Exclusive Review: Westside Volume 1

Publisher: Studio 12-7

Creative Team:

Justin Giampaoli (writer)

Dave Law (artist)

Jacob Anthony Ramirez (poet)

Arthur N. Ebuen (editor/publisher)

Frank Cvetkovic (letterer)

Where to Back:

Back it Here

Solicit

This 52-page neo-noir crime drama plunges readers into a volatile crossroads where race relations, car culture, and crime collide. Drawing from deeply personal, autobiographical roots, Westside: Volume 1 is both a hard-hitting crime story and a haunting elegy to Justin’s hometown in California’s Central Valley. Bringing the world to life is veteran indie artist Dave Law, whose bold black and white storytelling is layered with dramatic ink washes, and creates a stark, atmospheric landscape where every conversation hides a secret and every choice has consequences.

If you’re a fan of the slow-burn tension of HBO’s The Wire or the gritty crime comics of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, Westside: Volume 1 will feel right at home on your shelf. Think True Detective, but set in the sun-bleached streets of California’s Central Valley.

Westside: Volume 1 is a perfect bound comic book containing the first two chapters of this moody small-town crime drama featuring two deputy sheriffs investigating a series of violent crimes in California’s Central Valley. Westside injects real-world facts and authentic autobiographical elements to expose a broken part of America. 

Hope Martini and David Fuentes are unlikely partners forced to work together. Hope is a veteran investigator and a nihilistic loner spiraling toward depression; her new partner David naïvely believes he's actually making a difference.

Merced, California is under siege; whether it’s intense drive-by shootings or masked bodies found on a foggy airport runway, every day is disturbing. Hope's dad used to tell her that if she stayed in the valley, she'd end up dead or in jail.

He was right.

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REVIEW

I was graciously given the opportunity to not only get a chance to review this comic early but and exclusive opportunity. That is a first for me in my time writing at Comic Book Yeti.

I can tell you that this book definitely hits the mark when its says it feels like True Detective. Its a gritty and raw tale that can only come from someone who lived in Calfornia's Central Valley. The lived in feeling comes through in this tale. I did not know before reading it that Justin Giampaoli did actually come from that area but it comes through. I haven't lived there but my wife's family does live there and I can see hints of that area in this book.

I know Dave Law from a previous work by the same publisher, ©alifornia, Inc. While Dave's style here is reletively similar to that, it feels like he goes a bit grittier with his line work. The more I see of Dave's work the bigger fan I become of it.

Coming back to the story a bit more, I don't normally read many crime books. I have not read anything by Brubaker and Phillips *hides while those pitchforks come out* *ok looks safe* but if those books are similar in tone to Westside I may have to rectify that. The main character, Hope Martini, is racially similar to myself, she half Mexican and half Italian while I am half Mexican and half White. There is a caption that captures what it can feel like sometimes.

Racial tension and cultural bias play a role in this first volume I am glad its being highlighted in such a authentic way in this story.

I look forward to the team having some great success with book. It definitely deserves it.

Back it Here

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This was Luis from Comic Book Yeti, don't forget to heart the article it really helps tell us what type of articles you like. Thanks again, signing off with more picks from the Yeti Cave. Be good, do good, and read comics! Find me on the CBY discord  or BlueSky ‪@luisgodoyii.bsky.social. 

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