Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Whore GN
Zenescope Entertainment
Kaufman & Turini
If you are intrigued by the title of this comic book then it’s safe to say the creators succeeding in drawing attention to their book. Whore is definitely not for the timid as the story is about a federal agent that loses his job and takes on many odd jobs, some of which involve sleeping around, to make ends meet. However, the story goes a bit deeper than just a man that has a lot of sex and kills off a bunch of people. The comic evolves into a story with a purpose that has a fairly significant payoff at the end. I found this book to start off as a dark parody that turned into a page-turner that left me stunned at the end. For the most part the book is PG-13 (a lot cursing and very soft sex scenes with no nudity) that was a very entertaining and definitely worth a look.
Whore is about a guy named Jacob Mars. Mars is an agent of some kind that gets let go from his job. In order to stay alive and relatively employed he takes on odd jobs from an anonymous benefactor of sorts. Hence the title “Whore”. It’s important to note that he is an experienced and very excellent killer.
However, the book is so much more complex than that. The jobs he takes range from trying to impregnate a dignitary’s wife to becoming a dog handler in a prestigious dog show to taking a bodyguard job in an organized crime ring. The jobs reveal more about Mars’ personality and that is where the real story is in this comic book.
Mars is an annoying, sexually driven, killer that has crude humor and a one-track mind no matter where he goes. While some of the scenes are funny others pass off as immature. However, the attitude and the characterization have a payoff in the end as we learn more about the man instead of his sexual conquests. If the book didn’t explore his man-whore side so much the revelations wouldn’t have had the same punch.
As far as the jobs he undertakes are concerned they are fairly clever. On the surface they seem all very standard, but each one gets a little deeper and then adds in a twist or some uniqueness to it that makes the plot stand out a little more. For the most part the jobs are memorable on some level.
The artwork in the book is very similar to a Howard Chaykin book. The characters all have an edge to them, including the sexy ones. The scenes are never subtle and tell a gritty, reality based story. If you are looking for a super hero type comic book then this is definitely not for you. This book is Miami Vice only with different, but still outdated clothing. The book has some quirkiness to the scenes as some of the inventiveness to conceal the nudity got a little too comical, but there’s a level of charm in pulling that off. This is a good visual book for the type of dark satire this story is about.
Whore is not a book for everyone. That isn’t to say its wall to wall sex, cursing and sarcasm. While there is a good deal of it, this is more the type of story where the characters aren’t likeable, there aren’t any good guys and you probably want to see the lead character tortured at some point. It reminds me of Criminal in that way. However, the book is definitely different and there is room for that on everyone’s “buy pile”. If you like a little espionage, a gun for hire and a loud mouthed jerk for a lead character then I think you might be on to something with this one. Regardless of what you are into, I think this book is worth a look.
4 out of 5 Geek Goggles
