This graphic novel was good, but not what I expected. Going in, I thought it would be more of a murder mystery, but it's really an interesting tale about a small town and how the lives of the citizens interact. I enjoyed the interstitial sections that took place in the future. Overall, an interesting read.

In the dark underbelly of graphic storytelling, there exists a rare breed of creators who seamlessly weave narratives that grip your soul and refuse to let go. Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, the dynamic duo behind numerous acclaimed collaborations like Night Fever, Pulp, Reckless, and Criminal, have once again demonstrated their mastery with their latest hard-boiled crime graphic novel published by Image Comics. This time, they plunge readers into a neighborhood teeming with secrets and deceptions, delivering a relentless tale that tackles more than just a whodunnit.

In this gripping graphic novel, Brubaker and Phillips meld their signature styles to create a world that oozes atmosphere, draped in shadows and painted with morally ambiguous characters. The neighborhood they've built becomes more than a backdrop; it evolves into a character in itself; a suburban stage for a cast of diverse and intricate personalities.

The author's knack for crafting deeply flawed yet fascinating characters is evident in his portrayal each denizen of the neighborhood, each who navigates the blurred lines between right and wrong. With each turn of the page, readers are plunged deeper into a gripping web of personalities and are struck with empathy even against the troubles they each put forward.

Gritty and moody visuals capture the essence of the story's tone, elevating the narrative to an entirely new level. Every panel is meticulously crafted, from the smallest details in facial expressions to the grandiosity of a single small environment, pulling the readers into a cinematic experience that's visceral and intoxicating.

While the graphic novel pays homage to the classic noir tradition, it's more than just a nostalgic trip down memory lane. Brubaker and Phillips breathe fresh life into the genre, injecting their distinctive flair and creating a tale that is both timeless and cutting-edge. The "testemonies" crackle with authenticity, the pacing is impeccable, and the storytelling unfolds with a rhythm that's irresistible.

In a landscape where graphic novels often toe the line between art and entertainment, this collaboration is an exemplary reminder of how powerful the medium can be when masterfully wielded. Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' latest work is not just a graphic novel; it's a symphony of words and images that resonates long after you've turned the last page. With its intricate narrative, morally gray characters, and stunning artwork, this hard-boiled crime story cements their status as a creative duo that continues to push the boundaries of what graphic storytelling can achieve. If you're a fan of crime fiction, mystery, or just superb storytelling, this is one graphic novel that should not be missed.

Special thanks to Image Comics and NetGalley for the ARC!

Another fantastic graphic novel(la) from Ed Brubaker!

Where the Body Was is a murder mystery that follows the residents of a neighborhood, in a fashion similar to Clue, in what they were doing before, during, and after the event happened.

The novella opens up to a map of the neighborhood labelling everyone's home in relation to where the body was found and is followed by a page filled with the cast of characters--almost giving you the feel that you're a detective on the case opening up the files on record.

The storytelling is nonlinear but has a consistent flow that keeps the pacing and back and forth of the plot even keeled. The characters are memorable and have so much life to them despite how short the graphic novel is.

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have a really great professional relationship as together they create a fantastic read, and I look forward to reading more by them

DEVOURED this in one sitting. What a comic. Dark and mysterious, but with a cosy, suburban twang. Really gorgeous illustrations and colouring too. Really loved it.

This graphic novel depicts sex, drugs, and violence in the typical way. If you like Ed Brubaker novels you will like this. I thought the story a little discombobulated as I was reading but things did get tied up and come together at the end. Several stories going on at the same time some seedy and some very innocent. They did not really seem to jive. They did somewhat merge at the end.

"Where the Body Was" cleverly hooks its readers with a true crime narrative with memorable, interesting characters, only to tell a more nuanced story about life, love, memories, relationships, and the past. This was a truly great reading experience.

Haven’t read a Brubaker and Phillips in a bit. Enjoyed it. Has the noir sense but also tells a story of youth from those looking back. Some sweetness to it.

I was given a copy by Netgalley .
Opinions are my own.

Where The Body Was
By Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillip
Thank you to Netgally for a copy for an honest review
I found this graphic novel interesting, the grapiced novel follows a group of people living on dead-end street of Pelican Road in the summer of 1984.
The artwork is good and the story is interesting.
This is the first time I have read by the team of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillip and I am interested in reading more from the two.
Rating: 4 Stars

Another Ed Brubaker hit! The intertwined story elements of this comic are really what make it, following the same storyline from different point of views and seeing the different realities each of the characters is actually really living in.

At first I thought it was gonna be interesting but as I kept reading on, I just lost interest in reading more unfortunately. The art is good but the storytelling just didn’t match up to my expectations;/

Thanks Netgalley and publisher for allowing me to read this regardless…

This new graphic novel by the Eisner award winning team, Brubaker & Pillips is a compelling crime story. Inspired by the 1940’s Dell mapback books, Ed Brubaker has created an intricate story with a large cast of characters. The story takes place in the summer of 1984 on the fictional dead-end street, Pelican Road. True to the subgenre, to help the reader keep track of the action, he has provided a map with the locations of the various residences involved. The title and description leads the reader to assume that this is a murder mystery “who-done-it". But the body in question is not the main point of the story. This isn’t a simple murder mystery. There are actually several crimes, and each character has their own story to tell. Each of those stories start with an older character, decades after the fact, recalling that time in their lives. Then the reader sees a flashback of their memories. Frequently, a nonlinear fiction with multiple points of view can be very confusing to the reader. But Brubaker handles the technique with finesse.

