The Big Shakedown #1: Hard Boiling After the Quake

A virtue of the hard boiled style is its compatibility with almost any setting. Historically associated with crime fiction, the qualities of the main character and the larger concerns of the story are ost important. Hard boiled fiction is particularly focused on a cynical character set against a backdrop of social corruption. A post earthquake, demolished Los Angeles turns out to be an ideal setting for The Big Shakedown #1.

Blum and Seeley opt for a semi-organized aftermath rather than chaotic anarchy in The Big Shakedown #1. Main character Ester Blanco is able to operate with relative normality, doing something as simple as going to a market for food or as complicated as contracting a construction crew to remove debris from her crumbled house. This is a refreshing choice for a ruined, lawless setting. Los Angeles isn’t a perpetually dark and violent city. But at the same time, it creates a setting that is corrupt by design–while life goes on with some normality, this relative mundanity is made possible by gangs keeping order.

Ester’s cynicism is a byproduct of both her surroundings and former job as a private investigator. She’s a compelling character. Ester has a hard shell and is largely self-centered. But she’s not an agent of chaos, nor is she a dark and violent person using and destroying people to her own ends. As a character, she is almost a text book hard boiled protagonist.

The Big Shakedown #1’s plot kicks off roughly halfway through the issue. Someone wants to hire Ester to find a missing person. Ester resists taking the job at first before eventually relenting when it suits her needs. Blum and Seeley spend most of the issue building Ester up as a character, so her motivations to first turn down the job and then take it make complete sense.

Koblish’s art varies in degrees of detail. Backgrounds are extremely detailed. Damaged buildings and roadways are replete with lines denoting cracks. Debris comes in all shapes and sizes and is strewn about the environment throughout the issue. Koblish’s work on an opening two page spread is very effective at establishing the world The Big Shakedown #1 takes place in. Fallen buildings, crushed cars and torn up uneven pavement tells the reader everything they need to know about the environment Ester lives in.

There is slightly less detail when it comes to characters. Where Koblish is especially liberal when it comes to linework for the backgrounds, his use of lines establishing characters’ general appearance and expression are much more conservative. Closeups rely more on mouth and eye shape for emotional expression. Short thick lines around those features add dimension to their faces. Occasional patches of straight black shading on characters’ faces adds a heavier mood in certain panels and sequences. This is especially the case when Ester first encounters David, the man who wants to hire Ester to find his missing daughter.

Hi-Fi goes with a vibrant but not extremely bright color scheme. There is a lot of rich contrast in the background, and even more with the characters in front of them. The color scheme for Ester is especially effective. Her purple and yellow jacket makes the character jump off the page in almost every panel that she is in. The color scheme in The Big Shakedown #1 is somewhat at odds with what is often done in comics that exist in the hard boiled sub-genre. In this case, though, it works very well. The issue’s visual identity is the perfect match for a ruined Los Angeles that isn’t a dark wasteland.

Ester’s internal monologue is chiefly responsible for her character development. Piekos chooses a font that resembles a slightly uneven handwritten scrawl. This isn’t unusual for a hard boiled style comic. As with most cases, it works well here. The font adds a bit of urgency to the story and Ester’s actions.