Maggy Garrisson

Maggy Garrisson is brash, snarky and devoid of scruples; she lives on junk food and beer, and drifts into a career as a streetwise private detective more by chance than by design. When she’s not taking on corrupt cops, ruthless gangsters or petty criminals, she‘s looking for answers to her moral quandaries in the bottom of a glass. Maggy Garrison trudges from one squalid case to the next through a Great Britain of lowlifes, whose pitiful circumstances appear depressingly cold, wet and grey in spite of Stéphane Oiry’s bold colours, and are made bearable only by a heavy dose of wit.

Especially noteworthy is Lewis Trondheim’s narrative style: the individual albums each recount a self-contained episode, but are connected by a longer storyline in which the characters and their relationships develop and evolve. In an era when the classic French Bandes Dessinées seem to depend largely on repeating and rehashing familiar themes, old recipes and dead heroes, Maggy Garrison offers a refreshing and highly entertaining change.