Artist: José Luis García-López
Publisher: DC Comics (1988)
Includes: Cinder and Ashe #1-4
Clipped from Thrilling Detective:
In their only known appearance, Cinder and Ashe, a 1988 mini-series written by Gerry Conway and illustrated by Jose luis Garcia-Lopez, the mismatched pair is hired by an Iowa farmer whose daughter has been kidnapped and whose life is being systematically destroyed, by who and for what reason he doesn't know. The case opens the door for a flood of flashbacks and time jumps as we learn the history of Cinder and Ashe and their relationship, the case striking a personal chord since a man associated with the case is Lacey -- a man Cinder and Ashe thought was dead, and who raped Cinder when she was thirteen, back in Vietnam.
A crime-thriller with psychological and sociological aspirations, Cinder and Ashe is a mix of detective story, action-thriller, character exploration, and yet another pop cultural visit to the Vietnam war (though focusing on the slightly more original milieu of city life in Saigon). It doesn't entirely succeed in hitting all the targets it sets up for itself, but it nonetheless is a sufficiently engrossing read.
A lot of that has to do with Conway and Garcia-Lopez, two comics pros who were working very near the top of their game here. Here Conway's ear for dialogue and sense of pacing puts a lot of the current crop of "sophisticated" comic writers to shame. He scripts dialogue naturally and crafts scenes with economy, so that even when the characters are just sitting around talking, the energy never lags. And Garcia-Lopez has a beautiful style, at once kinetic and eerily realistic, ideally suited to this non-superhero story. Here in particular, his style is married with a near flawless eye for composition.
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