Switchblade Stories #6 is a comic written and drawn by Chris Askham. After many months away Darla May makes her return to the Furies and learns about what transpired while she was gone. This is a pulpy lesbian crime drama that stars a group of rough women. The leading lady this time around is Darla May, she has just done a stint in prison and has returned to her old stomping grounds in search of Mindy Lou. Also playing a prominent role here is Honeydew, a cop who went undercover in the Furies and fell in love with Mindy Lou. Mindy Lou was the newly “elected” leader of the furies and the last time she was seen was during a big dustup between another gang and the cops. The story begins with Darla May returning to the Furies headquarters and seeing everything in ruin. She runs into a victim of the Furies named Lucille and learns about what actually went down. This comic takes place in a 1950’s/60’s world that is similar to how ours was. The violence here is brutal and very bloody with no gore. The pacing is slightly slower than normal as there is a lot of talking and information. The tone is very serious and the intensity is high and palpable. The dialogue has some older slang and the characters talk like they’re on a black-and-white TV show, just with more vulgarity. This is mostly conversational with some narration for certain scenes. There are now word-heavy pages but a decent amount of pages get close. This is the exciting and emotional final issue for a series about lesbian love, women-only gangs, and living fast. There are some bonus stories, mini-comics, and in-world ads after the conclusion of the main story.

            The art here is very pulp-inspired and it looks like something you’d see from the early days of comics. Even the page itself has stains and wrinkles. There is plenty of well-done shading and coloring itself looks like it’s from the past as well. The color range here is wide though most of them are faded or on the darker side. There isn’t much in the way of scenery here aside from a couple shots of a desert. The starting location is the Furies’ headquarters but it’ll move to dark alleyways and seedy hangouts. The backgrounds are more often gradient colors of varying quality(on purpose) so seeing the surroundings of the scene is semi-rare. The expression level here is on the lower end as these are hard women who don’t really show how they feel. They do show anger but the main emotions are sadness and resignation. The faces are decently drawn and all the expressions come across clearly. The violence is brutal with hard hits and a large amount of blood. The action scenes come in short bursts and they flow well.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like pulpy crime dramas starring nothing but gang-affiliated women in the 1950’s/60’s who are all lesbian and get violent then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, blood.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“So, you got a smoke, or what?”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/managementproject/switchblade-stories-issues-1-to-6/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 23

Violent Pages: 6, for 25% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 2, for 8% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 3

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 1

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 3

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”