All The Things We Didn’t Do Last Night #1: Soft Swindle Chic

All The Things We Didn’t Do Last Night #1 is the first of a three-part story about the flirtatious relationship between a hitman (Damon) and a jewel thief who poses as an art historian (Mamen). It is Mr. & Mrs. Smith meets Ocean’s Eleven. Writer and artist Maria Llovet does not waste time: All The Things We Didn’t Do Last Night jumps headfirst into action and romance. From the mild nudity in the comic’s first panels to the coy kisses on the last page, the story progresses without unnecessary exposition or worldbuilding.

Years ago, I saw a 2015 French-Belgian mystery thriller film called The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun. Directed by Joann Sfar (who, incidentally, is a notable comic creator and figure of the post-80s new wave of Franco-Belgian comics alongside Marjane Satrapi and Emmanuel Larcenet), The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun follows Dany, a voguish young secretary, who finds herself enmeshed in a pastel net of romance and violence. Film critic Simon Abrams called it “a movie-shaped sudoku puzzle,” and Jordan Mintzer labeled it as a “stylized old-school thriller.” The term the critics are looking for: Soft Swindle Chic. Maria Llovet’s All The Things We Didn’t Do Last Night accomplishes all that Sfar’s film does—and perhaps more.

The art of All The Things We Didn’t Do Last Night is simultaneously smooth and textured: pronounced, imperfect lines encompass soft, uncomplicated colors. The panels are not particularly detailed, and the minimalist style of the art and coloring enhances the fairytale-like quality of the narrative. On one page, for example, three stacked horizontal panels feature nothing but the profiles of Damon and Mamen in front of a pale, rose-colored backdrop. As the panels progress, the two protagonists lean closer and closer to each other, eventually meeting for a kiss—before it is interrupted by investigators. Llovett understands that art can tell a story as much as dialogue can. The artwork does not supplement the narrative; instead, the artwork and the dialogue work seamlessly together to create a compelling story.

Some may be tempted to describe All The Things We Didn’t Do Last Night as a simple story. In some ways, they are correct: though the first issue contains death, thievery, and intimacy, it still feels like a wholly uncomplicated narrative. All The Things We Didn’t Do Last Night focuses so much on the orbit of Damon and Mamen that everything else—even murder—feels like just dust in the sky. But that’s the point, I imagine. The title’s use of the first-person plural point of view sets the tone: this is a story about the deliciously tunnel-visioned focus of two characters. Everything else is set dressing. Damon and Mamen spend many of their panels staring at each other—because that dynamic is what matters.