100 Bullets
Encyclopedia
100 Bullets is an Eisner
and Harvey Award
-winning comic book
written by Brian Azzarello
and illustrated by Eduardo Risso
. It was published in the USA by DC Comics
under its Vertigo imprint and initially ran for one hundred issues. The writing and artwork has received much critical acclaim during the course of its run.
and pulp
genres of popular modern fiction. It presents morally ambiguous stories with dark realism. Consistent with noir convention, most of the characters are deeply flawed. As is also quite common in such genres, 100 Bullets frequently portrays stylized and graphic violence.
100 Bullets is notable for creator/writer Brian Azzarello
's realistic use of regional and local dialects/accents, as well as the frequent, sometimes dense use of slang
and oblique, metaphorical language in his characters' dialogue.
While initially presented as an episodic series of self-contained storylines, 100 Bullets eventually becomes a sprawling crime saga that embraces a sense that everyone and everything is connected.
Though all of the murders enabled by Agent Graves are presented as justifiable, the candidates are neither rewarded nor punished for taking up the offer, and appear to receive nothing other than personal satisfaction for their actions. Several people have declined the offer, while others accept. Those that accept see their actions unfold with varying levels of success or failure. The attaché and Graves' "game" is later revealed to be only a minor part of a much broader story.
Agent Graves was the leader of a group known as "The Minutemen," a group of seven men (plus one "Agent") who serve as the enforcers and police of a clandestine organization known as "The Trust". The Trust was originally formed by the heads of 13 powerful European families that controlled much of the Old World's combined wealth and industry. The Trust made an offer to the kings of Europe
to leave the continent and their considerable influence and holdings, in exchange for complete autonomy in the still unclaimed portion of the "New World
". When England ignored this proposition and colonized the Roanoke Island late in the 16th century, the Minutemen were formed. The original Minutemen, seven vicious killers, eradicated the colony and all of its inhabitants, leaving behind only a cryptic message "Croatoa" as a warning, reclaiming the land for the Trust. Since this time, the Minutemen's charge has been to protect the 13 Houses of the trust, serving as their force against outside threats and (more frequently) as police of the internal conflicts between the Trust families themselves. The groups' interactions are often facilitated by a person holding the title "Warlord" for the Trust, who serves as the Houses' liaison to the Minutemen.
Sometime in the late 20th/early 21st century, the Minutemen were betrayed by the Trust and disbanded after Agent Graves refused to re-enact "The Greatest Crime in the History of Mankind" (a re-expansion of the borders of the Trust). The Minutemen retaliate with the assassination of a hooded figure in Atlantic City, and are then sent into hiding. Most of the Minutemen of that time were "deactivated" by Graves. These former Minutemen have their memories repressed for their own protection and returned to "normal" lives. This occurs prior (presumably some years) to the beginning of 100 Bullets.
As the story plays out, many of those who are offered the chance for vengeance by Graves are revealed to have been people wronged by the Trust or its agents, and six are revealed to have been Minutemen at the time of the events of Atlantic City. Trusting to his planning, some luck, and the importance of his "game," Agent Graves seeks to reactivate several of his Minutemen and recruit potential new members during the course of the series. With the "aid" at times of the Trust's current Warlord, the charismatic and secretive Mr. Shepherd, Graves sets into motion a complicated and deadly plot of revenge against the Trust, which divides into factions of the younger members plotting against the older.
The series culminates in the downfall of the Trust and its agents, eventually revealing that the attache and its contents are a metaphor for the limitless power of the Trust.
in publication for this series. The titles of the trade paperbacks all seem to be somehow related with their volume number ( First Shot, Last Call; Split Second Chance; A Foregone Tomorrow; The Counterfifth Detective; Six Feet Under the Gun; Strychnine Lives; Decayed (a pun on 'decade'; this is the tenth volume)), with four being indirect references (book 7 titled Samurai, for Seven Samurai; book 8 titled The Hard Way, a reference to a roll in craps
; book 12 titled Dirty, as in The Dirty Dozen
; book 13 titled Wilt, for basketball player Wilt Chamberlain
, who wore the number 13 and was famous for scoring 100 points in a single game). Book 11 Once Upon a Crime is also a reference as "once" is Spanish
for eleven. The exception to the rule is book 3, which was originally to be called The Charm — as in "third time's the charm" — but was given the title of the collection's largest plot arc, Hang Up on the Hang Low, when it won the Eisner Award. Another interpretation of this seemingly odd exception is that 'Hang Up on the Hang Low' is a coded allusion to Masonic symbology, the upwards triangle placed over the downward triangle, where the number 3 is indicated among other things through this code. As The Trust can also be seen to be a Masonic type allusion, one should also look for other Masonic symbols through the books. The allusion itself may come as well simply by describing the shape of the number 3 itself, composed of an upward hook and a downward hook, where the "hang up" hook rests upon the "hang low" hook. A series of hardcover volumes collecting the series is set to be released, the first of which is set for October 11, 2011.
