Tommaso proves again with Dark Corridor #2 that he gets simple visual storytelling, but... well, honestly, I don't know: too many strippers.  Is that a valid complaint?  There were too many strippers. I love shot-matching transitions.  Tommaso also loves them.  In case that's an obtuse term, it's pretty much just what it sounds like: a panel depicts something, then the next panel depicts something visually analogous in a different place and/or time.  This is one of the absolute best things about Bolland's work in The Killing Joke; but, more to the point, it's also one of the best things about Dark Corridor #2.  It's a move that has a distinctly pulpy feel in its execution within Tommaso's pages and thus adds a lot to its pulp charm.

The "Seven Deadly Daughters" thread in the latter half of the book is the most marketable part of this comic, and easily the best part too.  Much like the eponymous female assassins, this comic does its own thing and weaves back into the "main" story world of the comic at its own discretion.  There's something extra malicious about watching the beady-eyed creations of Tommaso's cartoony style stabbing and bleeding left and right, but again, it's all good pulp.

For all of the praise that Tommaso will continue to get from me as long as his cartooning stays so solid, some of the benign pacing issues that plagued the first episode don't come off so benign in this one.  I didn't mind the extended scene of the thieves splitting up the loot in the first issue.  But this issue harps on Carter's financial windfall in between jail time and his latest wrongdoing.  And it keeps harping.  And then it uses strippers/escorts to harp on it some more for several pages.

I don't have a problem with nudity in comics and I don't think that any one of the pages with Carter and his stripper acquaintance are out of place on their own.  A lead character being massively indebted to a strip club is right in line with the feel for which this comic strives and certainly helps fill out Carter's character.  But it seems like a little much.  It seems like some of those pages could have been dedicated to connecting Carter to some of the other characters we've already met.

That said, I do like how Tommaso cleverly uses the news on the television as a quick way to keep the threads of the story connected between different issues.  Still, despite it being a classic pulp move to really zoom in on a particular characters story for a little while, this issue felt a little heavy-handed to me.  Since its ultimate thrust is "hey, look how fucked Carter is," no one part of his debauchery alone is all that interesting.

Score: 3/5

Dark Corridor #2 Writer/Artist: Rich Tommaso Publisher: Image Comics Price: $3.99 Release Date: 9/2/15 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital