Let's Read: Gunsmith Cats

prinCZess

Warrior, Writer, Performer, Perv
Because now that Nanowrimo’s done, my work-projects and the like for the year are mostly, and there’s snow on the ground, I wanna curl up in pajamas with a warm drink and read like the lazy I am. But why do something scary like read something new and serious that I might not like when I can reread the literary equivalent of a hot buttered rum while I drink hot buttered rum?
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No, it's not about cats who repair firearms--as adorably awesome as such a comic would be. Gunsmith Cats is a Japanese comic (manga) by Kenichi Sonoda that was published between 1991 and ’97 in Japan, and put out between ’95 and ’01 in the US by Dark Horse. ‘American gunsmith in Chicago moonlights as bounty hunter and, with aid from her explosives-nut partner and others, solves crimes, rights wrongs, and engages in high-speed chases in her bitchin’ automobile’ serves as the premise, and it’s a pretty well-done premise, usually.

Of particular note are the ways it dips into handling consequences—injuries and the like have a tendency of ‘lingering’ rather than being forgotten about in a new issue. There’s also some good bits of character drama, a whole mess of fun action-movie style cheese breaking-up that character drama (and supplemented with Looney Tunes style situations), and there’s a lot of fun infospeak/dump about firearms, some of which I’m still unsure of the validity of, but all of which is usually at least fun to read. But I’ll probably have more specifics on those bits when they crop up. There are also some weird bits, to put it lightly. But I’ll get to those soon enough.

It is also, I shall wholly admit, pretty much entirely responsible for spurring my interest in CZ firearms. PrinCZess would just be a regular princess without that, and decreasing the amount of bad wordplay in the world is never a good thing!

For purposes of this, I'll be using the Dark Horse comics that were released back in the day because their artwork was blown up and they're somewhat easier to handle. And while there was a very little bit of creator-approved editing for the English release that a subsequent release went back and put back in...It amounts to, like, one scene in an early issue that isn't all that necessary (and exemplifies the above-mentioned weird bits), so doesn't lose much at all. Though it does mean, thanks to the mirroring done in the 90s to convert from right-to-left reading to good ol' English left-to-right, that Rally and many others will become left-handed. So...southpaws of the Sietch rejoice, you're represented in media!

These comics are also, incidentally, the same ones that got me into the series way-back in the early-oughts when me and the sister nabbed them alongside a bunch of other books (Star Wars and Battletech notable among those) at a garage sale for fifteen bucks.

I could probably wax poetic about these for a considerable bit, but this is getting long-winded enough as is and my own tendency for preening purple prose will probably rise again soon enough, so we’ll be on with it, eh?
 
1 - Feeding Trouble

prinCZess

Warrior, Writer, Performer, Perv
Chapter I: Feeding Trouble

We open with a gunfight.
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Of some note here because it is the first for a long-running trend in the series, is just how detailed the handgun is--to the point where its pretty easy to identify as a Glock. Suffice to say there's a great deal of gun-porn in the entire work...And some of the less firearm-related variety. But we might get to that eventually.

A lady sporting some rockin’ late-80s hair has downed a pair of police officers and gets into a gunfight with a third man they were protecting. The man escapes, and our villainess calls someone to let them know he got away as she unloads a revolver she oddly never actually used in the fight and loads the empty cases into the officers own service revolvers*. A panel zooms in on the ‘Chicago Police’ emblem on the side of one of the downed officer’s uniforms.

*A subnote below the panel details that the revolver(s) are 6-inch Smith & Wesson Model 19s, and the cartridges are +P Black Talons—a bit of gun trivia that kind of dates things now, really, as Black Talons were a style of hollowpoint round used that, after some controversy for supposedly being super-deadly (don’t think anything ever supported such), got pulled from shelves and eventually rebranded/redesigned. So it’s a curious time-capsule moment of a 90s gun item.

We move to a suburban home that is rather reminiscent of a bunker more than anything, all square angles and recessed windows…I love it and want to retire there. Inside this house, we are treated to more gunfire. This time, however, it comes from our also late-80s rocker-hair sporting heroine as she blazes away at a set of targets and punches holes in or near the bullseye with a broad array of handguns—A P08 Luger and P38 identifiable along with what I believe is a compensated 1911 of some kind and what might be some style of Beretta (bottom-left, center)? There’s a variety, I think is the point.

Another girl shows up and engages in some playful breast-fondling to mock the fact that the shooter might just be a little turned-on…Or maybe it’s just cold in the bomb-shelter’s basement. Yeah. That's gotta be it.

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And once again, note how detailed the firearms are--up to the banner on the frontmost pistol of the top panel where the 'Walther' emblem would/should be, to Geco-branding on the underside of spent cartridges. In a similar vein, the panels before this show Rally in safety glasses and earmuffs (which can still be somewhat seen in the bottom-left here after she's removed them) as she shoots--the comic tends to be particular about showing firearms usage fairly accurately from a safety standpoint (when not going full-throttle on the action movie cliches, at least)--and it's just always struck me as odd that a Japanese guy where firearms ownership is virtually forbidden entirely can present it with degrees of accuracy when the US entertainment industry and broader media so very, very often don't (one particularly amusing one in the context of the above is a couple of instances of bullets being presented inside their cartridge after supposedly being 'shot'--such as here. It's some silly stuff.

Our heroines, everybody!

Over the pair’s breakfast, we’re introduced to ‘Minnie-May Hopkins’—who’s enough of a bomb-freak to use grenades that are (presumably) disabled as condiment-dishes (eat your heart out Martha Stewart!)—and ‘Rally Vincent’*, the one who was doing all the shooting. Rally, it turns out, is a gunsmith, but what really makes her the money is bounty hunting** and she’s going after some bailjumper today. May wants to come along, to Rally’s greatly begrudging acceptance since she'd prefer the other girl stay and watch the store, and we’re introduced to the third main-character of the series.

*Apparently, due to the issues in translating ‘L’ and ‘R’ from Japanese to English, this name was supposed to be straight-up ‘Larry’. I prefer it this way, though--and so did the creator. So, as I understand it, the English translation-error became the 'proper' version.
**Illinois, if anyone is curious, has barred bounty hunting since the 1960s. But, then, they and Chicago have also made firearms-ownership a difficulty, especially in the 90s this series is based in. But it’s the Quentin Tarantino 90s…As we’ll discover in a moment with Rally’s car.

To complete the tomboy trifecta of compensation by wearing ties (and power-suits), shooting guns, and cars, Rally drives a '67 Shelby GT500 (license plate #BRD529 in an homage to the Blues Brothers). Which is worth a LOT more than any kind of money she could make bounty-hunting or gunsmithing. Where’d she get it? Never explained. How can she afford it? With great difficulty. Does it really make realistic sense? Nope. But is it cool? Oh hell yes, and it sometimes functions as a character in its own right. Based on some future plot and character-development stuff, I like to head-canon it as something she inherited.

Rally, May, and Carrol Shelby’s gift to vehicle design, art and humanity, make their way to the scene of the shooting that started our adventure and exchange friendly banter with the cops on the scene as well as a slightly shifty-seeming lawyer. May, to Rally’s chagrin, introduces herself as Rally’s business partner.

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This gives me a chance to show an example of the humor in this whole series I also kind've appreciate. When it's not Looney Tunes situational comedy and ridiculousness, there's a good deal of this comedic beat-and-reaction imagery throughout where something is said or done and the characters react in a much more typically cartoon style--this one's even somewhat understated, as I recall there being a number where there's two or three panels for a delivery, a visible pause, and then the punchline/reaction to get shown. It's just fun.

We're also reminded once again it's the 90s, because everybody is sporting wide-frame aviator Ray-Bans.

Turns out Dodge—the man getting shot at in the opening—was a pretty notable coke-dealer that was turning state’s evidence. He was also, Rally literally sniffs out by gunpowder and oil, keeping a whole closet full of guns in his police-protected safe-house with him. Uhh...Oops for Chicago's PD, I suppose? It isn’t relevant to much, but it does let Rally further lay on the gun-love.

Rally: “Gun oil and gunpowder. My favorite fragrances.”

Our heroine apparently loves the smell of gunpowder in the morning. It smells like...a case she can charge for! There may be a dangerous drug-dealer on the loose, but have no fear, Chicago, Rally and May are on the case! For ten-thousand dollars plus expenses…I am pretty sure this isn’t how bounty-hunting works…But as mentioned, this is Quentin Tarantino’s Chicago.

Rally returns to her shop to get more than just her pistol and snazzy two-piece suit to actually start tracking Dodge down, worried because she believes (correctly) there was a pro hitman going after the guy (based on where shots had landed and an also-correct guess that the hitman had put spent cartridges into the cops revolvers to throw off the early investigation). Just as they arrive back at her shop, however, a trio of mob-men show up behind them, looking to make sure Rally is injured badly enough not to pursue the case (as killing her would be too mean).

Hurray for honor among...mafia enforcers?

In the first really big reflection of the ‘Looney Tunes’ situation stuff mentioned earlier, after a flash-grande from May, Rally blasts one of the mooks, but in his dying moments he grabs onto her pants. One of his partners rounding on her with a pump shotgun and rigor mortis apparently setting in instantaneously in this universe, she has only one option—and that is to take her pants off.

Because of course she does.

Things go from bad to worse as shotgun-boy gets ahold of Minnie-May, forcing Rally to surrender—pantsless and all.

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Or, that is, ‘surrender’ so that she can walk close enough to him to use a pop-out piddly-dink .25 Auto pistol that’s stuck up her sleeve to shoot off the guy’s thumb and make him drop the shotgun. I dunnow if that’s a proportionate response to a pantsing, but I suppose it is to an attempted murder. This begins a rather long and steady tradition Rally will make of using the sleeve-concealed .25 as an ace-in-the hole as well as another of shooting thumbs off of assholes to keep them from shooting (or, in other cases, shooting the hammer off of their weapon). Why does she do the latter? Because shooting the gun out of their hands would obviously be unrealistic, that's why! Shooting off thumbs and shit at distance is much more believable, right? Right?

Anyhow...

Changed into a snazzy new skirt, in the next scene Rally interrogates the remaining mob mook who's in the condition to answer questions instead of screaming about his lack of thumb or...heartbeat, I suppose. Somehow, the final made man is all confidence and bravado and ‘ha, you lost your pants and got great legs’…Which is kind’ve a compliment, really. Rally is unamused by this coming from mafia-boy who was trying to seriously injure her moments before, and uses a handy revolver to try out her own variation on Russian Roulette to make him talk.

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Rally is good enough to feel out which chamber a cartridge is in...At least, most of the time.

Rally: "My record so far is twelve straight. Perhaps you'd care to help me try and break it?"

He talks.

Ignoring May’s protests she wants to help and leaving the other girl behind this time, Rally hares off to the docks where the mob thinks Dodge is holed up. While in the middle of staring at the photo of him & his wife the lawyer gave her and wondering how she’s going to find him, some Chicago punk tries to carjack her (understandably, I suppose, when she’s driving what she is).

The Chicago punk carjacking her is none other than Dodge! How convenient! And semi-awkward. You’d think Dodge would have gone for a vehicle more fitting to his namesake!
Good news. There’s no charge for my bad jokes! Lucky you.

Before too much celebration can be had, Rally and Dodge are set-upon by the rocker-hair assassin from the beginning of things and held at the very large gunpoint of a Desert Eagle as she demands they hand over their guns. It seems ‘Bonnie’ isn’t after the Dodge character to kill him, though, she wants him to tell her where he hid a bunch of coke he stashed before turning state’s evidence—and she’s willing to threaten Dodge’s wife by way of revealing she knows where the woman is hiding. Villainy status firmly established (just in case the whole 'blasting away at cops' thing in the opening was too subtle).

Rally flips the tables by flipping her pistol around as she hands it over, and repeats her earlier ‘blow off the thumb’ trick and drives away. Bonnie goes from composed, ice-cold assassin making threats to very very angry assassin screaming profanities nd a car-chase ensues where Rally is minorly distracted by how much she loves the way the Deagle sounds shooting at her.
I regret to inform you that our heroine might have a bit of a fixation.

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I am both relieved and slightly disappointed the translators didn't go for the low-hanging fruit of 'They'll surround us if we don't rip ass!' here...But, then, I have a juvenile sense of humor.

This is also the first image I have of Rally's GT500, so...Say hello everybody. Isn't it pretty? It's also the beginning of something of a trend of car chases in Gunsmith Cats, and most of them tend to be very fun to read.

Using a handy cellphone/CB mounted in the GT500, Rally coordinates a plan with May. A plan that culminates in a grenade being tossed underneath Bonnie’s car as it pursues the GT500 and explodes, sending Bonnie's car careening into a lamp-post in a mangled heap of steel. In celebration, Rally engages in her own vengeful round of mock breast-fondling of May and notes that the girl is turned on by the explosion.

We end with Rally working on something using an old-school screw gun in the most 90s shorts-and-tennis-shoes outfit in existence as she explains how Bonnie and the lawyer were working together-and Bonnie actually survived the crash, albeit with pretty major injuries. But Rally got the money she was promised plus her auto repairs covered, so everything’s happy for the:
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Thus ends the first issue.

There's one big instance of 'early installment weirdness' worth noting here in conclusion. The 'sexually excited by gunfire' aspect for Rally largely disappears in subsequent issues (though, somewhat to the detriment of the storyline and many other things, May's thing with explosives doesn't disappear and instead gets kind've built upon...But that's a complaint for the future), and what it gets replaced by to explain her prediliction for firearms is a vastly superior substitute in terms of storytelling.

This first installment gets a 9mm out of 10mm for solid gunfighty action and fun character-establishment for Rally Vincent, bounty hunter.
On the Quentin Tarantino scale of oddball shit that is included, it rates a very low 1 Tarantino out of 5. Very average fare, really, with only the allusions to sexual thrill from gunfire/explosions making it rate at all on this index.

The Tarantino scale will peak at a number of times during the series, though. So the prospective reader should be prepared. But maybe that will be revealed more in the next issue...Revolver Freak.
 
