Tommaso has been working in the vein of crime comics his whole career, going back to the nineties when his debut graphic novel, Clover Honey, about a young woman from a mob family is apprenticed to a hit man, hit the shelves. What was most interesting about that book was the time it took to develop its characters-- each one fully realized enough to blur the reader's understanding of which one is the protagonist, the antagonist, and who is just someone with an interesting story to tell. It's a technique Tommaso uses at full bore here in The Cavalier Mr. Thompson.
This graphic novel centers on two intertwined narratives-- the murder in a small Texas town of a charismatic con-artist drifter, and the coming of age story of Sam Hill, a teenager growing up in a hotel run by his widowed father, the same hotel where the dead man was murdered. But to say this is the plot of the book is to miss the point entirely. This Texas town in the mid-twenties is inhabited by a bevvy of interesting characters, quirky lowlifes, over-the-hill raconteurs, and the like, and each one of them has a story to tell.

What really seals the deal on this pleasurable read is the wonderful art by Tommaso. He uses a single color on the interior art to provide texture and shading, and his pared down line work makes for striking designs and exciting layouts and character work.
You can find The Cavalier Mr. Thompson at the link to his webpage above, your local independent bookstore or comic book store, or here.
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