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Silverfish - David Lapham

Silverfish
David Lapham
Vertigo Comics



David Lapham's name may be currently associated with Marvel's merry mutants via his work on Deadpool Max and Age of Apocalypse, but he made his name on creator owned titles such as the crime epic Stray Bullets and the cubist mind-fuck of Young Liars.  Yet his work is best crystallised in the stand-alone graphic novel Silverfish.  It covers all his bases; murder, secrets, lies, misplaced machismo, lust, teenage arrogance, and that staple of suspense and intrigue - small town America.

The life of teenage Mia Fleming is straight out of a Bruce Springsteen song; living in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, with her cop dad and her "stupid bitch" step mother Suzanne.  Her pre-occupations are her little sister, boys and a jealous best friend.  When her Dad enjoys a weekend away with "the boys" she tries to dig up some dirt on her step mother and uncovers an ex-boyfriend, Daniel, and involves him in teenage telephone pranks to get one over on Suzanne.  Unbeknownst to Mia and her naive friends, Daniel is a psychotic murderer who believes singing silverfish live in his brain.  As you can imagine, it doesn't end well.


Lapham's writing ability shines through as he slowly ratchets up the tension, the story steadily building towards a pulsating climax where the final outcome is anything but certain.  Whilst noire in tone it eschews the usual clichés associated with the genre; there is no first-persona narrator, no grizzled anti-hero, and the femme fatale notion is played out in a clever is-she-isn't-she guessing game until the end.  Silverfish without a doubt benefits from its graphic novel status, without the interruption that a serialised comic schedule presents Lapham is skilfully able to control the steady beats of the story and hold the reader's quickening heart in the palm of his hand.   


Largely based on an 8-panel grid page layout, expanding to 'wide-screen' long panels when the narrative calls for it, the structure lends a cinematic flow that clicks with the noire feeling.  This is emphasised by the low-contrast grey-scale colouring throughout the book. His thick but minimal line-work has never been better than here, and his expressions - especially those of his teenage mischief makers - make you wonder why he's only writing, and not drawing, one of Marvel's super-hero soap operas.

Silverfish is a tension filled suspense thriller of small town fears made real, of the teenage wasteland wish of adventure and excitement coming nightmarishly true.  Not only one of the best crime graphic novels you'll ever read, but a great introduction to David Lapham's mad bad world.
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