D

Deleted member

Guest
@prinCZess It seems to fit into that vein of 80s-90s Manga which tends to have strong female lead characters with very offbeat premises. I would feel Dominion Tank Police, Bubblegum Crisis, Darkstalkers (not even anime/manga but very influenced by it of course), and You're Under Arrest all share some elements with it.
 

Laskar

Would you kindly?
Founder
I would like to note that women have it easy when sexually excited by gunfire. Erection while shooting from prone postion can be very uncomfortable.
True. The human penis makes a terrible monopod.

These comics are also, incidentally, the same ones that got me into the series way-back in the early-oughts when me and the sister nabbed them alongside a bunch of other books (Star Wars and Battletech notable among those) at a garage sale for fifteen bucks.
Wow. Was that a formative box of books or what?

*A subnote below the panel details that the revolver(s) are 6-inch Smith & Wesson Model 19s, and the cartridges are +P Black Talons—a bit of gun trivia that kind of dates things now, really, as Black Talons were a style of hollowpoint round used that, after some controversy for supposedly being super-deadly (don’t think anything ever supported such), got pulled from shelves and eventually rebranded/redesigned. So it’s a curious time-capsule moment of a 90s gun item.
They were deadlier than other, poorly constructed hollowpoints with petals that would fold all the way back. They were pulled from shelves after a stupid scare that the petals might cut open surgical gloves.

Frankly, the Black Talon's only flaw was that they had a badass name that attracted the hungry gaze of feral lawyers.

In celebration, Rally engages in her own vengeful round of mock breast-fondling of May and notes that the girl is turned on by the explosion.
Got to admit, this is a lot racier than the OVAs.
 

gral

Well-known member
Got to admit, this is a lot racier than the OVAs.

In one Gunsmith Cats story, there's a scene of Minnie May giving a blowjob to a guy, that was heavily censored in the Dark Horse version. Also, the manga is quite racy in general.
 

prinCZess

Warrior, Writer, Performer, Perv
@prinCZess It seems to fit into that vein of 80s-90s Manga which tends to have strong female lead characters with very offbeat premises. I would feel Dominion Tank Police, Bubblegum Crisis, Darkstalkers (not even anime/manga but very influenced by it of course), and You're Under Arrest all share some elements with it.
Indeed--the 90s seemed to have a big spike (or, at least, more English-versions and popularization) of anime in particular and Eastern media in general that had the 'girls with guns'/'Strong Independent Woman' premise...And I really enjoy most of it.
Got the manga of You're Under Arrest lying around somewhere. Someday I should sit down and read the blasted thing.

Wow. Was that a formative box of books or what?
It really, really was. Got me into Battletech entirely, inflated a liking for the Star Wars movies into the EU, even had one or two Warhammer books buries in it, and then piles of Dark Horse comics. Me and the sister basically lucked-out and nabbed up the 'weird stuff' from the guy's library on the cheap. So THAT'S what I can pin the blame on for starting me on the path of nerddom!
Well, that and Sailor Moon.

In one Gunsmith Cats story, there's a scene of Minnie May giving a blowjob to a guy, that was heavily censored in the Dark Horse version. Also, the manga is quite racy in general.
*sigh* Yeah, that one's coming up.
May's whole storyline in that regard is just...It could be done well, like some kind of skewed, explosives version of the girl from Leon the Professional, and now and then it edges up to the fringe of being serious or workable...And then it takes a hard turn into creepy authorial fantasy-fulfillment stuff.
Just...*sigh*

I have the omnibus volumes of this, actually. :)
Same here, since some of these are getting a bit worn from age. Glad I got mine years back, though--last time I looked their Amazon price for a physical copy was ridiculous.
Still easier for me to read left-to-right, though. :p
 

gral

Well-known member
*sigh* Yeah, that one's coming up.
May's whole storyline in that regard is just...It could be done well, like some kind of skewed, explosives version of the girl from Leon the Professional, and now and then it edges up to the fringe of being serious or workable...And then it takes a hard turn into creepy authorial fantasy-fulfillment stuff.
Just...*sigh*

That's Sonoda for you. You got to take the bad with the good(even though the Gunsmith Cats ending pissed me off, when I finally got to read it)
 
2 - Revolver Freak

prinCZess

Warrior, Writer, Performer, Perv
Chapter 2: Revolver Freak

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High-top converse, doubly-so if someone is wearing the things, do not belong on the hood of a classic car, dammit!

Always been kind of partial to this cover more than others. Visually summarizes a great bit of the series very well and...I dunnow, they look so dang-blasted happy.
Though Rally's pinkie-finger...Youch. That looks painful. Sure it's just a bugger in the perspective but it don't look right.
In which: Evil alternate-universe assassin Tommy Chong faces off with Rally Vincent, and super-speshul ammo loadings are brought up. Also May does things...*sigh*

We open with a gunfight gun-sale.

Working behind the counter of her shop, Rally is telling a customer who’s gone full Tommy Chong fashion-wise with a headband and those odd, fiddly-dink little Benjamin Franklin spectacles that were semi-popular in the 80s all about the changes she’s made to a revolver for him—most relevantly to the plot:
Rally: “I’ve shimmed it pretty tight. If you fire more than twenty rounds between cleanings, you might get some seizing between the barrel and the cylinder.”*

Dude: “Heh…My very own Ruger Super-Redhawk twelve-inch Custom. Rockin’.”
His flagrant disregard for safety rules handling his revolver are called out, and his dismissal of them combined with paying cash and ordering hand-loaded ammo**, as well as dropping the barrel onto Rally’s crotch and pulling the trigger combine to make our heroine not at all impressed with him.

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Yeah, even with the cylinder popped, pointing the barrel at anyone is a no-no ye prick.

Rally can be seen here doing her best to dress for the job she wants as an Old West saloon-keeper, I suppose. Though I am kind of partial to...Would you even call that a bolo tie? Or would it be, like, a type of bowtie that's just left un-bowed? I can't say as I've seen it before and I'm kind of partial.

Pretty sure if not protected by plot, the dude would be tossed out on his ass by every gunstore I’ve ever been in.

*As my knowledge of revolvers extends to ‘If it doesn’t work go to a gunsmith because my ass is not qualified to deal with mechanical timing pieces on something that safety-critical’, beyond shimming being a thing, I can’t say whether this is accurate gun-speak. But, even assuming it’s BS, in principle, I appreciate there at least being an attempt? Anyone with revolver knowledge or more powerful internet kung-fu than me offer any perspective?
**Rally’s explanation is ‘hot-loaded, .44 magnum, armor-penetrating’, and later on she explains she loaded tungsten-carbide cores. Which, to my understanding, would be outright illegal for her to make and sell to a private person for use in a handgun, under both rules in place in 1991 when this issue was published in Japan and under an updated version passed a few years later. So…This is an instance of what I think is accurate firearm stuff, but a less accurate legal item (it is action-movie Chicago, so perhaps the law being stretched to accommodate the story is more forgivable). Also noteworthy that KTWs, a brand of Teflon-coated bullet which were presented as ‘cop killers’ by the US media, get a reference. So…another neat historical snapshot of somewhat peculiar firearm issues that were making waves at the time.

