by Carlos Trillo & Domingo Mandrafina
the premise: The lives of five siblings continue to evolve - one welcomes a son whose paternity may be in doubt, one deals with the loss of her fame, one struggles with a loss of faith, and more.
the lowdown: By now, the third volume of this series, the tone is pretty well-established - interpersonal drama with dark humor mixed in. So there are no real surprises for the returning reader. This is, simply put, the continuation of the story begun in the first two volumes.
This time around the characters are a little older, though not yet middle-aged, and they're grappling with some of the life choices they've made and the consequences thereof. The breakout character this time around is Gypsy Boone, the movie star. As Trillo reaches the point in history where sound was added to films, the former starlet finds her career has dried up because she doesn't have a telegenic voice. So she's left to try to salvage her career through any means necessary, and what follows is an interesting examination of dignity, values and the price of maintaining fame.
At the same time, her siblings have their own identity struggles, from a loss of faith to difficulty readjusting to life as something other than a contract killer. Trillo does a nice job of showing these conflicts but rarely spelling them out, and presents them from many "angles" without ever really offering easy solutions. Each of the siblings has something likeable and something really unlikeable about them, and that keeps the reader engaged with their plights.
Mandrafina's pencils get a little looser in places here than in the first two volumes, but the familiar visual style of the series is maintained. It still looks good, even if the two female siblings look too much alike in places.
the verdict: Another enjoyable volume. This is a fun little soap opera filled with melodrama but also some insight into the human condition.
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