Thumbprint 01

Title: Joe Hill’s Thumbprint 01

Series: 3 Issue Miniseries

Publisher: IDW Publishing

Publication Date: 2013

Creative Team:

            Writer: Jason Ciaramelia

Artist: Vic Malhotra

Genre: Drama, Military, Spy

Joe Hill is an engaging, capable writer whether you’re talking comics or books.  Jason Ciaramelia from my limited experience with his work appears to be much the same.  The last collaborative work that I encountered of theirs was The Cape miniseries (no relation to the slow-motion train wreck of a TV series).  The Cape turned the traditional superhero origin story on its head.  I would review it here but it’s a bit outside the scope of this blog.  However, if such things are of interest to you, I would highly recommend checking it out.  With all of this in mind I was pretty sure I would enjoy Thumbprint.  And so far I’m definitely intrigued.  This is only the first issue of a 3 issue miniseries so there’s still plenty of time to read this series as it’s released monthly.

One is great the other is like watching your Grandma take out her false teeth.

Thumbprint chronicles the life of Mallory Grennan during and after her service in Abu Ghraib.  While no specific year is mentioned it’s clear that Mallory was involved in the scandalous activity that took place there around 2003 and 2004.  (For those of you not familiar with those events here’s the Wikipedia page. Be warned it’s a bit graphic.) Despite her involvement, there was only circumstantial evidence against her so she was able to avoid prosecution.  8 months later Mallory is back home and settling into civilian life.  She is clearly disgusted with her behavior and not adjusting well.  All of this would be enough but she receives a mysterious unmarked envelope with a single piece of paper inside bearing someone’s thumbprint.  Mallory doesn’t know what it means but feels like it’s a threat.

Mallory receives a letter from Helen Keller.

Before Joe Hill broke into comics or had established himself as a novelist, he was known for his short stories.  At present I’ve only read his novels and comics so I had no idea what to expect from Thumbprint.  While the original short story was written in 2007, Jason Ciaramelia’s comic adaptation still feels topical.  Things have changed since 2003 but not by that much.  Thumbprint raises questions that we still need to be asking ourselves.  What are we willing to do to keep our country and its people safe?  Obviously, the soldiers at Abu Ghraib took extreme measures that should never occur.  However, we are also shown Mallory water-boarding a potential suspect.  Even though attempts have been made to prohibit water-boarding by the American military I think it would be naive to assume that it’s no longer employed.  Thumbprint at least in part asks the question: What becomes of the soldiers asked to perpetrate such monstrous acts on our behalf?

I'm all our of snarky comments on this one.  

As readers I think we all want to understand and empathize with our main characters and beyond that, hopefully like them.  I’m not sure that I feel that way about Mallory yet.  The story starts off by introducing the framing device that Mallory is telling her story before her demise.  We are left to wonder whether she intends to commit suicide or if she’s aware she can’t stop some outside force from taking her life.  Furthermore before really getting into Mallory’s military history she recounts a run in with a slimy co-worker’s sexual advances.  Ciaramelia realizes how his audience is likely to feel about Mallory once more of her story is told and has attempted to position her in the most sympathetic way possible.  I don’t know that it entirely works but I haven’t written her off yet and maybe that’s really all Ciaramelia needs since I’m hooked enough to want to come back next month.  Besides I think we all enjoy a good redemptive tale.  We’ve all made mistakes that we hope we can overcome and it’s nice to see characters in our fiction doing just that.  Hopefully Mallory can.

Mallory holds the ants in her apartment hostage.

Vic Malhotra’s keeps Thumbprint mostly in the shadows.  He commonly uses seas of black with the occasional island of color to flesh-out scenes.  When scenes aren’t dark he’s applied a muted brown/blue color scheme.  All of this helps to build the dark morally ambiguity tone of this work.  A lot of comic artists who do monthly titles have other artists ink and color their work.  It seems clear that Malhotra considers these steps as part of his artistic process and it’s hard to imagine what this comic would look like if those tasks were out sourced.  It makes me wonder what his initial penciled pages looks like.  I suspect they probably lack detail compared to most monthly comic artists.  Overall, I enjoy Malhotra’s work but his style is one that has become more prevalent in comics over the last decade and I don’t know that his art really stands out compared to his peers.  His strengths are certainly close-ups which usually look excellent but any faces and figures at a distance have a tendency to look muddled and a bit boxy.  While I do have some issue with the art in that regard, I think Vic Malhotra was a good choice for this comic.

Boxy Brown enjoys a brisk Autumn.

It’s hard to evaluate a work by a single chapter.  I may be able to judge where the creators are going with it but without the work as a whole it’s like examining a puzzle piece.  What seems to work well now may break down in light of the bigger picture.  But for now Thumbprint works and there’s the promise of a story well worth the time to read.

Mallory will soon pay for her flagrant littering.

Grade: A