Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis
(U.S. import, published by HarperCollins, approx £7.99)
Warren Ellis is one of the most talented and prolific graphic novelists of our age, but unfortunately outside the comic reading community he is an unknown. His work – until 2010’s RED adaptation, starring Bruce Willis – has largely been ignored with regard to being produced for TV or film. Crooked Little Vein is his debut novel and quite possibly one of the funniest, most twisted, sick little detective yarns you will ever read. As with all Ellis writing there’s a generous splash of Hunter S. Thompson gonzo mad-cappery and a serving of Philip K. Dick science-fiction.
However, this punchy and fast paced novel is a hard-boiled travelogue featuring a burnt-out private eye called Mike McGill. A self-professed shit- magnet, he travels the USA on a mission for the White House: find the real Constitution, the one hidden by the Founding Fathers, devised for times of great crisis. His journey is really a hilarious series of encounters with America’s perverted underbelly, and all forms of debauchery flourish; two things you never want to google are macropetophilia and saline scrotal infusion (the former is Godzilla porn… avoid!).
There is masochistic joy to this book, and it will revolt you – but you will love it through every belly-laughing stomach-churning moment. It must be said that it is not needlessly vulgar; Ellis’ supposed descent into Hell actually makes heroes of the degenerates whilst railing against the two-faced moralists whose agenda limits their freedom. Crooked Little Vein contains a radical libertarian worldview, Ellis is not disturbed by the array of perversions but by a hypocritical manipulative government that would restrict us. It is a moral rage at a world overwhelmed by dishonesty.
It is a compulsive read, and a quote inside reads; “Think Kurt Vonnegut having tea with William Burroughs and a bipolar Raymond Chandler”
This is a read you won’t easily forget.
Paul Eckersley, Designer, Black & White Publishing
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