Zeb Larson reviews The Fade Out #8…
STORY ARC CONCLUSION BRUBAKER & PHILLIPS’ best-selling series so far concludes its second act, as every answer Charlie and Gil find brings them into more and more danger. And remember, every issue of THE FADE OUT is packed with essays and art that are only in the monthly comics. THE FADE OUT WILL RETURN WITH ISSUE #9 IN SEPTEMBER
One could be forgiven for saying that Fade Out moves slowly, because the pacing of this comic has been a bit languid at times. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because Brubaker has used the slower tempo of the book to develop the characters thoroughly, and there’s a payoff for that development in this issue. No, it’s not the kind of payoff that comes with a big shootout or some other high drama, but now we can really see where each character is standing and how they fit into this conspiracy. We have to wait for things to come together a bit more explosively, but the shape of Fade Out is really coming together. I will be discussing spoilers in this review, so consider yourself forewarned.
Phil Brodsky and Victor Thurber confer over a ransom demand and discuss what to do, even though Brodsky thinks the whole thing doesn’t quite add up. Brodsky ends up waiting on a dead drop, seeing who will pick up the ransom. After a little investigative work, Charlie figures out who Tina is, and who else was with him the night that Valeria was killed. Tina lets him know that he left Earl’s party with Earl, Valeria, a movie producer friend, and an unknown man. Dottie warns Charlie to stay away from Maya, telling him that the studio has “big plans” for her, and Charlie seems to be coming around to that. While Charlie ends up helping Armando out of some flophouse, his mind is elsewhere, trying to understand why Brodsky attacked him. That all gets shunted off to the side though when he realizes what Gil has been up to.
I love that the little pieces are coming together, even if the general shape of the mystery is still being revealed. Gil’s always been a bad typist. This explains why Charlie always had to do the typing in prior issues, and it plays a big role here. More to the point, Fade Out’s deliberate pace has been useful, even if there have been issues in which the vast majority of the book was characterization. We know enough about Maya to understand that she’s ambitious but damaged; if not a femme fatale, a woman who’s willing to play Hollywood’s game to get ahead (which includes letting Brodsky beat Armando to a pulp). Charlie is haunted by a sense of guilt, over Valeria’s death, his alcoholism, and his failures as a writer. Gil is angry at the world for tossing him aside and for tossing other people aside. Thursby is one of the only characters who is still largely a mystery, though given his relationship to Valeria’s murder, more on that will be revealed later. In some ways, this is Fade Out really getting started, because everybody has been fully introduced.
There are still some questions I’d like to have answered (apart from the central whodunit). How much does Dottie Quinn really know? She appears from issue to issue to give answers to Charlie, and she has an insight into the studio’s central workings that the other characters don’t have. How much more does she know about Earl Rath, and Valeria, and Thursby, and what is she keeping back from Charlie?
It might seem anticlimactic for this to be the end of Fade Out‘s second arc, given that the climax is Charlie learning about Gil’s scam. However, things are getting ready for some major action in the third arc. Given Brodsky’s ruthlessness and perspicacity, I can’t imagine that Gil is going to get away with the con he’s pulling. The question is whether he will end up dragging his family into the mess he’s created, and how Charlie will react to it.
Rating: 8.9/10
Zeb Larson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k_v0cVxqEY
Originally published August 5, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
