From Patrick Purcell, Carl Purcell, Pablo Verdugo Mundz, David Aravena Riquelme.

Long time readers for this blog will remember the previous reviews of Winter City.  To refresh, Winter City has a violent vigilante called the Grim Reaper who is taking out those who have failed the city.  The art and some of the ideas will remind readers of previous titles but by the second issue those thoughts are gone and Winter City becomes its own very rich and very bad ass tale. I’m pleased to say that the sixth issue continues that tradition and then some.

This might be the first issue of Winter City which had me hooked on the flashbacks more than the current day story.   Not to say that the events of modern day are bad.  In fact this is one of the best paced and best drawn fights in the comic so far.  There are many subtle touches and notes plus of course the smack you over the head violence that fans are coming to love from this book.

Then there is the flashback which throws everything I thought about this title into question.  I thought for sure I knew what was going on in the flashbacks and what everything was leading up to.  However Sam has this little female friend – Casey Day –  who I am starting to believe is a bigger part of the story than I ever expected.

Half way through the Winter City story and I’m starting to think that this girl who I have ignored will be much more important in the second half of the series. This comic always surprises me.  I keep thinking I know exactly what will take place and where the story is going only to be blindsided.

The constantly improving writing is running a tight race with the ever evolving art.  I flipped through this issue numerous times skipping over the words just to concentrate on the art.  So many story tellers use darkness to hide shoddy work in comics, TV and movies.  But not here.  This tale is dark and dirty but every panel clearly shows a wealth of detail and story telling that could be followed without text.  (Not that you would want art without text in a comic, that’s kind of the whole point of a comic.)

It is the rare comic that keeps improving with each issue.  Hell its rare to find one that lasts for 6 issues now, or the planned 12.  Its also rare to find a comic book to look forward to in every issue especially one without all of the gimmicks and crap that take importance over quality.  Winter City continues to be one of the most enjoyable reads of any month.