Arriving in my postbox1 this week from creator Matt Garvey, with art by Martin Hrastić and colours by Jim Clarke, is The Skim - Part One, and it’s my pick of the week!.
Paul Bianchi is stuck in a dead end life in Mercury, Nevada, with nothing ahead of him but heat, hangovers, and bad decisions.
So he pitches a question to his crew.
How do you rob a casino without robbing a casino?
Instead of walking onto the gaming floor and getting turned into a missing person, Paul targets something most people never even hear about.
The skim, mob money quietly siphoned out of a Vegas casino every month, carried off the books, and driven into the desert like clockwork.It is a simple plan on paper.
A courier. A case. A lonely stretch of road outside the Strip.Then the job gets personal.
And once the skim is hit, the house does not just want its money back. It wants to know who dared to touch it.
I think I must have read nearly everything Matt Garvey has written - he surely should be picked up by a publisher!
I backed The Skim straight away2, and was sold on the premise above. I have always enjoyed a heist story, and this did not disappoint. From the explainer at the beginning to all the twists and turns throughout the story, we get a satisfying start to an interesting crime story.
Of course, there is more to it than initially expected, but the way this story is told, you are so engrossed that you don’t realise it until it hits you, and the characters near the end - a perfect setup.
The art is excellent, along with the colouring, we get a great introduction with art on the road, casinos, back alleys, and the desert - all combining well with the style of the story.
When part two comes along, I will be right on it and ready to back it - I want to see what happens next. A great addition to the genre!
Get your copy here:
Honourable mentions:
I backed this on Kickstarter
Backer number one!