Early this year, I finally found a way to read and catch up on Paklis, which was immediately one of my favorite comics. It’s a masterpiece on every level, but particularly a conceptual one, where it’s an anthology of the most insanely cool ideas I’ve read in each story, drawn by Dustin Weaver, one of the best living artist. 1949 is the first time the series has been collected, and is a great introductory story, if only for the conceptual shenanigans Weaver gets up to in it.
Image Comics
Paklis: 1949 is about a very good detective working a serial killing case, while also about a clone time traveler who both is and is not the detective. It’s the exact kind of high-concept that Paklis generally excels at, but what’s especially fun here is that it’s grounded in very simple genres and structure. What’s more basic than time travel and procedurals? Nothing really, but Weaver expertly builds an intuitive world that has definite rules, but he doesn’t have to explain them.
Detectives Blank existing 200 years apart, with clone Blank being in the future but going back in time through a machine to control 1949 Blank makes sense on an intuitive level without the book having to explain it, really. It just is what it is. If anything, when the book kinda gets to explanations it’s where I like it least. Fortunately, it doesn’t really do that. It trusts me, and lets me be the exact right amount confused to be happy.
I also really liked the way the stories dovetailed at the end. Just like most of the book, it’s success really lies in the execution, but the way Blank solves the case is really satisfying, and makes the future stuff feel that much cooler that it’s integral.
Really though, the thing to take away from this book is that there’s no one doing it like Dustin Weaver. He really might be the best at all the fundamentals of comic book art in a way that is apparent on every page.
Image Comics
First off, the way he delineates the stories by changing his style to fit noir and sci-fi is already impressive. The 1949 sections being in greyscale is already a cool creative decision, but the way he uses black inks there is really great. The villain lacking all detail is in some ways an obvious move, but it also looks as amazing as ever, and is simply a cool visual to see throughout the book.
Weaver’s sense of architecture is also maybe the best in comics. Dude can draw a series of rectangles that all look distinct while still belonging together. He uses skylines multiple times throughout the book and it always feels like a good moment to pause and feel the city. That’s besides the various double page spreads that show buildings from street level, surrounding the characters in a claustrophobic way, or in the sci-fi chapters showing the ridiculous way the city sprawl has grown in every direction. I’m a guy who loves a nice building, and this book is really one of the best for that.
The colors are also gorgeously used throughout the book, with real standout moments coming when the two timelines start to bleed together and we get splashes of colored panels alongside ones in greyscale. Really beautiful work, even when the majority of the colors are more sterile and cold.
It’s also true that the line work in general is so legible and nice to look at without being monotonous or overly simple. It’s amazing to see how much Weaver can put into a panel without it feeling like too much information, and how many of those panels he puts on a page on top of that. When comic artists bring panel backgrounds back into discourse, this book is the perfect example of how to use both minimalist and maximalist approaches without going too crazy in either direction. They’re the kind of details I look at and go “whoa, I’m happy these issues take forever for Dustin Weaver to make,” because it makes for a work that looks and feels like it was labored over.
Image Comics
1949 is the kind of book I’m excited to have on my shelf so that I can point to the kind of thing I want out of more comics. Stunningly original, immaculately produced, and artistically thrilling. Definitely a book of the year for me, and something I’d love more people to latch onto, if only because Dustin Weaver deserves all the appreciation for it.
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