Rally was so not impressed by him and worried the dude might use one of her modified guns in a crime she had a…friend/informant/greedy-guts by name of Becky Farrah keep an eye on him, and Becky gives-up that the dude is staying at a hotel/brothel. Becky will become something of a recurring character, but not in this issue, because her offer to investigate further and find out what room the guy is in exactly gets cut-short by Minnie-May hanging up on her. Why? Because she claims she can investigate it more cheaply and more efficiently, as she used to be a prostitute herself and already happens to know someone on the inside from back in the day.

*sigh* Because of course she was and of course she does. Have I mentioned May’s 18 (and I forget but this might be an edit for the US edition)? So with some simple mental arithmetic of what that means…Eughh. Though it might be a bit more sympathetic or workable if not for some future-context of how she’s handled…but we might get to that.
For now, suffice to say the patented Quentin-Tarantin-O-meter on weird shit getting included is definitely getting a reading.

This is where we get the edit in this release (and I believe the only one in the whole series), as a page worth of May...doing her best Monica Lewinsky impression on a shadowy outline of a hotel/brothel owner in order to get hired on are removed. Neither the character nor the storyline are impeded by this omission.

While waiting on May to find out where the odd duck customer is staying, Rally is making with the stakeout routine in the little rental sports car she’s been given while her GT500 is in the shop (because consequences and whatnot). She hears about an event of some kind going on the next day featuring the mayor and some big-wig named Rockford, and suspects the oddball dude might be trying to assassinate one or both of them—but is confused why he’d use a pistol of all things. Because that’s just weird. Bounty-hunting 19-year old lying-about-her-age running a gunstore and driving around a hundred-thousand dollar car makes sense after all, but killing someone with a revolver? That’s crazy-talk, right?!?!

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I know when I'm rushing out the door into the cold to stop a potential murder, I'm sure to put on a necklace (and, as we find later, a skirt). Wanna look my best for a gunfight, right?
Though I do honestly wish I had more opportunities to wear an overcoat/trenchcoat/duster/whateer-the-local-term-is-where-you-are like this. They're like...the pre-snuggie snuggie that's socially acceptable to wear in public!

More seriously I just kind of like the wide-angle to close-in zoom-in these panels do as Rally thinks to herself, and then the snap-out it does before the next page transitions back to Minnie May. It's very...movie-ish in tone, I suppose? There's a flow to it that makes sense visually from an observers viewpoint and from a character one.
Welcome to my TED Talk on 'visual design shit everybody probably knew already and notices', I'll be speaking for another three hours.

May gets distracted jumping a gigolo’s bones (because of course she does...*sigh*), and so calls Rally with what room the weird dude is staying in only the next morning when the convention is about to start. Rally rushes through the building and is let into the brothel/hotel by May. She charges into the weird dude’s room as he’s taking aim out his window at a limousine, and Rally puts a round into the scope from twenty paces in her best Matt Dillon impression. The casing from the shot stovepiping in her pistol delays any follow-up shot from her, though, and the hitman blasts away at her with the revolver she modded for him, getting shrapnel from a marble statue she takes cover behind slammed against the side of her head.

There might be some irony there.

Rally counts the gunman’s shots and pops up while he should be reloading, but the guy either swapped cylinders out or used a moon clip to reload much faster than she expected (somewhat hard to tell for me which by the art, and I have no revolver experience with either of those types of things to guess off of, do you even still change-out cylinders on modern Rugers? So I’d lean towards ‘moon clip’ but…Iunnow for certain).

The gunman has her dead to rights and pulls the trigger.

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The revolver locks up instead of firing, and Rally shoots him instead.

A pre-death confession reveals our man is an assassin that uses revolver’s for everything. It’s his ‘thing’. Rally repeats her earlier explanation in a bit more detail, telling him when he asks how the fouling from his shots built-up, especially because she used unjacketed ammunition, and that fouling blocked the cylinder gap of the revolver so it wouldn’t function (seemingly something a revolver-user might know? Though maybe not since it is somewhat of a hand-loading item, so…*shrug*).
Assassin: “Shit…So that’s it. It’s the damned gunsmith’s fault for not giving me jacketed ammo.”
Rally; “You’re right. I guess I lose, ‘revolver freak’.”
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The excited 'See you next issue!' kind of undercuts it, but for what is more of a 'filler' story with some groan-worthy bits, this kind of makes up for it to me. That look says a lot, and at least for me the series manages to accomplish similar moves from schlocky shoot 'em up action to more somber moments a number of times, especially--perhaps oddly?--on firearms use where Rally being a 'freak' with regards to it gets brought in, or on the regrettable necessity of violence and whatnot...
*shrug* Or maybe that's just heaps of projection and reading-in to schlocky shoot 'em up that knows how to disguise itself sometimes.

Overall...This could probably already fall under 'filler' as it is rather step-removed from other things that happen this first 'series'. It establishes Becky Farrah a little and, I suppose, does for Minnie-May what the first did for Rally already. But there's not much to it. A little fun action-y bits at the end, and some neat scenery/gun-porn--and that last panel above that says more than the rest of the previous pages together.

On the Quentin Tarantino scale of oddball shit that is included, this issue spikes to a solid three or four out of five--mostly thanks to May's shenaniganry, but also some contributions from assassin-man who gets his own licks in on his revolver barrel...Just in case the whole 'interplay of sex and violence' stuff which has been delivered with all the subtlety of a brick through a window already is too subtle for someone out there.

But the day is saved, Rally prevents a murder, and more connected plot continues when the assassin-lady from previous chapter and her brother return in chapter three 'Bonnie and Clyde'.
Yes. Really. That's the title. I presume it might have sounded less cliche to Japanese folks who might not be up to snuff on American folk criminals.
 
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Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
Honestly the most disturbing aspect of May is that you find out she's not only underaged, but has a history of working at a brothel going back at least several years.
 

Laskar

Would you kindly?
Founder
*As my knowledge of revolvers extends to ‘If it doesn’t work go to a gunsmith because my ass is not qualified to deal with mechanical timing pieces on something that safety-critical’, beyond shimming being a thing, I can’t say whether this is accurate gun-speak. But, even assuming it’s BS, in principle, I appreciate there at least being an attempt? Anyone with revolver knowledge or more powerful internet kung-fu than me offer any perspective?
Well, it passes the smell test. Tight cylinder gaps can cause a problem when fouling builds up between the cylinder and the cylinder pin, and lead bullets are infamous for fouling problems. High pressure loads are going to make the problem worse. I'm not sure if twenty rounds is enough to stop a tight revolver, but it's not out of the realm of possibility.

She hears about an event of some kind going on the next day featuring the mayor and some big-wig named Rockford, and suspects the oddball dude might be trying to assassinate one or both of them—but is confused why he’d use a pistol of all things. Because that’s just weird. Bounty-hunting 19-year old lying-about-her-age running a gunstore and driving around a hundred-thousand dollar car makes sense after all, but killing someone with a revolver? That’s crazy-talk, right?!?!
Maybe he's French?
Obligatory link to a very timely Forgotten Weapons video.
 
