This was a really cool concept and I loved the art but the story was pretty average all things considered. It's basically just your average bland male gangster/detective character solving a 'classic' old timey murder mystery. And of course the only woman to be seen for miles is his love interest. Sigh. The demons were cool and it was fun in a really superficial way but these kinds of things could be so much more interesting if authors would just try to write more interesting characters.

I cannot review this due to technical issues with the formatting of the preview.

The crime boss is a demon. He’s red and has horns, which makes him stand out from other gangsters. He even stands out from other demon gangsters. Demon gangs are busy trading in souls while regular gangsters are selling bootleg whisky and doing whatever gangsters did back in the day.

The boss demon raises a human gangster from the dead to go searching for another demon who disappeared. The demon who vanished was finalizing the merger of two crime families and his disappearance jeopardizes the deal.

The human who has been restored to life is named Eddie. He has the misfortune to be killed quite often. More than most of us, anyway. Sometimes he prefers being dead. Particularly when humans or demons are pounding their fists into his face. But you have to be careful if you kill Eddie, because if you touch his body after he dies, he’ll absorb your life and you’ll absorb his death. Or something like that.

Eddie does his share of killing, although he only kills people who are trying to (or did) kill him. So Eddie isn’t a bad guy, really. He just has the misfortune to be working for a gangster demon. And face it, we’ve all had jobs like that.

He also has the misfortune to fall for the wrong girl. Well, we’ve all done that too.

Eventually we have an all-out demon war, and the art does a pretty good job of bringing it to life. Or to death. On the whole, I like the art, and if the noir story is familiar (this isn’t the only gangster demon concept in the history of graphic storytelling), it is nevertheless fun. Because what’s not fun about demons? And a certain amount of thought went into the demons and the mystery of Eddie’s deaths, which surprised and pleased me.

Big fan of Bunn's graphic novels so I was glad I could get my mitts on a copy of The Damned, Vol. 1.
Prohibition era/gangster noir with demonic overtones makes The Damned a gritty, hard-boiled read with plenty of tommy guns and whiskey to go around; not to mention a protagonist with a knack for coming back from the dead. Overall enjoyable and can't wait to see what's next.

The Damned, Vol.1: Three Days Dead by Cullen Bunn is the kind of independent comic book that reminds us why the independent market is so important in the wave of popularity that comic books are once again enjoying. It is now, when the market is so hot, that the big publishing houses, DC and the Evil Empire (Marvel), flood the shelves with big name titles that lack depth and story. So instead they come up with gimmicks, like embossed or variant covers and characters changing their race, sexuality or sexual orientation in a effort to garner attention. All gimmicks. when what they should do. All they need to do really, is tell a good story.
The Damned by Cullen Bunn is just such a damn good story.

It is during the prohibition, when gang warfare was fought on the open streets, that our tale takes place. But behind the criminal organizations is a far more evil trade taking place. It is not illicit booze that these two gangs trade in, instead it is the trade of mortal souls. Two gangs, each run by powerful demons control the soul trade in the city, between them lays an uneasy peace. A deal is about to be brokered to end their war and consolidate power. Only the bookkeeper tasked with the deal is taken hostage along with a ledger that could destroy both families. Each one thinks the other is behind it. Hoping to keep the peace and find the bookkeeper, the demon Big Al has one last resort. He must resurrect the Damned.

Eddie is a corpse, laying in a ditch, his throat slit open. But Eddie has a curse, he just cannot die. Only that isn’t actually true, Eddie can die, he just can’t stay dead. For Big Al, Eddie is the perfect answer and he brings Eddie back to find the bookkeeper, stop a gang war and maybe stay alive long enough to consolidate all the power of the demon underworld for Big Al, until its time to send Eddie back among the Damned.

This is Sam Spade meets Sandman Slim. The supernatural element is not overplayed, this is mystery, crime noire. The demons are simply part of the tale, a darker version of the criminal underworld. Eddie must navigate them as deftly as he does their human counterparts, never really knowing which one is the real danger. There is a mystery here, both normal and paranormal. There is greed and lust and larceny. And yes, there is a femme fatale, because it just wouldn’t be noire without one.

This is one of Bunn’s earlier works. He is now pegged to helm one of the new X-Men releases and yes he has sold his soul to the Evil Empire. Hope he is being paid well for it. Hope he doesn’t forget his earlier audience and his independent work. Because this is something that Marvel just wouldn’t get. Make it bloodier and racier and Vertigo might snap it up, but Marvel, nope this is outside the box for them.

Maybe that’s what makes it so good.

The Damned is a graphic novel mash-up of gangster noir with horror comics. Set in gangland-era Windy City Chicago, it features dudes in trench coats with guns, comic book crazy demon families, and other crazy monsters, as well as a guy who keeps coming back from the dead, nightclubs, and bordellos. The artwork is compelling. The storyline is a little hard to follow.