announced plans to release a video game based on 100 Bullets. However, following the collapse of Acclaim's
publishing house, the game has essentially been cancelled. It was intended that the player would be either Cole Burns or Snow Falls (a completely original character) and play in a third person view, with actor Keanu Reeves portraying Cole Burns. The plot was generally unknown, aside from a supposition that it followed the plot of the comic book.
D3Publishing has obtained the rights from Warner Bros.
to publish a 100 Bullets game
. They intend to make a video game completely independent from Acclaim's aborted vision, but still heavily reliant on input and plotting from Brian Azzarello
.
On June 23, 2011, IGN
reported that David S. Goyer
co-writer of Dark City and The Dark Knight
is attached to executive produce and write a TV series based on the comics for Showtime.
s for Best Writer, Best Artist and Best Continuing Series, and the 2003 Harvey Award for Best Artist, as well as the 2001 Eisner Award
for Best Serialized Story, and the 2002 and 2004 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series.
Eisner Award
The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...
and Harvey Award
Harvey Award
The Harvey Awards, named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman and founded by Gary Groth, President of the publisher Fantagraphics, are given for achievement in comic books. The Harveys were created as part of a successor to the Kirby Awards which were discontinued after 1987.The Harvey Awards are...
-winning comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
written by Brian Azzarello
Brian Azzarello
Brian Azzarello is an American comic book writer. He came to prominence with the hardboiled crime series 100 Bullets, published by DC Comics' mature-audience imprint Vertigo.-Career:...
and illustrated by Eduardo Risso
Eduardo Risso
Eduardo Risso is an Argentine comic book artist. In the United States he is probably best known for his work with writer Brian Azzarello on the Vertigo title 100 Bullets, while in Argentina and Europe he is noted for his collaborations with Ricardo Barreiro and Carlos Trillo...
. It was published in the USA by DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
under its Vertigo imprint and initially ran for one hundred issues. The writing and artwork has received much critical acclaim during the course of its run.
Style
Both the writing and artwork in 100 Bullets exemplifies the noirFilm noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
and pulp
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
genres of popular modern fiction. It presents morally ambiguous stories with dark realism. Consistent with noir convention, most of the characters are deeply flawed. As is also quite common in such genres, 100 Bullets frequently portrays stylized and graphic violence.
100 Bullets is notable for creator/writer Brian Azzarello
Brian Azzarello
Brian Azzarello is an American comic book writer. He came to prominence with the hardboiled crime series 100 Bullets, published by DC Comics' mature-audience imprint Vertigo.-Career:...
's realistic use of regional and local dialects/accents, as well as the frequent, sometimes dense use of slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
and oblique, metaphorical language in his characters' dialogue.
While initially presented as an episodic series of self-contained storylines, 100 Bullets eventually becomes a sprawling crime saga that embraces a sense that everyone and everything is connected.
Plot
The initial plot of 100 Bullets hinges on the question of whether people would take the chance to get away with revenge. The mysterious Agent Graves approaches someone who has been the victim of a terrible wrong. Graves gives them the chance to set things right by providing them a handgun, the eponymous 100 bullets, and documentation of the person primarily and personally responsible for the recipient's woes. He informs the candidate that the bullets are completely untraceable, and any law enforcement investigation that uncovers one of these bullets will immediately stop.Though all of the murders enabled by Agent Graves are presented as justifiable, the candidates are neither rewarded nor punished for taking up the offer, and appear to receive nothing other than personal satisfaction for their actions. Several people have declined the offer, while others accept. Those that accept see their actions unfold with varying levels of success or failure. The attaché and Graves' "game" is later revealed to be only a minor part of a much broader story.