3 - Bonnie & Clyde

prinCZess

Warrior, Writer, Performer, Perv
Chapter 3: Bonnie & Clyde
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Sturm-Ruger belt buckle is just kind of fun here, and boy does it and the high-waisted 'mom jeans' say a lot about Rally's character in one image...You know, especially combined with the guns. :LOL:

In which: A legless Bonnie legs it, May sniffs out a rat, there’s a car chase, and Rally rocks overalls.

We open with a gunfight gun-sale jailbreak.

Or…A breakout from a secured hospital-room? So, it’s a jailbreak that’s been spritzed with the smell of hydrogen peroxide and bedpans. *shudder* It seems Bonnie, our assassin-lady from chapter one, has a brother named Clyde, and he helps her out of the police-guarded hospital-room she’s recovering in.
And I mean that both metaphorically and more literally, because, well, he kind of has to...

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Once again, the 'pretty weird name for a broad' line is supposed to refer to 'Larry Vincent'. So...humorous translation mix-up strikes.

Don't ask me how a blonde-haired woman has a brunette brother. I suppose either she got it out of a bottle or genetics take a backseat here.

Cut to Rally, who is filling-out her tomboy checklist by adding ‘dresses in mangy coveralls’ to her ‘uses guns’ and ‘loves cars’ repertoire, thus winning the Triple Crown of penis-envy overcompensation! Our girl is one statement of love for action movies and an inability to walk in high heels away from being issued a man card by Bushmaster.
(The above joke is brought to you by cliche advertising...And might as well happen, really)

Anyhow, girl is cleaning along, humming a song, and making the rental-car she got while the Shelby is in the shop all purdy because she will be returning it very soon. I know of no insurance policy that would provide a Lotus Elan to someone as a replacement vehicle while they wait on repairs…But I assume it’s one of those action-movie insurance policies that has specific clauses about providing cars that are more cool than a Toyota Camry or a minivan so the protagonist doesn’t have to look like a dork.
…Though, being a firmly American girl, I also must admit to being somewhat poo-pooed at a Lotus Elan being the vehicle depicted at all because dinky European sports cars have just never done it for me. Proper cool cars should follow the muscle-car formula and be big, and they should be powerful, they should be hard, and throbbing, pulsing with excitement and energy so heavily that even when you so much as look at them they can make your insides quiver and shake with…

*cough*
Moving on!

Really got no commentary to add here...Just a very happy couple of panels and I wanted to share.
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After a brief almost-lecture by Rally to Minnie May about the importance of working hard and saving that is about to lead into her telling a story about when she was young and just starting-out at the gun shop like she’s some 60-year-old grandmother from the Great Depression, the pair are interrupted by Detective Roy Coleman of the Chicago PD showing up. He informs them of Bonnie’s escape, and takes them out to coffee to dish out the details.

Which leads to a fun exchange that maybe sheds a bit of light on Rally’s character:
Rally: …You think they had someone on the inside?
Coleman: Yeah, maybe. There’s a few scum in every police department.
Rally: I just love it when real cops say that.
More broadly, the whole series (and the OVA) holds a…80s action-movie protagonist attitude toward cops and the authorities in general much of the time. When they show up, it’s as a side event, and there’s a tendency for them to be corrupt, useless, or even on occasion villains or antagonists to Rally & May themselves because of circumstances (excepting Coleman, who is himself played-up as something of a rogue cop). Part of it is likely just the usual need to have protagonists DO stuff instead of just doing the sensible thing and getting cops involved, but…I dunnow, it just seems notable in how much it captures that Dirty Harry-esque sentiment.

As the detective rolls his eyes at Rally’s commentary and gives her some more specifics on Bonnie’s brother, Minnie-May sniffs out a suspicious fellow who passes by the table (literally sniffs—noted later he apparently smelled of explosives). She notices he left a briefcase behind, and he wanders out without paying his bill. Girl jumps to yelling out that there’s a bomb, and after a single-panel of shock, Rally and Roy both join-in on yelling for people to get out. Which I suppose speaks well to how trusted the little bomber-girl is, at least?

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The café is cleared just before the bomb goes off, though Coleman is sent Looney Tunes style sprawling over his VW-bug that the explosion knocks over as Rally and May set off in pursuit of the mysterious man—who is, unsurprisingly, Clyde. The Elan reverses down a straightaway before skidding about into a more forward pursuit of the dude in his…BMW, I think? The logo has that circular-emblem, so I think that’s right. Whatever it is, it’s a much bigger car than Rally & May are in, but they manage to keep up with it and chase it onto a side-street.

A side-street some kids just happen to be playing basketball in. One little girl in particular is right in the path of Rally & May.

If this were a movie, this is the part where the slow-motion and dramatic, probably operatic, music would come in.
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Just that face makes me giggle--the lingering 'oh shit' combined with 'what just happened'. Also fun to show how on-the-same-page Rally & May are on doing things...And the minor details of the Elan's hubcaps/wheels always stood out to me as well. It's just a fun sequence...That 'child panties!' kind've just gets in the way of :cautious:. Kenichi Sonoda, folks.
Kids look on in awe as Rally does a broadie, slides into an alleyway, and traps Clyde. Clyde slides into reverse and attempts an escape by plowing his much-heavier car through Rally & May’s, but Rally knows it’s not the size of the car but the angle of the chassis, and some heavy-braking drops the Lotus front-end to the point where Clyde’s car plows over the cab and gets launched into the air.

I’m pretty sure it isn’t how physics works, but holy shit does it look cool!

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Rally shoots off Clyde’s own shoulder-holster and the pistol in it as he recovers from the crash, but instead of, y’know, arresting or stopping the mad bomber ass who tried to kill her and a bunch of others and handing him off to the cops...she lets him go in the hopes of him taking the message to Bonnie that she just wants the shooting to stop.
So…Noble-ish, but really naïve and stupid. Clyde promises that Rally will be sorry, but surely that’s just bravado! After all, it’s not like this is only part three of a ten-part series!

Uh-Oh.

We leave off with the cops showing up and Rally & May getting their minor injuries patched-up. It’s only then that they recall that the Lotus Elan is a rental…And it is very much not in good condition to be returned.

Please clap. I thought that joke was funny...
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Hopefully Rally took out the extra rental insurance.

Overall, this establishes ‘Clyde’ and the impending return of Bonnie, and is less ‘filler’ than the previous issue. Rally gets presented with some issues with authority and general uneasiness with cops (and that conclusion of being willing to work around the law) as well as more Tomboy-cred in general, and we get the introduction of Roy Coleman—who shows up periodically as the (token) ‘good cop’.

On the Quentin Tarantino scale of oddball shit…This issue scores a one, maybe? That fluttering-skirt bit by the basketball-playing kid is about the only head-tilting thing, and that more-so just because…Sonoda has a thing and May exists to exemplify it, so there’s some context to it that wouldn’t be there otherwise where it might be more humorous. Besides that, very standard action fare that’s done pretty well in my opinion (the car-chase is fun to read through and there’s a noticeable bit of visual variety so it’s more than ‘one car behind other car in street’ as both slide and skid around through intersections and alleyways).

Bonnie returns for reals in Chapter 4: Hot Feeding.
 

