A lot of that has to do with the overall aesthetic of the comic, with Ang Hor Keng’s art and designs having an almost timeless feel to them but also being illustratively reminiscent of old school movie posters and pulp dime novel covers. From the beautifully painted covers to the stories themselves, he always has me hook, line and sinker from start to finish, whether it's his own books or another author's. In the third issue, there's a particularly strong part in an abandoned castle where Kheng and Rahman use an in-panel flashlight to lead the eye and keep the reader guessing as to what's in the shadows. It was strange seeing the main protagonist nude half the book (usually for no reason), but it is great art thought the book from an up and coming artist.

Ultimately Gun Honey plants the landing by the final pages and readers get what amounts to a twisted Jane Bond type story. Gun Honey is all of these things; an absolute experience that leaves you a little bit dizzy and breathless, wondering where the hell the time went and how the pages flew by so fast, but make no mistake it’ll leave you with a smile on your face and wanting more. Joanna has already turned down one offer to work as an independent contractor for her, but this time it’s harder to say no to the Burrow Bitch, and even Joanna’s conscience is starting to prick, although she won’t admit it.The characters are drawn larger than life in this graphic novel, especially Joanna who is, let's just say, buxom. As a Stephen King fan, I had read Joyland and Colorado Kid, both of which are Hard Case crime novels, and as a lifelong comic book fan, I was beyond excited to discover that Hard Case had begun publishing comics as well. For example: the cops catch a notorious criminal but tell her "We won't put you in prison because you'll just escape anyway" (yeah, that's not how the law works) and then they make her do their job by catching a notorious bad guy instead of actually having police officers catch him (again, not at all how the law actually works). With Gun Honey we’re given the opening salvo of Joanna Tan’s adventures, a taste of her exhilarating life, a glimpse into the misfortune that shaped her into the hard living, take no prisoners absolute bad ass that she is and we see that she is a woman not to be trifled with.

If Tarantino wrote a comic, trying to encapsulate everything that’s flagrantly awesome about the crime grindhouse subgenre, it would turn out looking like Gun Honey. So the story gets darker, moving from the daring set up of the opening pages, where she poses on a beach to catch the eye of a tycoon as part of a job, to an attempted infiltration of a crime syndicate. With Gun Honey I think you need to be open to pulp fiction/noir storytelling to truly appreciate how great and fun this first issue is. This does require loads of suspension of disbelief, but once you’re set and ready to believe in anything, things move quickly and smoothly.Created by the award-winning Hard Case Crime co-founder Charles Ardai and drawn by breakout artist Ang Hor Kheng, GUN HONEY is a fast, sexy thrill ride for lovers of classic pulp and fearsome revenge thrillers. I don’t think I’ve ever had to use the term “male gaze” before in a book/comic review, but c’mon mannnn. Lots of cool action in this one, a lot of nudity, a graphic sex scene and a few great plot twists that I didn’t see coming. No wonder they took to hard boiled crime novels and authors so avidly, even giving film noir it's name.

Gun Honey is a slick pulp noir action thriller teaming the slim, sexy, ample-breasted Joanna Tan with square-jawed, unshaven, hunky Agent Brook Barrow, the Burrow Bitch’s trusted sidekick. Charles Ardai is a founder of Hard Case Crime, a pulp crime novel publisher, as well as an editor and author. This is an excellent example of creating a femme fatale the right way, and it’s incredibly effective. The pair work well together, complete with the inevitable sexual tension, sharp quips and explosive violence, mostly directed at other people. Everything is a bit skimmed over when the author could have easily gone into more detail to flesh out these characters and this world.I have to admit, very interesting concept, something I came across only in one novel where specialist (again woman) helps an interested party to infiltrate a prison to reach his target. She is spotted by a man from his yacht, who we can assume to be a rich and powerful individual, and is invited to join him.