Carlos Trillo

A sort of effed up retelling of Romeo and Juliet that liberally mixes in crime noir, magical realism, and metafiction until its just one giant mess.

A Robert Mitchum type is the alcoholic ex-cop turned private detective who intervenes in a blackmail scheme against a young woman put on a pedestal as the "Intact Virgin" by her dictator uncle in a vaguely 1950s vaguely Latin American country called, yes, La Colonia. Events unfold without much mystery or tension with regular insertions of sex show more (often of the rape and incest variety) and violence. Once an impossible number of events begin to pile up in the course of one night, the length of the night becomes a thing itself. The writer employs an "Our Town" device by having a couple secondary characters repeatedly break the fourth wall to address the reader about events in the book.

This 2020 Hard Case Crime release was originally published in Spanish in the 1990s. show less

After an argument Cicca's niece Nicole decides to leave her aunt (oh thy traitorous heart) and unexpectedly ends up in harem of one of the rich Arabians.

Her aunt comes after her to save her and manages to broker the deal after a lot of ... persuasion and rather flexible negotiations :) that bring aunt and niece together (although niece likes it in the harem :))

Especially impressive is the way Cicca extracts the information from the man that passed her niece to the sheikh :) poor man :)

Again, show more adult and rather explicit and not for politically correct. But give it a try :) show less

Light, most beautiful woman ever, conditioned to the level that she is completely impervious to pain and complete blank when it comes to emotions.

Bold, large gorilla of a man, man capable of destroying buildings by just opening front doors. Large killing machine but with the heart of the poet. When he comes across Light lightning strikes them both and unlikely romance is born. Such a potent force that it will bring doom to anyone standing in their way.

Narrator, voice behind the story, show more utterly disgusted (lol) by the bizarre story but forced to narrate because, hey, he needs to live off something :):) Authors truly had good time working on this one.

Now put evil scientists, shady arms dealers and spies just looking for a possibility of sex into equation and you get one rather weird, weird story :)

Had a great fun with this one. Recommended to all who are looking for parody on thrillers and spy novels, something strange and funny :) show less

The second volume of Borderline continues with more pure comics goodness, combining Carlos Trillo's over-the-top sci-fi storyline with Eduardo Risso's stunning black-and-white art. On some level, it's all standard ultra-violent post-apocalyptic stuff (a recipe made up of well-familiar ingredients), but it's delivered with such style and attention to narrative pacing that it works brilliantly. If you only know Risso's artwork from 100 Bullets, it's well worth checking out the Borderline show more series to experience his beautiful line without the distraction of someone else's coloring laid on top. show less