PsihoKekec

Swashbuckling Accountant
Don't ask me how a blonde-haired woman has a brunette brother.

Blonde and brunette parents, each kid takes after one side of the family. Two of my cousins were blonde as kids, sister is still, while brother's hair darkened, although a bit less than the guy in the comic.
 
D

Deleted member

Guest
Indeed--the 90s seemed to have a big spike (or, at least, more English-versions and popularization) of anime in particular and Eastern media in general that had the 'girls with guns'/'Strong Independent Woman' premise...And I really enjoy most of it.
Got the manga of You're Under Arrest lying around somewhere. Someday I should sit down and read the blasted thing.

For some reason it always seems just perfectly unforced and natural in anime of that era, unlike with modern works which push the same concept hard from the SJW angle. It just "fits" and is good and enjoyable and empowering in this not-quite-taking it seriously but taking it seriously to feel good about it way (does that make sense? I hope so!) in a way more recent works come off as forced and unnatural. And perhaps unsurprisingly, nobody complained about them.

I still think Bubblegum Crisis is probably the anime I had the most fun with. Just pure, unadulterated fun.
 

Laskar

Would you kindly?
Founder
For some reason it always seems just perfectly unforced and natural in anime of that era, unlike with modern works which push the same concept hard from the SJW angle. It just "fits" and is good and enjoyable and empowering in this not-quite-taking it seriously but taking it seriously to feel good about it way (does that make sense? I hope so!) in a way more recent works come off as forced and unnatural. And perhaps unsurprisingly, nobody complained about them.

I still think Bubblegum Crisis is probably the anime I had the most fun with. Just pure, unadulterated fun.
The difference is probably because these stories were written in good fun because the writers liked the idea of woman action heroes, while a lot of modern female action heroes are written for the express purpose of proving that women are just as good as men, and aren't any different from men either.

It falls into the same trap as a lot of Christian literature, where the author's goal is to proselytize, and telling a good story is a secondary concern.

Fortunately, there's none of that here. Just good clean fun with bounty hunters, hot gats, and muscle cars.


Really got no commentary to add here...Just a very happy couple of panels and I wanted to share.
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"Muscle" car, I suppose.
 
4 - Hot Feeding

prinCZess

Warrior, Writer, Performer, Perv
Just good clean fun with bounty hunters, hot gats, and muscle cars.
Well...Good clean fun that occasionally gets a little dirty.
But what's an action sequence without someone losing their pants, right?!?
************************************************************

Chapter 4: Hot Feeding

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May present in the foreground because, as mentioned, Sonoda has a thing. *sigh*

Though the 'era' is perhaps well-captured with, besides the boom box (which is just hilarious nowadays), the fricken' tennis-shoes. That's some screaming nineties gear if I've ever seen it. Not to mention May's watch. Good Lord, do folks remember WATCHES. Those things you used to keep time before you hauled a computer-phone-watch-boombox-heart-monitor-life-ruiner around with you everywhere?

Personally striking to me, however, is the neon-pink shoulder rig Rally's wearing that she has through some black magic managed to coordinate with her skirt? Damn--and I was giving Ms. Fashion-conscious here shit for her tomboy streak!

In Which: Bonnie gets a leg-up on everyone, Becky is captured, the Shelby is fixed, and the Shelby is broken again.

We open with a gunfight drug deal…A deal that will quickly devolve into a one-sided gunfight (as Intrepid Reporter/Informant Becky Farrah looks on).

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Needless to say, Bonnie has already gotten some funny ideas.

Dunnow what it is precisely, but I like the artwork of Bonnie throughout this little bit, particularly that first panel above where she's drawn with so much of a blase, bored attitude with her fingers over her face and such. It's all...villainous and plotting and such.

Bonnie & Clyde have run to the mob for money to finance their ongoing escape/vengeance. They offer some cheap or outright fake cocaine (baking soda, I assume?) in the deal, but the mob is competent enough to catch on and is less than pleased about the attempted double-cross. They’re even less pleased when the brother pops a bunch of their men and Bonnie reveals her prosthetic leg has been made 100% more American by having a GUN added to it.

’Woman with a prosthetic gun as her leg’ is older than Planet Terror!
I mean, sure, it's not an M16, but STILL. You GOTTA see the parallels, right?
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And, of course, what would an action sequence be without someone losing their pants pantyshots.

In a (rather rare) spot of Japanese gun callout-ery, Bonnie specifically notes the leg is a subtly modified PM-9, A Japanese submachine gun similar to the Uzi, and explains how it’s unique design made it very suitable to be modified into her leg and it's a very nice piece of work and yadda yadda…right before shooting the mob honcho with it.

It seems Bonnie is only a little interested in the money, and the risk of being chased by the mob doesn’t concern her…So what is she interested in?

Bonnie: And now we’ve got our nest egg AND our bait—two birds with one stone. You just wait…RALLY VINCENT!

It’s revealed that while Bonnie was murdering the mob kahuna, Clyde went out and captured Becky—who they had both known was following them. They intend on using her as bait for a certain bounty hunter the informant-girl runs with. Far from stopping the shooting as Rally had requested, Bonnie wants to escalate so she can get back at the bounty hunter who bested her! Whoever would have guessed a violent psychopath who kills people for money wouldn’t take the opportunity to stop shooting?

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And thus disappears the whole 'villainous and plotting' Bonnie, to be replaced by the 'I'm gonna chop off her arms and legs!' Bonnie.

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Once again, I include these panels just because Rally looks so gosh-darned happy...And May, in contrast, looks like she's about to puke. The combination is just amusing, I think.
Hard transition to Rally enthusiastically driving her now-repaired GT500 and fangirling out over how good it feels to have the throbbing, five-hundred cubic inch V8 vibrating right underneath her butt…That’s not color from myself either, it’s a quote—because the author and the translators knew what they were doing.
Though it makes sense. I mean, when you think about it, a car’s just a really, really big washing machine you sit inside instead of on top of, so if you were of mind to use it for…

*cough*
Moving on!

Rally returns to the shop, and we get a few pages of ‘day in the life’ stuff that’s fun to read.
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Saddam Hussein targets. I do believe that speaks for itself and encapsulates the 90s pretty well. If it were the 00s, it would undoubtedly be Osama Bin Laden. And if it were the 2010s it would be…uh…huh, I actually can’t think of anyone who’d be likely. I guess there was the zombie-craze, and those made their way onto targets?

One of Rally's customers asks if she's finished his Uzi for him yet. Which is just notable because...Chicago in the 90s wouldn't like anything about that sentence whatsoever.
But this is Tarantino-Chicago...Which is probably an improvement even with the fetish stuff that shows up now and then.

Rally’s day of ‘normal work’ is interrupted by a big ol’ bounty that’s out on a guy and, what luck, she gets a call not too long afterwards from (hostage)Becky about how she knows exactly where to find the guy! Rally uses THE POWER OF THE AMAZING AND NEW INTERNET (capitalized because it’s made a to-do out of…Because 90s) to send Becky some money for the information, and hostage-Becky tells her to go to a warehouse on the other side of the railroad tracks *lightning bolt*.
But, as fortune would have it, Rally only sent Becky $20 for the ‘tip’ instead of the $200 she asked for—but Becky didn’t complain about the underpayment. This leads the heroines to conclude that it HAS to be a trap:
Minnie: She said okay when you typed in twenty bucks by mistake? That IS weird. And even weirder for Becky the cheapskate…
How good for Becky…But also not terribly complimentary to the poor girl.

