Graphic Novel Review: Sins of the Salton Sea written by Ed Brisson and illustrated by C.P. Smith

Posted on July 9, 2024 at 6:32 am by Gene Ambaum

Sins of the Salton Sea written by Ed Brisson and illustrated by C.P. Smith. AWA, 2024. 9781953165541. 128pp. Contains #1 – #5.

I loved Brisson’s previous crime graphic novel Catch & Release: A Murder Book Story. CP Smith’s art makes this one feel a bit more cinematic, and it’s got a fun, somewhat sudden (if you weren’t paying attention to the tenacles on the cover) genre shift at the end.

Jasper finds his brother Wyatt living in a motor home; Wyatt disappeared a while back after some horrible personal stuff. Jasper wants to pull one last heist before retirement, and he needs someone who knows explosives. Wyatt takes some convincing, but the next day he’s rolling with Jasper’s heavily armed crew to take down a truck full of cash. Everything goes wrong. There’s no cash. The rest of the story involves a cult, an attempt to avoid the end of the world, and a hunt for those who survived the attempted heist (and what they found in the truck).

The story is relentless, and it took me right back to visiting the creepy, desolate Salton Sea with my great aunt and uncle when I was a kid. It was super spooky; if you’d told me monsters lived there, I’d have believed you.