Artist Sean Phillips has drawn a set of realistic characters. It is particularly interesting to see each character portrayed during the story and then the older person being interviewed. He does a great job with the progression of age. Colorist Jacob Phillips has provided a muted Noir feel to the images.

These graphic novel creators were new to me, but I will definitely be on the watch for more of their work. I recommend this book to graphic novel crime fiction enthusiasts.

WARNING: This novel is graphic in more ways than one. The book includes several pages with nudity and vulgar language. While I would have preferred the omission of these scenes, I do give the artists kudos for realistic rather than idealized images. All too often, graphic media portrays people with “perfect” bodies.

A story about the lives of people living on Pelican Road in a seemingly typical suburban neighbourhood. The story is an unravelling mystery centring on a dead man, told from multiple points of view which eventually come together in an explosion.

I wasn't sure about it at first, before I got to know all the characters and their situations. The art is good if not particularly original or striking, but the totally unnecessary explicitness of the sex scenes was very off-putting, especially as they were framed in a male gazey way. I almost stopped reading, but I'm glad I persevered.

Each of the characters won me over. They were all likeable and sympathetic, including serious flaws and contrasts which made them feel real and human. I became invested in their stories. The narrative unfolds steadily and was continually engaging. I loved how all the puzzle pieces fit together, with information being revealed at the perfect pace. I enjoyed the framing device of moving back and forth in time, character moving between 3rd person narration and telling their own stories to an unnamed narrator. The comic did a fantastic job of weaving themes of time, nostalgia, and the good and negative aspects of romantic love through the story. I was moved by endings, seeing how each of the character's lives played out.

Ultimately, I found the porn distracting, but not enough to ruin what is really a beautiful story with great characters. I want to read more by these creators. Thank you to the publisher for the ARC.

This book was a whirlwind of emotions. Mostly bad but at points it was quite enjoyable.
This book follows a group of different people and their overlapping stories throughout 1984.
I was reeled in from the first story but as I got further and further into the book, I kept continually losing interest and then getting back into it.
I found that my least favourite stories always seemed to follow Tommy and Karina and that the stories that piqued my interest were ones that followed palmer and Toni.
If not for the stories about palmer and Toni this book would’ve been one star unfortunately

4.5/5 stars
Thank you, Netgalley and Image Comics for the complimentary advance copy.

“Where the Body Was” succeeds in making the reader feel like they’ve stumbled into “a diorama of a crime scene” with its unconventional narrative structure. Writer Ed Brubaker referred to this graphic novel as “a diorama of a crime scene” in a press release prior to announcing its December 2023 release.

The same press release goes on to describe the graphic novel: “A boarding house full of druggies. A neglected housewife. A young girl who thinks she’s a superhero. A cop who wants to be left alone. And a Private Detective looking for a runaway girl. These stories all collide one deadly summer in Where The Body Was—a tale of love and murder in the suburbs—told from a dozen different points of view. All the neighbors on the block have an opinion about the murder and how it happened, but which of them is telling the truth?”

The graphic novel jumps between a cast of characters who are all connected by a mysterious crime thread that unravels over each page.. Jacob Phillips has an eye for colors that pop off the page and chooses to do a full page wash of blues, yellows, and other colors to distinguish when the story has jumped to a different character's perspective or to a different time of day or setting. This coloring effect was so impactful on me, I made a point to look at who the colorist was once I’d finished reading. Maybe it’s a father and son special super power that makes the art and color supplement each other so well. Jacob Phillips is artist Sean Phillips' son. The art compliments the story and while I’m not familiar with other works by Phillips and Brubaker, it’s undeniable how well they work together.

“Where the Body Was” is published by Image Comics and one of my all-time favorite graphic novel series is also published at Image Comics, “Saga”. "Brubaker and Phillips's books have always been about eight years ahead of their time”, shared “Saga” author Brian K. Vaughn. Image Comics was founded in the 90’s by a collective of best selling artists including Todd McFarlane (Spawn) and Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead). The majority of their published works are “creator-owned” meaning the trademark and copyright are wholly owned by the original creator. I find I’m rarely disappointed by anything they’ve published.

I think my few criticisms are that the story is too short. I would have liked to see it stretch out just a bit longer and keep the mystery going. At times, I got a bit lost in who was who with so many characters but this could be a “me” problem reading this too late at night. And finally I think the cover is far too plain to truly speak to the quality of story and art that is inside this graphic novel.

Check this out if you enjoy graphic novels, crime, thrillers, and a good mystery.

