Archer Coe & the Thousand Natural Shocks' is a well told noir tale with art that sets the time of the story very well.

Archer Coe, "The Mind's Arrow," is a hypnotist (not a magician!) with a popular stage show. After hours, he does odd jobs for people using his gifts. When he is hired by a wealthy man to help his marriage, he finds that the wife seems to know him. When his client turns up dead, the police suspect Archer. At the same time, there is a maniac running loose murdering people, and Archer finds himself being targeted. On top of that, the woman knows more than she's letting on.

This reminded me of some of the best noir movies of the 1940s and 1950s. Kudos to the writing of Jamie S. Rich. The art is in black and white and drawn really well by Dan Christensen. It's got a great mood to it and I really enjoyed it.

I was given a review copy of this graphic novel by Diamond Book Distributors and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

What the hell did I just read?

It started off okay, and the 'black and white, ink only' give the noir vibe that they were probably going for but by the mid way point of the book I honestly couldn't tell what the hell was happening and I cared even less.
The story is a mess of mind-wiping and confusion. I couldn't tell you who the real killer was. None of the characters (including Coe or the police) apparently have any redeeming qualities so you just don't give a damn. There's no indication in the artwork as to what is hypnotism and what is Real Life. While I'm talking artwork, Coe is nicely rendered but everyone else is very flat. Facial expressions were non-existent, which makes reading the characters and situations even more difficult.

This didn't really work for me.

This start off pretty strong. Unfortunately, it starts to fall flat. I found myself disliking it more and more as I read it so I can't really say this is a recommended read to me.

** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Copy received through Netgalley

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Archer Coe is a graphic novel that lives up to its name. With psychological twists, a whodunit, and some graphic violence, it provides an intriguing story wound through a murderous plot, and ending with a cluster of secrets unfolding.

Archer Coe and the Thousand Natural Shocks: Vol. 1
★★★★☆
152 Pages

Let's start with the simple stuff:

Would I read it again?: Yes.
Genre: Comic, Graphic Novel, Crime, Mystery
Content Warning: violent crime/bloody crime scene, psychological horror


Now, let's get down to the nitty gritty:

I really enjoyed this first foray into Archer Coe. It was an interesting ride through the mental stability and past of a man's life, through the eyes of a hypnotist who wasn't a simple con man. Archer had a true gift and was genuinely able to hypnotise people and do real magic, but that proved to be his downfall.

I loved how the story slowly wound its way from introducing us to Archer, showing flashes of the killer, and then made you wonder if Archer was the killer himself, just in a disguise and had kept that truth hidden from himself. The storyline of being hired to “fix” a frigid wife was intriguing and well written, well paced, and added another dimension to the story, especially when the wife seemed to know Archer and he didn't know her.

When it all came together in the end, it was a great whodunit, with an interesting MC, a clever plot, and a well paced story that led the reader through the mind of a single man, and left us questioning everything. With the incredibly detailed and classic illustrations, this was a mind-bending read and one that I'd read again. I'm looking forward to more stories for Archer Coe.

A very good book – coming to this I knew nothing about what I would get. I found a very noir read, with a hypnotist, a serial killer on the loose, a femme fatale, a buried past – oh, and talking cats. And the good thing is that nothing in that list (no, not even the cats) feels out of place. It all works to provide for a nicely entertaining tale. I'm not sure some of the self-hypnotism aspect of the story completely rings true, but this is not some cheap hokum, but a classy read – easily read, black and white for artistic reasons, and delivered very well.

Started off quite strong, the story follows a hypnotist who can talk to cats and is hired to fix a wife's hangup towards her husband. Unfortunately, it quickly devolves into this wannabe Inception type plot where you can no longer tell what's real and what's not. I quite liked the art but there weren't any visual cues to if a scene was actually happening or part of a dream or hallucination. The story just left me cold as I didn't really know what was happening in the last two-thirds of the book.

