Tumor

Inspired by the pulp mag­azine detective stories of the 1930‘s and ‘40‘s, Tumor is a graphic novel gath­ering in book form the eight parts that orig­i­nally appeared serially on Amazon Kindle. We’re a long way from the humble comic book.

In a par­tic­u­larly gritty downtown Los Angeles, Frank Arm­strong is the P.I. hired by a gangster to find his missing daughter. But Frank is also dying of a malignant brain tumor and this colors the way the story unfolds. Because of his con­dition, Frank suffers fre­quent blackouts, but to the reader, these episodes are some­thing stranger. At these times, the char­acters seem to change iden­tities, moving backward and forward in time, making the truth seem less than fixed.

Tumor has its antecedents in the pulps when Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade are sand­bagged and the nar­rative line clouds over. For Frank, a blackout some­times leads to greater insight. More often, it leaves him con­fused (not to mention the reader). The author acknowl­edges being inspired by the film noir classic D.O.A., made in 1950. In it, detective Edmond O’Brien is poi­soned with “luminous toxin” which even­tually kills him. Before expiring, he spends the rest of the film tracking down the man who mur­dered him. Like O’Brien’s char­acter, Frank fights an impos­sible deadline to both find the girl and stay in touch with reality.

The problem with this kind of story is that given the ter­minal illness suf­fered by the prin­cipal char­acter, it’s under­standable if the reader, too, gives in to despair. Tra­di­tionally in pulp detective fiction, the P.I. over­comes despair through sheer toughness, but Frank’s story is a metaphor for today’s more pes­simistic times. Despite all this, you have to admire Frank for his gutsy will­ingness to buck the odds.

Back in the 21^st century, Tumor, the book, comes with deleted scenes and a couple of essays in the manner of a DVD. These mate­rials really enhance one’s enjoyment of the product, clearing up a number of details that would oth­erwise remain muddy.

Noël Tuazon’s artwork is well done, elo­quently cap­turing the per­sistent brain fog suf­fered by Frank. The artist has chosen not to depict facial expres­sions too clearly. This can be a problem since some of the char­acters are not who they seem to be. But Tumor is a graphic novel willing to reward an adult read­ership willing to meet it half-​​way.