Review by Frank Plowright

 Spoilers in review

1949 is in one sense an intriguing period crime drama, yet it’s also something entirely different, and it’s eventually impossible to discuss one aspect without the other, so if you’d prefer a spoiler-free review, don’t read beyond the fourth paragraph.

During the late 1940s there have been a series of brutal and sadistic killings investigated by Detective Blank. Now another occurs, but for the first time in the victim’s own home. She’s a mystery is Detective Blank, a beautiful Panamanian woman who’s somehow a New York police detective. She’s diligent, and able to draw connections between what to most detectives would be completely random murders.

Dustin Weaver has brought his ultra-detailed artwork to SF and superhero projects, but despite the historical aspects of S.H.I.E.L.D., it’s still surprising to see him producing period crime drama. He’s obviously researched the 1940s, and delivers his customary detail in black and white to further indicate the times and setting. Blank is dressed in fedora and trenchcoat in locations that drip atmosphere, be they streets or tenement block. Later, Weaver moves to another location and there’s an even greater intensity to the detail, brought out by the use of colour. Be warned, though, the violence is extremely graphic in places.

The detail bolsters an already intriguing plot that moves at a cracking pace, so fast, in fact, that it stops all consideration of how Blank is so proficient. There is a reason, and it drops roughly a third of the way through.

All is not as it seems, as between the black and white pages of Blank’s ongoing investigation there are spreads in pale blue of a woman using futuristic technology. After Blank has been shot she’s seen in a future we’re told is two hundred years later, again stylishly constructed in great detail by Weaver using elements of the past, such as present day buses transported by a monorail system. Blank actually works for an agency interested in unsolved crimes of the past, and with the technology to send a consciousness back in time, supplanting the person whose body is taken over. The ethics of in a way killing one person to save other lives are only ever mentioned in passing.

Put that to one side, and Weaver delivers a satisfying crime story maintaining a tension throughout, while toying with the recurring features of such dramas from the distant future. And the art is gorgeous in places.