Already in love with mysteries and noir crime, when I was a young boy, my best friend, John, and I decided to form our own local detective agency appropriately called, the J&J Detective Agency.
We would never get into an argument over whose name came first on the future office door. Plus, it was a catchy name. And easy to remember. And you needed to be both popular and easy-going if you were going to score cases from the local neighbourhood kids during summer vacation.
John and I, both avid readers of comic books, drew up flyers with our name and logo, which stylistically utilized a magnifying glass over the letters to visually show that we knew how to find things. And, for one summer, like many of the private investigators of our comic book reading, we were hired to solve cases.
For us, those few and far-between cases were specifically youthful. Like the one called The Peculiar Disappearance of The New Bike: in less than an hour, we discovered that Louie from up the street “borrowed” it so he wouldn’t miss lunch – didn’t you hear his mom calling from his porch? Or the one we titled The Malevolent Vanishing of Barbie and Ken: both were tragically found at the bottom of Melanie’s backyard turtle pool. No culprit was, unfortunately, ever apprehended in that case – still a mark against us!
Truth be told, we weren’t extraordinarily busy. And the cases weren’t extraordinarily meaningful. And crime, we learned did not pay any extraordinary amount. But John and I had a good time that summer dreaming up advertising posters and more robust, high profile, cases that we’d one day meaningfully solve.
And that brings us to today’s comic book release of Gilt Frame #1, the first issue of a new three-issue detective mystery miniseries from the puzzling mind of one of fandom’s favourite comic book creators.
Illustrated by Matt Kindt (Mind MGMT, Dept H., If You Find This, I’m Already Dead, BRZRKR) and written jointly by Kindt and his mother, Margie Kraft Kindt, Gilt Frame is a murder-mystery story dissimilar from any other that you’ve ever experienced.
Somewhat originated by the relationship that Matt Kindt had with his mother while growing up (who occasionally created mysteries for her son to solve) Gilt Frame focuses on two unlikely leading protagonists: A mid-twenties orphan named Sam and his older and eccentric Aunt Merry. Together, they are mystery-solving wunderkinds and on something of a roll, already with four, maybe five, probably six high-profile cases solved. Still, like I learned at a young age one summer, long, long ago, “Crime doesn’t pay,” Merry tells her ward, distraught over lack of payment for their exemplary work. Sage advice, finished with “Solving a crime is its own reward.”
And so begins an adventurous tale that sees the globe-spanning duo on their most bizarre murder mystery! This case involves a gamut of beloved detective-fiction tropes from jewel thieves to art forgers, gun, runners, a lost puppy and a rival French detective, all amidst the backdrop of beautiful Paris and other amazing locales!
Each issue of Gilt Frame is triple sized at 64 pages of wonderful, page-turning twists and turns that you’ll never see coming. Each installment is full of clues and seemingly disparate tidbits of information that will shed light on both the mystery at hand – and the complex history and relationship between Sam and Aunt Merry.
Make the run to your local comic book shop and pick up the outstanding first issue of Gilt Frame today.
You can catch a mysteriously enticing sneak preview of Gilt Frame # 1 right here.