Cue the ‘action movie arming-up montage’, but in comic-panel form. You know the style if you've seen basically any action movie ever. Rally hitches up her big-girl leather pants with knee-protectors, throws on her shoulder-holster and spring-loaded sleeve-gun, puts a magazine-carrier on her belt, tucks a knife into her boot, and throws on her logo-sporting leather jacket. It’s another cool ‘sequence’ that’s ripped straight out of Hollywood, and I love it.

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The animation would go on to rip this visual out for use in the introduction title-cards, and you can probably see why. It's another instance of that cool 'zoom in', action-sequence-y, Hollywood feeling paneling.
Maybe it just stands out to me because I don't read a lot of comic books. But I still think it's cool.

Why is Rally arming herself up, though? Because she can’t leave it to the cops. And NOW she recognizes that Bonnie & Clyde are just going to keep escalating, so she has to Put a Stop To Things (before someone gets hurt).
One might think that Clyde blowing up a diner to try and kill her the previous issue would have made that clear, but Rally Vincent can be a bit action protagonist-dense at times.

After a brief drive, Rally & May come to the warehouse-trap. And settled with the knowledge that Bonnie’s a bit nutty-violent, Becky is a hostage, and probably low-key knowing that it would look really, really cool, Rally decides to plow the Shelby that just got out of the shop right through the wall in order to surprise the dangerous duo.
At least it’s a relatively thin wall.

Chapter ends with the front-end of the Shelby bursting into the warehouse. Where Rally & May will confront Bonnie & Clyde in #5, ‘Burst’.

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As an aside, the license-plate is an homage to the Blues Brothers. Apparently it was something of a cult hit in Japan, and Sonoda explicitly mentioned it as a big influence. Which is a little baffling to me as to how, but still cool.

As somewhat of an aside or digression, but that I don't know where else to put…I’m going to take this chance to just note how much I appreciate the series for what might be the somewhat surface nature of the protagonist(s)? The whole 'female action hero' thing has been mentioned, and reflects my thoughts rather well. But...Well, when I first read these years and years ago, the one bit of 'outside knowledge' I had going in based on having seen one episode of the animation and gotten third-fourth hand rumors, was that Rally VIncent was (part) 'Indian'--thus the darker skin. And, to avoid going off on a schmaltzy essay as I'm prone to, as I'm Native American myself there was* a certain degree of appreciation and general 'that is so cool!' added to the series by virtue of it starring someone with a (presumed) similar background to mine that was off being a Strong, Independent, Woman in a big city. There was a level of...escapism and 'surface' enjoyment on how cool it was to see, part of which might've been born from some general racism I had/inherited in my younger years, but that I still think is...something.

Iunnow, having heroes and role models that resemble you is important, I suppose, is the gist of what I'm going for. And that bugaboo of 'representation' gets something of a bad hat because of some poorly-done instances of it, when there's a certain universality to human struggles and 'heroism' that a variety of folks engaging in such reflects and that shouldn't be a negative thing.

Of course, as I came to find out, Rally is part India-the-subcontinent/country Indian, so...egg on young me's face. But...That just kind of reinforces the above point, I guess?
 
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Laskar

Would you kindly?
Founder
In a (rather rare) spot of Japanese gun callout-ery, Bonnie specifically notes the leg is a subtly modified PM-9, A Japanese submachine gun similar to the Uzi, and explains how it’s unique design made it very suitable to be modified into her leg and it's a very nice piece of work and yadda yadda…right before shooting the mob honcho with it.
So... where does the magazine go when her trouser legs are down?

Hard transition to Rally enthusiastically driving her now-repaired GT500 and fangirling out over how good it feels to have the throbbing, five-hundred cubic inch V8 vibrating right underneath her butt…That’s not color from myself either, it’s a quote—because the author and the translators knew what they were doing.
:)

And, to avoid going off on a schmaltzy essay as I'm prone to, as I'm Native American myself there was* a certain degree of appreciation and general 'that is so cool!' added to the series by virtue of it starring someone with a (presumed) similar background to mine that was off being a Strong, Independent, Woman in a big city. There was a level of...escapism and 'surface' enjoyment on how cool it was to see, part of which might've been born from some general racism I had/inherited in my younger years, but that I still think is...something.
I totally get that. One of the things that made Cryptonomicon click with me was that one of the characters taught at a university in Whitman County that was basically Washington State University with the serial numbers filed off, and part of the story was set there. Its a silly connection, but it was an important detail for me.

To enjoy stories, there needs to be some sort of connection between the characters and the reader. Traits like race and birthplace can create an immediate connection, whereas subtler traits like personalities take much longer to establish.

I think where certain people have gone wrong is that they've demanded that other authors write their representation for them.

Of course, as I came to find out, Rally is part India-the-subcontinent/country Indian, so...egg on young me's face. But...That just kind of reinforces the above point, I guess?
If it helps, you're not the only one to have made that mistake. People who are older and should have known better. There's this radio advertisement for NV1 that lists off all the inventions that we can thank the Native Americans for, like parkas, dogsleds, popcorn, asprin, and electroplating. Yes. Electroplating.
 
5 - Burst

prinCZess

Warrior, Writer, Performer, Perv
Chapter 5 - Burst
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The Return of the color-coordinated skirt and shoulder-holster...Now with matching booties and car! It's like Rally has someone whose entire job it is to coordinate these outfits, sometimes!
...Wait...

Anyhow: Not appearing in this issue: Basically everything pictured above except the characters! No Lotus Elan, no skirt-holster-bootie combo outfit, no WA2000 (correct me if I'm guessing gun wrong there, internet--I base it off of later-issue memories and James Bond movie/games from longer ago).

Suggest what's inside? Give context clues about the characters or plotline? Why do that when this cover can instead serve the absolutely vital need of giving readers a look-see at Rally's gams and an impossibly-short skirt!
Even odds that May dropped acid moments before this scene, because girl looks out of it.

We open with Rally & May bursting from the Shelby and doing their best SWAT team impressions dashing into new positions on top of some of the warehouse’s boxes and the like. Before much can be made of the situation there’s the unexpected arrival of…a single warehouse security-guard who sets himself to calling-in the oddity of a classic car that just exploded into his site.

He chose a bad time to pass by and loses an arm and the walkie-talkie in it to a shotgun-blast courtesy of Clyde. Clyde threatens to finish him off if Rally doesn’t show herself. While May hides, Rally gets up and does her full, standing-on-boxes impression of Batman, and we get this exchange:

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I don’t know what kind of snarky commentary I might add here, really. I just find this an amusing dialogue because it’s just…so far outside how these exchanges usually go in the exact content while still being the exact same ‘prove to me you have the hostage’ trope in action.
Rally's face just...makes me giggle.

