How sex, drugs, robbery, and a wannabe superhero connect to a dead body found on a neighborhood sidewalk during the summer of 1984 makes for a magnificent and pulpy graphic novel by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, the team behind Night Fever. The suspects are aplenty in the fast-paced Where the Body Was.
After the owners of a boardinghouse in the small-town neighborhood of Pelican Road die, the seedy lowlifes who take up occupancy get the locals tongue-wagging and peering through curtains.
Mrs. Wilson, with her binoculars, catches a close-up view of the ruckus that begins when teenage runaway girlfriend Karina slaps one of the ne'er-do-wells next door, and juvenile delinquent Tommy steps in. Blood is sprayed across the driveway until "Man with a Badge" next-door neighbor Palmer Sneed stops things from getting worse. Palmer's actions get quick notice from Dr. Ted's neglected and thirsty wife, Toni. All this happens under the watchful eye of 11-year-old Lila Nguyen, wannabe crime-fighter known as the Roller Derby Kid. Lila shares her observations with homeless veteran Ranko, and they team up to prevent a further crisis in their beloved locale. But things become complicated for everyone when private investigator Jack Foster begins snooping door-to-door. Meanwhile, summer heat increases and a body appears on the sidewalk.
Ed Brubaker's scintillating, cannot-look-away story receives a powerful boost from Sean Phillips's illustrations, colored by Jacob Phillips. Their combined talents meld with such precision that their characters become almost four-dimensional, each persona defending the truth of their actions. Admittedly, the title is the draw, but the story beckons beyond Body's chalk outline. --Paul Dinh-McCrillis, freelance reviewer