REVIEW: CLOVER HONEY SPEC ED TP

Does a graphic narrative become more noir if it is redrawn, re-lettered, and redesigned by the author twenty-three years after its initial release? For Rich Tommaso and Image Comics the answer seems to be yes. The re-release of the 1995 graphic novel, “Clover Honey”“ ”“ originally published with Fantagraphics ”“ achieves something in comics that is rarely done: delivering a re-issue that matters as much as the original publication.

“Clover Honey”“ defines its own genre ”“ the classic quirky crime novel ”“ from its very first pages, pages that Tommaso admits he did not quite get right in the 1995 edition due to complications with materials and coloring. Who knew back then? But few will quibble with these revised pages. The artwork in 2018“s “Clover Honey”“ captures the moods of its main characters ”“ Abigail, Trevor, Patty and parts of New Jersey with a kind of frenetic acuity that cultivates nostalgia.

This is the closest thing to the Sopranos that has been printed in graphic novel form. If Goodfellas is your favorite move or if an eternal internal debate rages within you as to the ranking of the Sopranos, The Wire, and Breaking Bad for all-time best television shows, then “Clover Honey”“ is your horse. And yes, Clover Honey is the name of the horse that Trevor should have gambled on but somehow and for some reason did not. And here is where “Clover Honey”“ ”“ the graphic novel, not the horse — distinguishes itself from its own criminal influences, even those that haunt the backgrounds of Tommaso“s panels via television.

By definition, a piece of noir fiction requires its characters to be cynical, morally ambiguous and at times, fatalistic. Abigail is your cynic, Trevor is fatalistic, and everyone ”“ and every family here is morally ambiguous. Tomasso“s vision for “Clover Honey”“ checks all of the noir boxes effortlessly. These qualities aren“t forced onto/into any of the characters or storylines. But the themes of ambiguity run throughout. Abigail is a hit man who is a woman and actually never kills anyone. Trevor is a degenerate gambler and thief who doesn“t really steal or gamble. And Patty is a desperate drug addict who has somehow gotten it all together.

That these characters aren“t what them seem is no real spoiler for this well-crafted work of graphic crime fiction. The story worlds that Trevor, Abigail, and Patty inhabit in “Clover Honey”“ provide the substantive experience that readers will cherish ”“ even if this is a return visit to the original 1995 publication. 4/5.

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(W) Rich Tommaso (A/CA) Rich Tommaso