Convinced by Clyde’s…*ahem*…knowledge of prior spending habits, Rally drops her gun and gives up—banking on May to bail her out…But Clyde does a villain renegade-interrupt and just straight-up shoots Rally in the stomach with his shotgun—not penetrating her vest but sending her staggering off the boxes and into a heap on the floor.

Clyde rushes her, kicks aside an attempt by Rally to use her sleeve-gun and levels his shotgun at her on the floor.

Minnie-May panics, pulls a pin on a grenade, and exposes herself…Only to be reminded immediately by Clyde that he probably planned this out and that she doesn’t exactly have much leverage with a grenade:

Clyde: Huh. So whatcha gonna do? Throw it at your girlfriend?
Rally (thinking): Ooh. That little idiot!
May: *I’m an idiot*-face*

Transition to Rally and May now also taken hostage, and Clyde presenting them to Bonnie. And Becky is there as well, so…In a way, Rally’s plan worked, right? Now the heroines are just…in a much worse position.

Rally is handcuffed and stripped of her armaments and armor, which includes all her upper-body clothing down to her bra…Because of course she is. There had yet to be any cheesecake in this installment, and Rally’s leather biker-pants are belted and buckled-up far too good and tight this time for anyone to pull them down in a completely artificially-produced panty-shot!

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The astute reader might wonder why Rally chose a plunge bra with lacy fringing to go to a gunfight in rather than, y’know, a sports bra. Tits is a question that is titillating to the mental faculties indeed, and one could rack their titular faculties over this question for a while if they didn't let themselves bounce over to another topic of consideration. Truly, one could wander over the mountains and valley of this questions partitulars in thought for hours. Tit is a mystitery that rises from below, cleaves tits way upwards, and neatly fills the twin cups of curiostity in the mind.

Okay, I’m going to stop milking the boob jokes and just bust out the flat and honest truth to ya'all. Uncover the 'mystery', as it were: The reason Rally isn't wearing something more practical is because Sonoda wanted to draw boobs in a pretty bra.

But meh. Fun is more important than realism.
Makes for a good opportunity for bad jokes, though.;)

Rally’s fashion-conscious choice in gunfight-underwear goes unappreciated by Bonnie, who instead sucker-punches her when Rally attempts the standard hero ‘now that you have me, let the hostage go’ line. Our friendly neighborhood assassin/murderess then slams a knife through the palm of Rally’s gun-hand.

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I mentioned the neat way Sonoda uses one and two-beat reaction panels for comedy, but they also get used like in the above for horror/drama--we get the actual action, and then there's this pause for reaction from Rally and Bonnie before the next panel is one of Rally screaming. The above two panels on the right could have been left out, but I think it works better this way?

Bonnie ignores the usual villain speechifying and simply grabs her shotgun, explaining to Clyde how she’ll blow Rally’s legs off while he should grab one of May’s grenades to make sure the three hostages definitely don’t make it out. By happenstance, the grenade Clyde pulls from May’s collection is…a remote-detonated flashbang that she has the controller for? It’s never explained really, but that’s the effect---and May passes that along to Rally via foot-tapping morse-code style business? WHILE Rally is still screaming over the whole ‘knife-through-hand’ item.
So…Props to Rally for being able to get the message. I’ve cut my finger on a knife drying dishes before and been basically useless for the next five minutes.

Rally shuts her eyes before the flashbang goes off and pulls the knife from her own palm to cut the ties on her legs.

Metal.

Our girl dodges the first blindfired blast from Bonnie’s double-barreled shotgun, grabs her own pistol and dives behind Clyde—who is on the receiving end of the second.

Bonnie’s only reaction to killing her brother is a ‘Well, shit’ and then unlimbering her leg to fire at Rally. Which…Damn. Girl’s cold. Doesn’t seem to be an appropriate degree of familial affection there, I don’t think. The dude did break her out of hospital-prison and…help her murder a bunch of people.
Huh. When I put it that way, perhaps it makes sense that Bonnie’s moral compass is just a wee bit bonkers.

So we arrive at The Final Showdown. Bonnie with her weird leg-gun and Rally with a pistol she still has to aim. There are gunshots aplenty, and then…There’s a samurai movie-duel style ‘moment’ where Rally and Bonnie stare at each other through gunsmoke. A few close-up laughs by Bonnie and smoke obscuring most of Rally’s body reveals the villain won? Rally apparently didn’t turn in time!
Wait a minute! The hero’s not supposed to lose!

Once again in the style of those samurai-duels this seems to be aping…The next page ‘zooms out’ to reveal the blood on Bonnie’s chest as she collapses, Rally’s gun in the previous panels obscured by gunsmoke and held underneath her other arm in an awkward position.

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You can almost hear the victorious, western-movie harmonica-trill that should be playing in the background.

There’s a beat of relief, and that’s when a massive, shadowy presence appears behind Rally. She dives forward, turning her gun again on the new presence when…Sudden last-gasp bullshit happens! In Die Hard fashion, Bonnie stirs back to life and tries to strangle Rally with a razor-sharp garotte wire that the bounty hunter narrowly avoids—losing the frontmost inch or so of her pistol and a bit of her hair in the process. As Bonnie tries to aim her other gun-leg, Rally shoots her in the head—and, in another samurai-movie style homage, that sends the slide of her pistol flying to land at the mysterious new shadows feet, revealing she ain’t got no way left to fight.

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In a personal aside--I've had roughly the inverse of this happen to me shooting my very first pistol many moons ago. It was a Lorcin 380, so not quality by any means, but it lasted a solid few hundred rounds and was really useful before one time I fired a shot practicing and the mighty, manly, .380 cartridge was apparently too much for the Highly-Engineered German Arizonan(?) Engineering-Quality of the steel zinc to handle. Age and recoil (and poor design/building) apparently screwed it up enough in combination that it partially failed/field-stripped itself in my hand. The thing ended up dropping its slide off the front and sending the firing pin god-knows-where.

And That is the story of how prinCZess broke her first (shitty) pistol. Say what you will about Hi-Point...I'm pretty sure they've a better safety record than their predecessors in the dirt-cheap market.

I dunnow. Moral of the story being that guns are dangerous.

The new arrival is…just the hired getaway-driver, and the first, always-shadowed and face-unseen appearance of ‘Bean Bandit’—a character Sonoda had worked on before—in Gunsmith Cats. His unconcerned exit now that his clients are gone ends the chapter, and the ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ segment of the first story. And with them having met a similar end to their namesakes!

Overall, a decent end to the arc with a good bit of climactic gunfight-y bits and, while there is a clear and obvious ‘hooray for boobies!’ moment that might be a bit eye-rolling…I dunnow, it’s an honest ‘hooray for boobies!’ blink-and-you-miss-it moment, and it’s not presented in a way it might have been to peg the patented Tarantino meter for fetishes. It’s there just long enough that you can make bad boob jokes out of it—and that’s the perfect amount of time! :p

In the next issue, gun-hipsterism to such a degree you'd think this comic moved to Portland, as it focuses around (and is titled for) the CZ-75. Because Rally's gone and lost the front inch of her's!
I’m going to shoot for having it done by the end of the month…Or when I next find time to read & write stuff for entertainment. Who knows when that might be. Blargh.
 

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