Words and Art by Jay Potts
Worldofhurt.com, $25.00, 88 pages
I have been an admirer of Jay Potts’ blaxploitaiton black and white three panel webcomic World of Hurt http://worldofhurtonline.com for several years. The collection World of Hurt: The Thrill-Seekers, reproduces the first complete storyline, 67 individual strips which ran from 2009-10. Our hero, Isaiah “Pastor” Hurt, is a two-fisted man of action, scouring the mean streets of Pointe Blanc, where the poor get no help from emasculated police, and the rich get away with murder. Pastor is played straight, a film-noir style, hard-as-nails private detective seeking the murderer of a young black college student. The villains are venal and cruel, greatly deserving of their fates and Pastor is just the man to deliver the coup de grace.
Creator Jay Potts manages a difficult feat with great skill; his strip plays homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s, while remaining modern and fresh. Pastor is an appealing cinematic hero. Like his creation, Jay Potts artistic style is also a bit of a throwback, evoking early 80’s John Byrne, sans the spandex. Potts art and story capture a tone, right at home in the cop shows from the era, with the fashion and the staging of the action: it’s all fisticuffs, wide lapels and Courvosier cognac. You can almost smell the sweat and stale cigarettes wafting off of the requisite fat cop Steiner.
I particularly enjoyed the “making of” sketches and comments in the appendix of the book. I heartily recommend this collection to fans of the webcomic and for those of you who haven’t read it yet, what’s stopping you?
Bradley Wright
This book is available directly from the artist, please contact [email protected]