I Really Should Read This 14: Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses 1 "Kretchmeyer", by David Lapham

Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses 1 "Kretchmeyer", by David Lapham

2018

Of all the books I discovered during The COVID Year, Stray Bullets was the biggest surprise. I had heard of it for a long time, but one thing kept me away: the name David Lapham. He was the artist for one of the worst comics of the 1990s, Warriors of Plasm. That fact alone kept me from even reading a news blurb about his self-published book, Stray Bullets. It wasn't until I participated in a comic reading club last year that I gave it a chance, and I really liked it.

At this point, I love it.

Lapham, with help from his wife, have produced ten trades worth of Stray Bullets over the years, broken down into two runs with a long break in between. It tells the interconnected stories of low level criminals and the people orbiting them, mostly in Baltimore, mostly in the 1980s. But Lapham shifts periods and the characters move around in the course of their lives, so 1980s Baltimore is the base of the story more than an exact setting. It follows an ensemble of characters tied together by their relationship to an unseen crime boss named Harry. Some work for him, some date him, some are friends of those people, but Harry is a kind of invisible glue connecting all these pieces.

Kretchmeyer is the start of the second run of books. Pretty quickly you can place Kretchmeyer as occurring between the first collection, The Innocence of Nihilism and the second, Somewhere Out West. When I read those two books, there was a story gap between those two, with characters relationships having changed. It's interesting to see Lapham go back and flesh out those changes. The Innocence of Nihilism had a lot of time shifting, between the 1970s and the 1990s, so from the start, Lapham has set down various key points for characters, and then does a lot of exploration in between those points as volumes continued. It's a novel story concept, and he's now thousands of pages in.

Beth is not a role model

As I read these books, I'm amazed how well-delineated each character is. Lapham draws each character differently, of course, but the range of choices each character makes always fits or redefines their character. There is no one protagonist, but Beth is the closest to a lead character. She has some relationship with most other characters that appear. Lapham spends a lot of time with her, and makes her a complicated character. She's protective of her friends, but also quite callous. She's very street smart, but has impulse issues as well. One of the coolest details of the book is that Lapham gives her a character tick, like a movie actor might use. Beth often brushes her hair behind her ear. It's possible that Lapham has an idea of when she does it, like when she's tense or anxious, and I didn't go out of the way to try to figure it out, but it was interesting just to note how much she does it. It's a detail I've never noticed in a comic before. Lapham is treating her like a breathing person.

Rose is barking up the wrong tree

The other characters probably don't have quite the depth in their portrayal as Beth does, but they are still very well rounded. Beth's boyfriend Orson is a sad boy; a good, repressed high school graduate who is addicted to Beth. You could write an essay on his portrayal: he's an active protagonist in a self-destructive way, abandoning his bright future for a woman that thrills him. Beth likes him, and he seems to bring out a better side of her, but she's more possessive of him than loyal to him. He's having the time of his life with her though, so there's no chance he'll get away from her.

C'mon Orson

Another characters that gets featured in this volume is Rose, a prostitute who is probably a textbook-definition of nymphomanic. She's fairly well-intentioned and wants to be a good mother to her latchkey son, but she isn't a good person nor a good mother. It's heart-breaking to watch, especially her interactions with her son Joey. Joey never really stands a chance in this world.

The most surprising story in the book showed the life of Monster, one of Lapham's scariest characters. Up to now, Monster was referred to, and he showed up to break bones, but he wasn't someone who got a lot of characterization. He is the strong silent type. In his story, you see flashbacks to his childhood with Beth, and his home life. He's a scary guy.

At home with Monster

The Kretchmeyer of the title is a new guy who comes to town and wants to make a name for himself. He's handsome and charming enough, but he has a lot of menace bubbling just below the surface. There are three main "thug" characters in this book, Spanish Scott, Monster, and Kretchmeyer. Spanish Scott is tough and will hurt a person, but he's also friendly and looking for a good time. Monster isn't interested in fun, but does the job he's paid to do. Kretchmeyer meditates and keeps his cool, but gives off genuine psychopath vibes. Everything he does is in order to get something else. He made me feel uneasy.

Kretchmeyer probably thinks he's more evolved than other thugs

All in all, it was a thrilling, if dark, read. There are eight issues collected, and though there is a general overarching plot, each issue has its own self-contained arc. Because of this, the book is genuinely unpredictable and reading another issue is exciting rather than a countdown to a resolution. 

Lapham is a detail-oriented artist, who works mostly in an eight-panel grid. As a result, the emphasis is on telling and showing the story. It's so easy to get sucked into this world. I have three more volumes of Sunshine and Roses left to read and I'm excited to read them!