Everybody is the Creep
Spinning out of the Dark Horse Presents this mini series (four issues, five if you count # 0, that is a republication of the story published in DHP) talks about a lot of mature and harsh themes, from bullying to drug abuse (in a Dr. House kind of way). The Creep is a portrait of society (sure it's in the 80s but the lesson is timeless) where the real monster, at least in a physical way, is as a victim as all the rest. The Creep isn't necessarily the ugliest one, but how you imagine bad things about someone, like judging people. This pulp crime story about a detective (that has a condition that makes his body deformed and big - the main character) hired by an ex lover to discover the reasons behind her son's suicide, as I said, is a personal journey for discover of society's ills and a deep reflexion of the human condition. It's interesting when you see a deformed man that can't connect with others, you instantly think that it's reasonable, right?, but it's different, strange and often agressive to see normal, beautiful, healthy people destroyed by life, with depression, people that can't live their lives because they're afraid, because they can't connect or relate, some because of psychological problems, others psichiatrics conditions, this is the human nature: starving for relations, but when you manage to create some, even in a subconscious level, you undermine it, you help destroy beautiful things. Ok, enough philosophy, this was a very good story, nice dialogues, a very good pace, the main character's journey for the truth is excellent, especially when he tries to be "normal", you can't tell if it's a real attempt of being accepted by others or it's just him doing his job, the truth is that he pisses off a lot of people. Also Jonathan Case's ilustrations and coloring are fantastic, he's a very talented artist. That being said, all the praise, unfortunately the conclusion (the last issue) isn't very good, not necessarily because Arcudi shifted the thread, not at all, the change of the boy's suicide reason was very good, but it's how things developed in this final issue that kind lowed the rate of this amazing comic book, what is a pity, because all the other issues were pretty solid. I still recommend it though, better material than most things being published every month!