 It may sound cliché to say you've never seen anything like AdHouse Books' Mesmo Delivery before, but the single-serving debut of Brazilian cartoonist Rafael Grampá—part of the creative team on the Eisner Award-winning anthology 5—could only fall under a customized genre like Grindhouse-Western, with characters rendered in such savory, grizzly detail, you'd have to breach the fiery gates of hell to find actors to fill their roles.
While Grampá's meticulous art may shock your senses from the start, Mesmo's premise seems simple enough. Guided by his salty, Elvis-obsessed travel companion Sangrecco, the down and out Rufo is hired to drive a truck to a distant destination where he will receive his payment. He simply has to promise never to peek at its cargo. But when the hulking ex-boxer breaks at a truck stop for a glass of milk, things take an unsettling turn. An aggressive local with an audience challenges Rufo to a fight that quickly turns gruesome. Misestimations ensue, blood flies and the locals attempt to open the truck's container, revealing a horrible truth about the cargo and giving them a front-row seat for the horror performance art show of a lifetime.
Every panel in the book seems to act as a camera peeking on its subjects from perspectives dazzlingly unique to comic readers, while simultaneously shifting and splitting apart by the force of action within them. The detail of Grampá's art ranks on a level with that of Geof Darrow (Hard Boiled), accentuated with the grotesque intensity of one of those close-up shots out of "Ren & Stimpy." At any rate, it flows with such effortless fluidity, you'd swear it was animated.
"I worked a long time as an art director and concept designer for motion graphics projects, and I think I put a lot of these influences into Mesmo Delivery," Grampá explains. "When you work with 3-D software, you can't stop thinking about camera movement. For every scene in Mesmo, I tried to create that 3-D camera feeling."
Even before its official November release, average Joes and comic pros alike have already jumped on the Mesmo convoy, throwing enthusiastic props at the talented Grampá. "I love it." says 100 Bullets scribe Brian Azzarello. "We're working together on [an upcoming Hellblazer story]. It's fantastic. He's a major new talent."
Mesmo Delivery packs twists and turns that, under Grampá's innovative cinematic rendition, create an experience far more epic and intense than any other 50-page, self-contained comic. But then, you don't have to be a heavyweight to deliver a knockout punch. |
