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100 Bullets

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For the game, see 100 Bullets (video game)
100 Bullets
Cover to 100 Bullets vol. 1 "First Shot, Last Call". Cover art by Dave Johnson.
Publication information
PublisherVertigo
ScheduleMonthly
FormatOngoing series
Genre
Publication dateAugust 1999 – April 2009
No. of issues100
Main character(s)Agent Graves
Mr. Shepherd
The Minutemen
Dizzy Cordova
Loop Hughes
Creative team
Created byBrian Azzarello
Eduardo Risso
Written byBrian Azzarello
Artist(s)Eduardo Risso
Dave Johnson
Colorist(s)Grant Goleash
Patricia Mulvihill
Collected editions
First Shot, Last CallISBN 1-56389-645-1
Split Second ChanceISBN 1-56389-711-3

100 Bullets is an Eisner and Harvey Award-winning comic book written by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Eduardo Risso. It was published in the USA by DC Comics under its Vertigo imprint and ran for one hundred issues.[1]

Style

Both the writing and artwork in 100 Bullets exemplifies the noir and pulp genres. It presents morally ambiguous stories with dark realism. Consistent with noir convention, most of the characters are deeply flawed.[2] As is also quite common in such genres, "100 Bullets" is frequently quite violent.

"100 Bullets" has several stylistic and storytelling influences in film and television, such as Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects, Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight, and by authors like Elmore Leonard, Eddie Bunker, Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. [citation needed]

"100 Bullets" is notable for creator/writer Brian Azzarello's realistic use of regional and local dialects/accents, as well as the frequent, sometimes dense use of slang and oblique, metaphorical language in his characters' dialogue.

While initially presented as an episodic series of self-contained storylines, "100 Bullets" eventually becomes a sprawling crime saga that embraces a sense that everything- and everyone- is connected.

Plot

The initial plot of 100 Bullets hinges on the question of whether people would take the chance to get away with revenge. Occasionally in a given story arc, the mysterious Agent Graves approaches someone who has been the victim of a terrible wrong, and gives them the chance to set things right in the form of a nondescript attaché case containing a handgun, 100 bullets, and a photograph of a person, with irrefutable evidence that that target is primarily responsible for their woes. He informs the candidate that the bullets are completely untraceable, and that any law enforcement investigation that uncovers one of them will immediately stop.

Though all of the murders enabled by Agent Graves are presented as justifiable, the candidates are neither rewarded nor punished for taking up the offer, and appear to receive nothing other than personal satisfaction for their actions. Several people have declined the offer, while others accept but see their actions met with varying levels of success/failure. The attaches and Graves' "game" is later revealed to be only a minor part of a much wider story.

Agent Graves was the leader of a group known as "The Minutemen," a group of seven men (plus one "Agent") who serve as the enforcers and police of a clandestine organization known as "The Trust". The Trust was originally formed by the heads of 13 powerful European families that controlled much of the Old World's combined wealth and industry. The Trust made an offer to the kings of Europe to leave the continent and their considerable influence and holdings, in exchange for complete autonomy in the still unclaimed portion of the "New World".[1] When England ignored this proposition and colonized Roanoke Island late in the 16th century, the Minutemen were formed. The original Minutemen, seven vicious killers, eradicated the colony and all of its inhabitants, leaving behind only a cryptic message "Croatoa" as a warning, reclaiming the land for the Trust. Since that time, the Minutemen's charge has been to protect the 13 Houses of the trust, serving as their force against outside threats and (more frequently) as police of the internal conflicts between the Trust families themselves. The groups' interactions are often facilitated by a person holding the title of "Warlord" for the Trust, who serves as the Houses' liason to the Minutemen.

Sometime in the late 20th/early 21st century, the Minutemen were betrayed by the Trust and disbanded after Agent Graves refused to re-enact "The Greatest Crime in the History of Mankind" (i.e. something akin to the slaughter of Roanoke.) The Minutemen retaliate with the assassination of an hooded figure in Atlantic City, and are then sent into hiding. Most of the Minutemen of that time were "deactivated" by Graves, having their memories repressed for their protection as they returned to "normal" lives, prior (presumably some years) to the beginning of "100 Bullets."

As the story plays out, many of those who are offered the chance for vengeance by Graves are revealed to have been people wronged by the Trust or its agents, and some are actually revealed to have been Minutemen at the time of the events of Atlantic City. Trusting to his planning, some luck, and the importance of his "game," Agent Graves seeks to reactivate several of his Minutemen and recruit potential new members during the course of the series. With the "aid" at times of the Trust's current Warlord, the charismatic and secretive Mr. Shepherd, Graves' sets into motion a complicated and deadly plot of revenge against the Trust.