Agent Graves was the leader of a group known as "The Minutemen," a group of seven men (plus one "Agent") who serve as the enforcers and police of a clandestine organization known as "The Trust". The Trust was originally formed by the heads of 13 powerful European families that controlled much of the Old World's combined wealth and industry. The Trust made an offer to the kings of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
to leave the continent and their considerable influence and holdings, in exchange for complete autonomy in the still unclaimed portion of the "New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
". When England ignored this proposition and colonized the Roanoke Island late in the 16th century, the Minutemen were formed. The original Minutemen, seven vicious killers, eradicated the colony and all of its inhabitants, leaving behind only a cryptic message "Croatoa" as a warning, reclaiming the land for the Trust. Since this time, the Minutemen's charge has been to protect the 13 Houses of the trust, serving as their force against outside threats and (more frequently) as police of the internal conflicts between the Trust families themselves. The groups' interactions are often facilitated by a person holding the title "Warlord" for the Trust, who serves as the Houses' liaison to the Minutemen.
Sometime in the late 20th/early 21st century, the Minutemen were betrayed by the Trust and disbanded after Agent Graves refused to re-enact "The Greatest Crime in the History of Mankind" (a re-expansion of the borders of the Trust). The Minutemen retaliate with the assassination of a hooded figure in Atlantic City, and are then sent into hiding. Most of the Minutemen of that time were "deactivated" by Graves. These former Minutemen have their memories repressed for their own protection and returned to "normal" lives. This occurs prior (presumably some years) to the beginning of 100 Bullets.
As the story plays out, many of those who are offered the chance for vengeance by Graves are revealed to have been people wronged by the Trust or its agents, and six are revealed to have been Minutemen at the time of the events of Atlantic City. Trusting to his planning, some luck, and the importance of his "game," Agent Graves seeks to reactivate several of his Minutemen and recruit potential new members during the course of the series. With the "aid" at times of the Trust's current Warlord, the charismatic and secretive Mr. Shepherd, Graves sets into motion a complicated and deadly plot of revenge against the Trust, which divides into factions of the younger members plotting against the older.
The series culminates in the downfall of the Trust and its agents, eventually revealing that the attache and its contents are a metaphor for the limitless power of the Trust.
Collected editions
There are thirteen trade paperbacksTrade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
in publication for this series. The titles of the trade paperbacks all seem to be somehow related with their volume number ( First Shot, Last Call; Split Second Chance; A Foregone Tomorrow; The Counterfifth Detective; Six Feet Under the Gun; Strychnine Lives; Decayed (a pun on 'decade'; this is the tenth volume)), with four being indirect references (book 7 titled Samurai, for Seven Samurai; book 8 titled The Hard Way, a reference to a roll in craps
Craps
Craps is a dice game in which players place wagers on the outcome of the roll, or a series of rolls, of a pair of dice. Players may wager money against each other or a bank...
; book 12 titled Dirty, as in The Dirty Dozen
The Dirty Dozen
The Dirty Dozen is a 1967 film directed by Robert Aldrich and released by MGM. It was filmed in England and features an ensemble cast, including Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, and Robert Webber. The film is based on E. M...
; book 13 titled Wilt, for basketball player Wilt Chamberlain
Wilt Chamberlain
Wilton Norman "Wilt" Chamberlain was an American professional NBA basketball player for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers; he also played for the Harlem Globetrotters prior to playing in the NBA...
, who wore the number 13 and was famous for scoring 100 points in a single game). Book 11 Once Upon a Crime is also a reference as "once" is Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
for eleven. The exception to the rule is book 3, which was originally to be called The Charm — as in "third time's the charm" — but was given the title of the collection's largest plot arc, Hang Up on the Hang Low, when it won the Eisner Award. Another interpretation of this seemingly odd exception is that 'Hang Up on the Hang Low' is a coded allusion to Masonic symbology, the upwards triangle placed over the downward triangle, where the number 3 is indicated among other things through this code. As The Trust can also be seen to be a Masonic type allusion, one should also look for other Masonic symbols through the books. The allusion itself may come as well simply by describing the shape of the number 3 itself, composed of an upward hook and a downward hook, where the "hang up" hook rests upon the "hang low" hook. A series of hardcover volumes collecting the series is set to be released, the first of which is set for October 11, 2011.