Hypnotist Archer Coe is approached by Jonathan Midland, a wealthy banker, to find out why his wife resists his advances. Hope, the wife, says that she has met Coe before, but he has no memory of this. Before long, Coe is caught in the eye of a whirlwind: there is a gruesome murder in his apartment block, and then Midland himself turns up dead. The police suspect Coe of both murders and he quickly finds himself behind bars.

This is a classic noir story, appropriately illustrated in stark black and white. Rich's characters are well-realised by Christensen, and the plot has a good number of twists.

Archer Coe Vol.1 feels like a noir mystery down to its presentation in black and white graphic form. Archer is a performing hypnotist who sometimes takes side jobs for the rich. His current side job leaves him neck deep in the suspect pool in a multiple murder mystery. Archer seems lost and out of touch as it quickly comes to light that he may have hypnotized himself. The mystery leaves the reader guessing as it twists and turns throughout the volume. On occasion, the story leaves the reader dumbfounded and wondering how it got where it is. Overall, the story is interesting and dark but I don't know if I care to read more in the series. I found the volume okay, a little bit surprising and unexpected, but not anything to write home about. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.

Archer Coe provides the reader with everything a Graphic Novel should provide; namely an interesting story, intriguing characters, decent artwork, and surprises. As an occasional dabbler in the genre I found the story clearly conveyed without encountering so much of the clarity problems that I find in other graphic novels.

It started well with an intriguing premise and then became far too labyrinthine and silly in the second half. Seth-like artwork was very nice and pushed the comic up to three stars out of five – otherwise the mediocre plotting would’ve made it two.

Archie Coe, hypnotist, cat whisperer and sucker to every dame he meets. The art and dialogue both up the 1940s noir feel in Archie Coe Vol 1.

Jack Midland hires Coe to find the reason his wife, Hope, is frigid to him since their marriage. Hope insists that she and Archie know each other. When Jack turns up dead, the police look hard at Archie. In the meantime, a madman called the Zipper is killing people by removing their hearts with his bare hands.

I loved this black as tar noir! It’s amazing how many plot twists are among its 164 pages. Archie Coe Vol 1 is reminiscent of Bogart and Bacall movies as well as the style-driven comics I read in the 1980s. 5 stars! It is also available on Comixology Unlimited too.

Thanks to the publisher, Oni Press, and NetGalley for a copy.

Archer Coe, The Mind's Arrow, is reminiscent of the old time radio noir detectives who operate in the shadows or behind masks. It's a great story.

A mind-bending noir mystery with a distinct oldies feel. Tampering with people's minds is definitely a dangerous occupation, especially when you doubt your own! Is your version the right one? This was a fun read, keeps you on tenterhooks! Also starring talking cats. (Probably should have just said that one sentence)

"Just Like Bogie and Bacall..."

Lots of those old noir B films were radio shows before they were filmed, and this novel felt very much like a graphical version of just such an old radio mystery/detective broadcast. The drawings are spare, it's black and white, there's a lot of ink, the hero talks to himself like he's narrating a suspenseful detective tale, and there's a nice creepy undercurrent. It doesn't hurt that there's a shamus/dame, Bogie and Bacall, "Big Sleep" vibe carrying the story. (That "Big Sleep" analogy also holds true to the extent that the plot doesn't always take the corners, and the pieces don't always fit together, but who cares if you're having fun?)

I especially appreciated the fact that this is not a one-note, categorizable, book. It's a detective mystery, a psychological thriller, a homicide procedural, a stalker suspenser, a romance, a supernatural tale, a grifter drama, and a morality tale. (I mean, literally, there is a bit of each of those in the story.) The execution is dark, but crisp, and edgy and angular. The pacing is fast, (sometimes a bit too fast), and developments come at the reader from all sides. Dialogue is snappy.

My bottom line was that this was fresh, sharp, and totally addictive. It feels like there will be more Archer Coe in the future, and that's just fine by me. This was a very nice find.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)