American Caper #1 is written by Dan Houser and published by Dark Horse Comics. Artwork is by David Lapham, colours by Lee Loughridge and letters by Nate Piekos. Main cover art (left) is by Tyler Boss.
American Caper #1 is available from today, in comic book stores and on digital platforms where all good comic books are sold. Grab your physical copy from Forbidden Planet or digitally from Amazon Comixology UK.
Synopsis
A tale of two totally normal, completely damaged families in a world of corrupt businesses, inept local politicians, bungling criminals, and unfortunate leisurewear. We follow the fortunes of two neighbours on the point of collapse: a Mormon hit man and a gambling-addict lawyer, both intertwined in a real-estate deal gone wrong. Mix in a Mexican beauty queen on the run from her past, two escaped convicts in love, a Wall Street billionaire who has become a cowboy, and a maniac hell-bent on revenge. American culture has become a war about real estate, violence, and snake oil.
Review
From the writer of hit video games, Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, comes American Caper, a comic filled with gory violence, dark themes and unfiltered political lampooning. If that doesn’t sound like a recipe for success, then I don’t know what does.
Straight out of the gate, it is clear that Dan Houser is throwing a bit of everything at the wall. This is a series that doesn’t take itself seriously, and even when it decides to go in a mature direction, it doubles down on the sadistic, bleak undertones of the themes it plays with. There is an unbridled amount of sarcasm and pettiness found with most of the characters in American Caper, which works perfectly for this series, given the style of humour it has at its disposal.
If you’ve ever played Grand Theft Auto, then you will feel right at home with this comic, as its dissection of life in modern America through an increasingly cynical and exaggerated lens is pushed to its extremes here, even more so than GTA can at times. A lot of this stems from the rivalry that sparks between the Hamiltons, a ‘typical American family’ who each have their own set of problems worse than the other, and the Charmers, the type of family that is everyone’s ideal image of what a family should be, with their perfect smiles, blue eyes and blonde hair.
The artwork by David Lapham, when matched with Lee Loughridge’s lively colour work, delivers just the right balance of beauty and vulgarity that is just right for this type of story. It feels as if you’re visually getting something new with every page, and the constant creativity on display really shows no bounds, ranging from stunningly detailed one minute to morbidly grotesque the next.
This cacophony of political and cultural parody comes to a head in the comics’ closing pages, even going as far as to break up a rather tense moment with a page-sized advert for a BBQ that does literally everything and is as over-the-top as you’d expect. The final page leaves readers with one of the most gruesome and shocking images this comic has to offer, opening the doors for future story possibilities and ways to push its violence and absurdity even further.
This is how you do a first issue. Though its approach to comedy and visuals may be a bit much for some people, if you know what you’re getting yourself into, then you’re going to love American Caper. This debut issue does throw a lot at you, but it is very much doing so to establish its style and tone as loudly as possible so that it can focus on its core story from issue 2 onwards.
Verdict
American Caper is a chaotic and scatterbrained read that pushes satire to the absolute limit, for better or for worse. It’s unhinged in all the right ways, from its crude comedy to its absurd violence, cramming as much as it can into just its first issue.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
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