Comic Review: Whore from Zenescope Entertainment

The book is called Whore, and there're
three naked ladies on the cover.  It is what it is.
Don't pick it up and then be outraged by the
subject matter.

Created and Written by Jeffrey Kaufman

Pencils and Inks by Marco Turini

Colors by James Brown

Lettered by John Hunt

Produced by Big City Comics Studio

Published by Zenescope

Zenescope’s Whore reads like a comic version of Burn Notice if that show was produced by the publishers of Maxim magazine.  The book’s hero, Jacob Mars, is a morally ambiguous ex-CIA spy who comes to think of himself as a whore after he gets “downsized” by the Agency.  Left with few choices and lots of bills, Mars goes freelance, doing anything and everything for anyone who can pay.  And though he starts out as a patriot with a semblance of professional standards, soon Mars finds himself a willing participant in a rogue lifestyle where, as Ted DiBiase put it, “Every man has his price.”

Whore is not by any means the first take on the idea of using an amoral freelance spy as the protagonist of a story.  But what writer/creator Jeffery Kaufman has put together here is still pretty great.  Though the first ten pages or so labor to build the book’s titular analogy, once the story gets going, it’s a wild ride.  We’re treated to a gun fight in a bubble bath, death-dealing at a dog show, and a half-dozen or so additional, increasingly improbable spy-related bits, all in the service of showing our hero making a profit with his pistol while surrounded by beautiful naked ladies.  Bottom line, though this book occasionally takes a stab at telling a serious action story with political implications, mostly what we have is mayhem surrounded by boobs and gunplay.  When it’s in that wild, playful mode, it works wonderfully.

Kaufman writes an apology to artist Marco Turini in Whore’s foreword for all the weird nakedness that he’s had Turini draw over the years.  It’s noteworthy because while I didn’t love the art in every single scene, Turini is fabulous when he’s drawing the naked human body.  I thought some of the action sequences were a little stiff, especially the physical action, like when our hero knocks some punk out with a standing side kick, but the sheer nakedness is all excellent—and there is lots and lots of it.  Moreover, Turini manages to include nice background work in nearly all of the book’s panels, and he holds facial features consistent throughout the book.  Those two things are the most common failings amongst indie comic projects; neither is any kind of problem here.

So look, the book is called Whore, and there are three naked women drawn right on the cover.  You pick this book up, you should know what you’re getting yourself into.  The story is straight over the top, and there’s lots and lots of sex.  In fact, if they were gonna make Whore into a movie, I’d want to see the Cinemax After Dark version.  With all of that said, this is a story that has the good grace not to take itself seriously, and it’s awesome when it’s at its most ludicrous.  I read it on the train on my way home from work the other day, and it was the perfect antidote to real life.  If all of that sounds appealing, I encourage you to give Kaufman’sWhore a try.