Characters

Main article: List of characters in 100 Bullets

Story arcs

Main article: 100 Bullets stories

Collected editions

There are currently thirteen trade paperbacks in publication for this series. The titles of the trade paperbacks all seem to be somehow related with their volume number (First Shot, Second Chance, Foregone, Counterfifth, Six Feet, Strychnine, Decayed), with four being indirect references (book 7 titled Samurai, for Seven Samurai; book 8 titled The Hard Way, a reference to a roll in craps; book 12 titled Dirty, as in The Dirty Dozen; book 13 titled Wilt, for basketball player Wilt Chamberlain, who wore the number 13 and was famous for scoring 100 points in a single game). Book 11 Once Upon a Crime is also a reference as "once" is Spanish for eleven. The exception to the rule is book 3, which was originally to be called The Charm — as in "third time's the charm" — but was given the title of the collection's largest plot arc, Hang Up on the Hang Low, when it won the Eisner Award.

# Title Publisher Year ISBN Reprints
1 First Shot, Last Call Vertigo ISBN 1563896451
  • Vertigo Winter's Edge #3
  • 100 Bullets #1-5
2 Split Second Chance Vertigo ISBN 1563897113
  • 100 Bullets #6-14
3 Hang up on the Hang Low Vertigo ISBN 1563898551
  • 100 Bullets #15-19
4 A Foregone Tomorrow Vertigo ISBN 1563898276
  • 100 Bullets #20-30
5 The Counterfifth Detective Vertigo ISBN 1563899485
  • 100 Bullets #31-36
6 Six Feet Under The Gun Vertigo ISBN 1563899965
  • 100 Bullets #37-42
7 Samurai Vertigo ISBN 140120189X
  • 100 Bullets #43-49
8 The Hard Way Vertigo ISBN 1401204902
  • 100 Bullets #50-58
9 Strychnine Lives Vertigo ISBN 1401209289
  • 100 Bullets #59-67
10 Decayed Vertigo ISBN 140120998X
  • 100 Bullets #68-75
11 Once Upon a Crime Vertigo ISBN 1401213154
  • 100 Bullets #76-83
12 Dirty Vertigo ISBN 140121939X
  • 100 Bullets #84-88
13 Wilt Vertigo ISBN 1401222870
  • 100 Bullets #89-100

Note: The full title of all volumes listed here start with "100 Bullets: ".

Other media adaptations

Acclaim announced plans to release a video game based on 100 Bullets. However, following the collapse of Acclaim's publishing house, the game has essentially been cancelled. It was intended that the player would be either Cole Burns or Snow Falls (a completely original character) and play in a third person view, with actor Keanu Reeves portraying Cole Burns. The plot was generally unknown, aside from a supposition that it followed the plot of the comic book.

D3Publishing has obtained the rights from Warner Bros. to publish a 100 Bullets game.[3] They intend to make a video game completely independent from Acclaim's aborted vision, but still heavily reliant on input and plotting from Brian Azzarello.[4]

Critical reception

The series has attracted critical acclaim from within and beyond the American comics industry,[5] as "very violent, dark and clever"[6] and "a series of compelling morality tales".[7]

Awards

The series won the 2002 Harvey Awards for Best Writer, Best Artist and Best Continuing Series, and the 2003 Harvey Award for Best Artist, as well as the 2001 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story, and the 2002 and 2004 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series.[1]

Other titles by the same team:

References

  1. ^ a b c Irvine, Alex (2008), "100 Bullets", in Dougall, Alastair (ed.), The Vertigo Encyclopedia, London: Dorling Kindersley, pp. 11–17, ISBN 0-7566-4122-5
  2. ^ Mclaughlin, Jeff (2005). Comics as Philosophy. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781578067947.
  3. ^ http://www.d3publisher.us/d3_100_bullets.pdf
  4. ^ E3 06: 100 Bullets gets another shot at gaming - News at GameSpot
  5. ^ "DC Comics and Warner Bros. Unveil a New Company Logo for DC Comics, the Publisher of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman; New Logo to Appear on Comic Books, Films and Television Series Based on DC Properties" (magazine article). Business Week. 2005-05-09. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
  6. ^ "HIT LIST" (newspaper article). Independent on Sunday. 2006-06-04. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
  7. ^ "Vertigo's '100 Bullets' hits the bull's-eye" (newspaper article). The Colorado Springs Gazette. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
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