Irons v1: “The Engineer”

It’s true: Bandes desinnees has a book about everything. There’s no topic too niche or too far out there that someone can’t make a 48 page story out of it.

This week, I present: He’s a Bridge Engineer! He’s a Detective! He’s the perfectly-named Jack Irons!

Steel Rivets and Credits

The Flaw in the Premise

Remember “Murder, She Wrote?” Jessica Fletcher, an author of crime novels, solves murder cases. How? Because she’s good with people and she’s written about it.

This just means Warren Ellis would make for a great U.N. leader. (Am I going too far back with “StormWatch” references here?)

The downside to this is that you didn’t want to be Fletcher’s friend. People around her always wound up murdered. It provides little solace that she could figure out who did it by the fifth commercial break. You’re already dead.

If you’re Jack Irons’ friend, do yourself a favor and take the ferry. Or the underground train. Never get on the bridge.

What’s Going On?

With “Irons,” we have the story of Jack Irons. He’s Sherlock Holmes, but with bridge engineering experience.

For the writer, this is an extreme case of niching down.

While visiting Prince Edward Island in the worst of the winter weather, a bridge partially collapses. Thankfully, bridge engineer and investigator Jack Irons is there!

I’m giving the book a hard time, but it’s OK. That’s the premise. It’s actually a pretty cool idea. Bridges don’t really collapse every day. And I’ve watched plenty of cable documentaries about the construction of bridges. I’m interested in the topic, so it strikes a chord. Of all the niches to hit, Roulot hit one that nobody else has ever touched. Immediately, I’m attracted to it.

Now, the further twist to this story is that Jack Irons, the man with the perfect name, is also a sociopath. He’s just not good with people. He likes the truth and everything else comes second.

We’ve seen this type on TV before, including Sherlock Holmes. It gives him a strong character, and a natural antagonism with everyone he comes across. This might annoy some people, but I enjoy the extra bits of conflict that gives the book.

Even when I roll my eyes and smack my head that he’s being such a jerk, it’s OK. It’s in his character. He’s not charming at it; he just truly doesn’t care about anything else and will tell it like it is. That’s oddly refreshing. The author doesn’t want the lead in their book to be likable, and that gives the book an edge.

He has several chances in this book to act more like a human being and not a calculating machine. He’s consistent in his actions, though there’s a sliver of a moment near the end where he appears to have second thoughts. So there’s hope for him to change in some minor way in the books ahead…

Irons Art

Luc Brahy’s art fits that BD standard of near photorealistic art, but doesn’t take it too far. He has more life with his character work than a lot of those others whose “realistic” characters wind up looking stiff and afraid to move. Brahy can make his careers move across the page, and his storytelling style frames his shots really well.

It’s not my favorite style in the world, but it works for me on a book like this. It achieves the necessary flavor of reality while still maintaining a style of its own. And, again, his storytelling is strong enough that I can look past the immediate style.

The coloring from Hugo Facio works best in opposite times — bright blue sky afternoons and the coldest, snowiest weather. There’s something about his blues that work with this art. And the way he adds the snow in and slashes across the art with his coloring in those scenes adds a definite three dimensional feel to the art, as well as being cool to look at.

Facio works hard on the rest of the scenes, with plenty of subtle textures in the backgrounds and some airbrush-like work to try to sculpt some faces

Recommended?

If you like specialized television procedurals, then yes. This is for you.

The problem with those shows (in America) is that they hammer 22 episodes out each year and things get repetitive fast. See the “Murder She Wrote?” commentary above.

As an annual book, I like the idea of this series. There’s plenty of room for it to have an over-arching storyline if they want, or they can just keep with the case-of-the-book style thing like they have here.

Irons is an interesting character who I’m sure will grate on some and turn others away. I’m OK with it, like I said before, but your mileage may vary on that.

— 2019.015 —

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