Publisher: Dynamite
Writer: David F. Walker
Artist: Bilquis Evely
Editor: Joe Rybrandt
Release date: 28 October 2015
Price: $26.95
Dynamite
The name’s Shaft, John Shaft. He’s a complicated man and no-one understands him but his woman. If you didn’t understand that sentence, go look up your Dad’s ’70 music collection under the heading Isaac Hayes. The fact that the sub-title of this volume is A Complicated Man shows that the writers are respectfully aware of the heritage behind this character and are not going to try some half-baked re-boot that ditches all the past history that made him so great in the first place.
From the gloriously ‘70’s pastiche cover by artists supreme Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewitz to the opening statement by Shawn Taylor (a lecturer on popular culture and interdisciplinary humanities at San Francisco State University no less) promises big reveals into Shaft’s origin.
Shaft Vol. 1 is a serious, weighty enterprise looking to cement the Shaft legend and do away with any lingering doubts you might have that he was just a James Bond rip-off.
In Shaft Vol. 1 the story starts in 1968 and if you are easily offended by racial slurs and swearing go find something else to read. David F. Walker pulls no punches as we meet young ex-marine turned boxer John Shaft for the first time. Refusing to throw a fight ends in a beating and the end of his boxing career. Joining a detective agency sends him undercover in a department store catching shoplifters but before long he’s up to his neck in gangsters, guns, shootouts in back alleys and the search for a missing girl. Shaft Vol.1 collects six issues under one cover.
Suffice to say in Shaft Vol. 1 if you like your action raw, your dialogue uncompromising, your plotting tight and your artwork assured and beautifully rendered, this one is for you. Come to that if you’ve ever watched a TV cop show or read a detective novel, this is also for you.
Whatever memories or fondness you may have for Shaft’s previous incarnations, this version is likely to eclipse them all and become the most definitive John Shaft of all.
Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker