Review by Frank Plowright
The cover imitating an old film poster gives a fair indication of the way Jeff McComsey views The Fourth Man, with the title a further nod to cinema by echoing one of the all time great films. That could be hubris, but McComsey pulls it off, deserving credit for his unusual way of telling a crime story. It’s 1991 and with imminent war in Kuwait as background there have been three murders in the small town of Medford, each person killed differently. A pair of police detectives turn up at the coroner’s office to hear about the corpses. The coroner can provide the bare bones information, but as the detectives are being informed, McComsey switches to the circumstances leading up to the person’s death.
By the third corpse opening the third chapter we know how the three men are connected, which remains a mystery to the police, and that’s when the investigation begins. They have very little to work with, and having learned the background to the killings and the connection between the corpses readers will realise that arriving at the truth is going to be difficult. So the mystery is not whodunnit, but whether the police will be able to piece it together.
Mike Deodato’s art is his usual faultless realism, with people, locations and vehicles drawn with immaculate precision. He even uses the digital equivalent of letratone to create an atmosphere. However, The Fourth Man differs from other projects Deodato drew around the same time for not using his system of white lines over single page illustrations separating them into panels. Here he’s back to one panel following another to tell the story. He’s also using some familiar faces as character models, feeding into the cinematic theme. See how many you recognise.
Plot is key, although it’s simple when broken down, so the cast are only surface deep, but this is very clever, superbly drawn and McComsey still manages to surprise despite having seemingly shown everything as it happens. It’s a really satisfying crime graphic novel and would make a great film.
