Espresso Detective #4 is a comic written and drawn by Eric Erdek with additional art by Arreola Draws and Anonymous. A private investigator attempts to put the pieces together in order to save trafficked victims. This is a comic that is part mystery and part police procedural with some noir vibes. The leading lad for this story is Caetano Sanchez, a man referred to as the “Mexican P.I.” despite not being Mexican. He is an accomplished investigator and sometimes uses less-than-legal methods to discover information. His cases tend to be both dangerous and heartbreaking and he suffers from depression. This issue begins no more than a couple hours from where the previous one ended with Sanchez attempting to get some assistance on this case. We also get a glimpse at what has transpired with Perla since her abduction. This takes place near the US-Mexico border and in Los Angeles. The pacing here varies as the noir elements are slower and the action moments are faster. The violence here is very bloody but not really gory. The tone is serious the entire time with a few lighthearted moments mixed in. There is a prolonged air of high intensity that rarely lets up. The dialogue is full of anger and combativeness and this is paired with the occasional noir commentary and crude humor. The few wordy pages that are here tend to be conversational so they don’t read slow. This is a comic that has strong characters and a plot that is difficult to predict with many of the moments within being stressfully intense.
The art here has a roughish slightly gritty look to it with an emphasis on shading and the way light falls. The colors are mostly brown and dark and overall will remind you of a film set south of the border. There isn’t much in the way of scenery and what we do see is usually dirt and highways. The atmosphere seems hot which is corroborated by the way the sun beams down and how most of the people are dressed. The location is constantly changing here from seedy complex and houses to a police station and a nightclub. All these areas seem authentic. The panel backgrounds usually contain scene elements but during action moments it can turn into solid colors. The expression level here is average due to there being a number of hard, rough characters who don’t like to show emotions other than anger. Some of the less prominent people pick up the slack and give us a decent range of looks. The faces normally have a high amount of detail from lips to eyebrows and wrinkles but they can seem a bit too smooth when farther away. The action scenes have a decent flow for the most part but you can get a get a bit lost. The violence is gun-heavy and gets very bloody.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes.
“Would I like this?”
If you like mystery stories starring a slightly depressed P.I. in modern times in a story with noir vibes that takes place in California and Mexico with some bloody violence than this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Blood, gore, nudity, sex.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“Lemme get my club,I’ll beat you ‘till you make sense-”
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/espressodetective/espresso-detective-all-new-no4-plus-issues-1-3-relaunch/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 35
Violent Pages: 9, for 26% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 4, for 11% 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 – 4
“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 – 4
“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 – 5
“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.”