seen a lot of variety and characters. The well’s running dry, but people keep going back to it. It seems that only one in a hundred “hunter” stories are truly unique – everything else is a just standard detective chase with a gimmick. The Cell – water. In Dreams – psychic powers. Copycat – well…copying.
So in Deal with the Devil, we have a serial killer who’s promised to stop killing. Not before maiming the detective that’s chasing him down, unfortunately for Anthony Goodwin. Miller shows us the final chase and life after amputation, and that’s the bulk of the book. Agent Goodwin corners “Daniel” in a warehouse, is soundly trounced, hears the proclamation, and gets to see the face of a 36-time killer before being shot repeatedly in the legs.
Cut to Goodwin’s apartment. It’s a hovel, of course – any former detective has to live in depressed squalor. There’s a news report about the “Red Letter Killer” adding 10 more to his scorecard since Goodwin got his lead injections. His son comes by, they talk, and the conversation gives us more exposition into this broken man’s broken psyche. The son leaves, and then we get the twist – “Daniel” shows up at Goodwin’s door.
Issue 1 is so by the numbers that it leaves you in an interesting place – There’s really no indication of how well the rest of the story will go. It could rock, it could suck, or it could just another serial-killer story.
A word about the art – like the story, it’s competent. Schwartzcock does a decent job giving us the aged, wheezing detective and the regretful killer. It’s not the masterwork of, say, Goseki Kojima, but Schwartzcock gives us a slightly cinematic treatment with enough panache to pull things through.
