Back in 2019/2020, Gerry Duggan and John McCrea released Dead Eyes. Here, after his heyday as a “prolific stick-up man and hoodlum in [’90s] Boston,” Martin/Dead Eyes puts the ol’ mask back on to save his wife. Equally hilarious and action-packed, Dead Eyes was this wonderful take on noir that added a certain charisma and heft to your standard crime tales.
But it seems as if Dead Eyes’ un-retirement is about to last a little longer as Duggan and McCrea reunite for Dead Eyes: The Empty Frames. If you read Dead Eyes volume one, you may remember that our hooded “hero” found a clue at the story’s end: the hiding place to the “largest private art heist in America.” Well, Dead Eyes: The Empty Frames sees him and Wheels tracking down the score, battling both the mafia and the cops, and generally causing even more mayhem and chaos. It’s like Dead Eyes with the volume turned up and the sleeves rolled way past the elbow.
Dead Eyes: The Empty Frames #1 arrives this week (September 11) from Image Comics. Ahead of the release, we got to speak to both Duggan and McCrea about all things Dead Eyes: their ongoing collaboration, the goals of this second volume, their favorite moments/pages, and even a possible future for Dead Eyes.
Main cover by John McCrea. Courtesy of Image Comics.
AIPT: How has the collaborative process developed between the two Dead Eyes books? Is it easier or more complicated the second time around?
Gerry Duggan: Dead Eyes was a simple concept: the headlining crook, our delightful antihero would not be the biggest hood in the story. A simple bit of Robin Hood in our unfortunately very fucked world. We immediately encountered some of that injustice…but we never stopped fighting for this book. We’ve been making it the whole time. This comic remembers to break hearts.
John McCrea: I think the collaborative process is a lot easier on volume two as all the characters, style, and visuals have already been established and so we’re just telling a new story with our heroes. Gerry, for the most part, writes the story, and I draw it. I may have occasional small suggestions but really there’s a very strong demarcation between our two jobs.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
AIPT: Does The Empty Frames have different goals in mind? How do you think the story feels (emotionally, aesthetically, etc.) compared to volume one?
GD: I think this one is even more fun, and ultimately more of a heartbreaker. We have a fun hook into real world Boston, a place that I know real well. Martin, Megan, and Dead Eyes won big at the end of the first story. Let’s see if their luck holds. This one has some of our funniest moments for sure.
JM: The first issue of Volume 2 was drawn four years ago, and I don’t think I was really trying to change the look or direction of my art style at the time. However, the whole story has been drawn over such a long period that I think it’s inevitable there are changes in my art style as I’ve gone along — but especially since I got Long COVID.
AIPT: How do you think Dead Eyes has evolved between the two volumes? Is this a “smarter” masked hood that we’re dealing with at all?
GD: There’s not much time passed between volumes one and two for Dobbs. Is he smarter? Probably not? Older and more cunning — yes!
Courtesy of Image Comics.
AIPT: Building off that last question, the first volume seemed to be a kind of analogy for second chances and recaptured glory. Is this second volume at all about biting off more than you can chew or what happens when you really get what you want?
GD: It’s a good question, Dead Eyes was definitely about defying one’s own age and mortality. I think that is still in play here. There’s always “one big score” to go, and we have a take on that I can say that nobody has ever seen before. HA.
AIPT: Do you have a favorite moment and/or panel/page in issue #1 that you think sets the tone and pace for this volume?
GD: I love what John did to set the table in the first sequence. To catch everyone up on what remains the largest private art heist in history. Really beautiful work.
AIPT: The Empty Frames feels like if Elmore Leonard wrote a Deadpool caper. Are there any specific influences for this second volume?
GD: The Friends of Eddie Coyle is another Boston great in the crime department. Also, I had a chance to collaborate with Chuck MacLean between the first and second volume and he’s a great crime writer; a film he collaborated on called The Instigators is on Apple TV. I really enjoyed City on a Hill, too. Check them out.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
AIPT: I feel like since volume one, there’s been a distinct surge in great crime/noir comics. Do you feel like you were maybe ahead of the curve a bit? And/or, did you tap into that “atmosphere” at all in crafting this second volume?
JM: We might have been ahead of the curve a little, but we were still following in the wake of some pretty great books. The most famous of those would be Criminal by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.
GD: I’m usually hitting home runs before they come into fashion — haha. We’re planning a third volume. Crime fiction surges when the world feels most unjust, I think. Dunno how that fits in.
AIPT: John, this book looks as sleek and gritty as ever, but it also feels brighter and more lively. Do my (dead) eyes deceive me, or is there something new percolating visually?
JM: I think the most noticeable visual change you will see in the art comes at the start of issue #4. This comes back to what I mentioned in question two, when I said I got Long COVID. After a year of illness, I was able to start working again, but I realized I could not ink my work the same way I had been doing in the previous issues of Dead Eyes with that meticulous, slick brush work. I just couldn’t focus that way, so I’ve had to develop a much more sketchy scribbly style. Nothing to do with the story, all to do with necessity.
AIPT: Could we see a third volume for Dead Eyes? And if so, is there a hint at what direction that might go (I’d love to see something a la Ocean’s Eleven)?
GD: Road trip!
Courtesy of Image Comics.
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