100 Bullets Deluxe Edition
| # | Title | ISBN | Release date | Collected material |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100 Bullets - Volume 1 | ISBN 1401232019 | October 11, 2011 | 100 Bullets #1–19 |
| 2 | 100 Bullets - Volume 2 | ISBN 1401233724 | April 17, 2012 | 100 Bullets #20-36 |
Other media adaptations
AcclaimAcclaim Entertainment
Acclaim Entertainment was an American video game developer and publisher. It developed, published, marketed and distributed interactive entertainment software for a variety of hardware platforms, including Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, and Game Gear, Nintendo's NES, SNES, Nintendo...
announced plans to release a video game based on 100 Bullets. However, following the collapse of Acclaim's
Acclaim Entertainment
Acclaim Entertainment was an American video game developer and publisher. It developed, published, marketed and distributed interactive entertainment software for a variety of hardware platforms, including Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, and Game Gear, Nintendo's NES, SNES, Nintendo...
publishing house, the game has essentially been cancelled. It was intended that the player would be either Cole Burns or Snow Falls (a completely original character) and play in a third person view, with actor Keanu Reeves portraying Cole Burns. The plot was generally unknown, aside from a supposition that it followed the plot of the comic book.
D3Publishing has obtained the rights from Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
to publish a 100 Bullets game
100 Bullets (video game)
100 Bullets is an upcoming action game based upon Vertigo's 100 Bullets comic book, written by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Eduardo Risso...
. They intend to make a video game completely independent from Acclaim's aborted vision, but still heavily reliant on input and plotting from Brian Azzarello
Brian Azzarello
Brian Azzarello is an American comic book writer. He came to prominence with the hardboiled crime series 100 Bullets, published by DC Comics' mature-audience imprint Vertigo.-Career:...
.
On June 23, 2011, IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
reported that David S. Goyer
David S. Goyer
David Samuel Goyer is an American screenwriter, film director and comic book writer.-Early life:Goyer was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He attended Hebrew school and has described himself as "half Jewish"...
co-writer of Dark City and The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight (film)
The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film directed, produced and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is part of Nolan's Batman film series and a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins...
is attached to executive produce and write a TV series based on the comics for Showtime.
Critical reception
The series has attracted critical acclaim from within and beyond the American comics industry, as "very violent, dark and clever" and "a series of compelling morality tales". In his introduction for the second volume collection Howard Chaykin wrote "Thanks are overdue to both these guys for producing the most exciting comic book in years".Awards
The series won the 2002 Harvey AwardHarvey Award
The Harvey Awards, named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman and founded by Gary Groth, President of the publisher Fantagraphics, are given for achievement in comic books. The Harveys were created as part of a successor to the Kirby Awards which were discontinued after 1987.The Harvey Awards are...
s for Best Writer, Best Artist and Best Continuing Series, and the 2003 Harvey Award for Best Artist, as well as the 2001 Eisner Award
Eisner Award
The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...
for Best Serialized Story, and the 2002 and 2004 Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series.
See also
Other titles by the same team:- Jonny DoubleJonny Double (Vertigo)Jonny Double is a comic series written by Brian Azzarello and published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics. The series was based on the Jonny Double character created in 1968 by Len Wein and Marv Wolfman...
- Batman: Broken CityBroken City"Broken City" is a DC Comics storyline that appeared in Batman #620-625, written by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Eduardo Risso. It features the characters Batman, Killer Croc, The Penguin and the Ventriloquist.-Storyline:...
- FlashpointFlashpoint (comics)Flashpoint is an American comic book crossover story arc published by DC Comics. Consisting of an eponymous core limited series and a number of tie-in titles, the storyline premiered in May 2011...
: Knight of Vengeance - SpacemanSpaceman (comics)Spaceman is a nine-issue, science fiction comic book miniseries written by Brian Azzarello, illustrated by Eduardo Risso, and published by Vertigo...
External links
- 100Bullets.co.uk fan site, on material from which parts of this article were based
- Brian Azzarello interview to Sequential Tart (August 1999) regards the development of 100 Bullets, among other things
- 100 Bullets - Early previews of the cancelled video game
- Newsarama.com article (June 2006) by Chris Arrant
- Website for series artist Eduardo Risso
- Website for cover artist Dave Johnson
- Website for colorist Patricia Mulvihill