A delightfully pulpy graphic novel full of overlapping stories about the residents of a single street, "Where the Body Was" is enticing from the very first page. It read like watching a car crash happen in slow motion. As all the interwoven dramas and scandals play out around each other, you just keep reading as you wait for it all to come crashing down on everyone's heads. I really liked this book, and I would absolutely recommend it to fans of graphic novels, crime serials, and soap operas.

I am an Ed Brubaker fan. I can’t remember the last time I read something by him that I didn’t enjoy.
I like his superhero comics quite a lot.
I love his crime comics even more.
Where the Body Was takes place in a small neighborhood during one Summer. Its cast of characters was a motley crew. A bored housewife, a police detective, a kid who thinks she’s a superhero among others. Most of them had secrets. All of them had a part to play in the events that ended in a death.
The story was well crafted and kept a great pace.
Sean Phillips on art is always a great thing to see.
If you’ve never read anything by Brubaker and Phillips, this would be an excellent introduction to their work. It is a one and done story instead of a long running series.

If there's one thing you can trust Ed Brubaker with, it's a crime story that doesn't use women as objects. That's why I keep coming back, and he never disappoints, not with his plots or his commitment to making every character feel nuanced and real.

In this graphic novel, a neighborhood's secrets all come to a head one summer, and this is the confessional of its residents years after the fact. Unlike other authors, Brubaker doesn't make you work out whodunnit for yourself even when the story would close naturally without the reveal. It's a better story for putting the answer on the page (and I like the little warning, so you could skip it if you wanted).

Sean Phillips's art is always stunning, and I love how he portrays the sex in this book–explicit but not gratuitous.

Where the Body Was is a compelling and intriguing murder mystery presented in comic form by some of the most revered artists in the game. Set in the eighties, the house at the end of Pelican Road was once owned by newlyweds Louise and Henry Robbins before becoming a boarding house that attracted students, beatniks and hippies. Then they both passed away and a legal battle ensued and soon down-and-outers began using it to take drugs and play loud music. Enter (Detective) Palmer Sneed who sees the thugs off with great aplomb. Palmer is sleeping with bored housewife of the street Toni Melville who finds excitement by cheating on her miserable, inattentive husband. We then meet Vietnamese Lila Nguyen who as an eleven-year-old dressed as a superhero and roller-skated around the neighbourhood returning escaped canines to their worried owners, feeding the homeless and spying on anyone who looked suspicious. We hear from Sam Walker, the manager of the liquor store where Palmer used to work; he claims Palmer was never a cop. Palmer admits to stealing his father's detective badge from his coffin right before burial and unintentionally ending up using it in certain situations. It made people respect him more and also attracted Toni.

We also meet several other residents of the street who share a little about their lives with us. Then one afternoon in early September, Lila happens upon the dead body of private investigator Jack Foster in the middle of the street. He had claimed to have been snooping around lately trying to track down a missing teenager, but no one really knew whether that was the truth or not. Sneed had seen the body and felt if he didn't hide it then when the neighbours mentioned a cop living in the vicinity during police canvassing he would be caught for impersonating a police officer. Oh, how one deception leads to some even greater ones down the line. Dr Ted Melville had returned home to find wife Toni in bed with Palmer and had taken a shot at him with a pistol; he had planned on murdering his wife and making it look like a psychotic patient, homeless Ranko, had carried it out, however, Tommy Brandt and Karina Lane had been burgling the Melville house when the doctor came home to carry out the deed and so witnessed everything from the safety of the closet. You'll have to read it if you wish to find out who killed the P.I. and how the neighbours on the street fared after the drama was over.

This marks only the second comic/graphic story I have ever read, and from what I can gather about Image Comics and their roster of storytellers/artists as well as how compelling I have found said crime caper to be, I don't think I could've chosen a better publisher to properly introduce me to the genre. The inhabitants of Pelican Road are a fascinating bunch each with their own trials and tribulations with each coming across as very human. Each person seems to have an uncanny knack for attracting full-scale drama. Full of mystery and suspense, the story builds as it progresses and you try to work out where all the puzzle pieces fit. There is also plenty of attention given to the notions of nostalgia, bildungsroman, memory, love, loss and allusions to the past being a foreign country. A lot of this story is true, including some of the crazier parts which is wild but not entirely surprising given what we know about humans and human nature. Many different stories commingle and overlap on one street and the map at the front is a nice touch as is the cast of character pictures. We follow where they go, what they care about, and what secrets they keep. You can feel a lot of heart and soul went into creating the street, the characters and a fully rounded story, and that makes it a joy to read.

Note: I received access to read this book from the publisher for free. That doesn't influence my opinion on it, but it is worth disclosing.

I can't say that I particularly liked any of the characters but the story was tightly wound together and kept my interest trained on uncovering more of the mystery. It's not exceptionally mysterious either, but it's told in a way that ensures that you know you'll be receiving important information at just the right speed to have the story constantly moving. There is also a great sense of life in the neighborhood that felt realistic and slightly paranoia inducing.

Good illustrations. I liked the way I was led through the murder. Will definitely recommend it to my friends and colleagues.