A certain kind of expectation comes with the idea of pulpy fiction. It evokes memories of the crime and horror comics of old, where sensationalism and violence pushed the envelope in capturing the darkness that lives in the human psyche. As such, morality was almost always at the forefront. Men and women with the means, and the will, to take another life for their own personal reasons or for what they perceive was better for society were a dime a dozen. It’s a storytelling approach that lends itself to genre mashups and combinations. Horror and crime pairings prospered in this regard, like a handshake deal struck in a dark alley between a Satanist and a bank robber.
Writer and artist Gigi Murakami saw all this and decided more could be done with it. Her book Resenter is the result of that thought process, a pulp horror manga told from a black female perspective that reads like a hardboiled revenge story that is fast and loose with traditions. It’s a book that wears its influences on its sleeves, but then subverts whatever’s needed to make the story forge its own path.
Resenter opens with the murder of a black woman called Jackie Moreaux, our protagonist. It’s a dark and cold affair that quickly takes us to a place called The Death Zone, a kind of transitionary space where she meets a Ripper called Rhea. This being is an avenging angel of sorts (though not a literal angel) that offers humans who have been murdered a chance at vengeance by hunting down their killers on their behalf. But that’s not the only option Rippers present to potential clients, and one of those choices in particular can be quite persuasive.
Murakami’s manga pulp mix puts this story in a category of its own, and it’s owed to how well she makes the two styles communicate with each other in tone and pacing. Resenter is dialogue-heavy and it takes its time setting up the world and its rules. In just the first few pages alone you get a healthy does of plot, worldbuilding, and character work. Readers are allowed to enter Jackie’s headspace quickly to get at the heart of what her decision will mean going forward.
And yet, panels and character interactions move with the speed and force of manga sequencing. Dialogues flow gracefully thanks to this, giving the reading experience a very intense feel that makes every detail carry a lot of meaning. Nothing is taken for granted and everything is imbued with a resounding sense of purpose.
The book, presented in black and white, goes heavy on inks to great effect. It allows Murakami to bring in her influences in different ways. This is perhaps where the pulp manga combination finds its most explicit expression. Jackie and Rhea wear black trench coats and hats, a great excuse to really indulge on that ink to capture the look of classic gumshoe detectives and Noir characters the pulps made signature. They transform into something entirely different, though, thanks to the supernatural elements Murakami establishes early on. The Death Zone comes across as a place of shady dealings, with pained ghostly faces hiding behind heavy mist. It evokes visuals you’d see in a Junji Ito manga, all of which add depth and mystery to the horror aspects. Here, the inks are used to create an atmosphere of ambiguity as to the existence of the Rippers. It builds on the characters by fleshing out and then shading the environments to match the proverbial greyness behind the conversations that take place there.
It’s all done in service of underpinning the weight of the Rippers’ morality system. Murakami puts the moral quandaries that follow vengeance and justice front and center with this story so that readers can interrogate them through Jackie and her new association with the Ripper service. It becomes even more complex thanks to its focus on violence against women, which makes any questions that come up during the story require more nuanced consideration. Jackie as a black woman that has to decide what her afterlife will be like immediately after being murdered opens a powerful discourse on the urgency behind these topics. It also serves for some great and truly inventive horror sequences.
Resenter is currently on issue #1, so it’s the perfect time to get it into your reading list so you can pounce on issue #2 the minute it releases. Gigi Murakami reminds us just what it is that makes genre and style mashups so fun and unique with this story. It’s important, necessary, challenging, and scary. Simply put, it deserves to be read and discussed.
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