Guy Ritchie is getting a little Graphic

On shelves in comic book stores today is Guy Ritchie’s Gamekeeper, the latest series on Virgin Comics “Director’s Cut” label – comic book created by filmmakers – which has already released titles such as John Woo’s Seven Brothers (Woo was a defining force in the highly influential Hong Kong action cinema with film’s like Hard Boiled and The Killer) and Shekhar Kapur’s Snake Woman (Kapur directed The Four Feathers and the upcoming The Golden Age).

Ritchie established himself as a major filmmaking force with his debut feature, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, a brilliant British gangster film/caper movie about two antique shotguns that change hands among Britain’s criminal underworld. His follow up film, Snatch took the Lock, Stock… formula – crazy characters, manic editing, camerawork and style, comedy, and violence that manages to be slapstick and cartoonish one moment, but can turn brutal in an instant. Then Ritchie married Madonna, made the abysmal Swept Away starring his world famous wife, and has kind of disappeared since. He made another gangster film, Revolver, which I have yet to see (was not released stateside, in theaters or on DVD, to my knowledge). The reviews of Revolver are completely divided – the reviewer either hates the film, or sees it as an daring attempt on Ritchie’s part to make a drastically more mature film than his previous work. Everyone agrees on one thing — Revolver is too complicated. Writing that off as failure or artistic experimentation is the audience’s decision.

In Gamekeeper Ritchie moves away from the criminal underworld of London and Vegas for the Scottish countryside, where the story’s protagonist, a steel-eyed, scar-faced man named Brock, serves as the gamekeeper on the estate of Jonah Morgan. A gamekeeper is someone employed by a landowner to monitor game and prevent poaching, and according to an interview with Ritchie, one of the three possible careers that appeal to him (alongside architect and filmmaker). The beginning has echoes of The Deer Hunter, with wide-angle cinematic landscapes of the Scottish wilderness at dawn, Brock alone, waiting patiently with his rifle. We do not see Brock’s face just yet – he is part of the landscape, part of the wilderness. When we do see Brock, he looks what you’d imagine the most dangerous man alive would look like – scar on his left cheek, a sociopathic stare, shaved head. He is a killer, no question. And a killer that is completely sane, calm, and in control. The creative team of Ritchie, writer Andy Diggle, and artist Mukesh Singh did an amazing job designing Brock’s look. Daniel Craig would be great in this role if Ritchie ever decided to adapt Gamekeeper for the screen.

This is issue one of a five issue series, and it does well what any first issue should do. Brock’s character is established, as is the world he lives in. A piece of his past is revealed, but only enough to ask more questions than it answers. The story is set in motion as a team of black-clad mercenaries launches an assault on the Morgan Estate, and we get to see Brock take down a few bad guys – but no action movie theatrics in this department, Brock is a hunter, not a commando. He stalks patiently, kills silently and quickly. And it makes you want to find out what happens next.

I’m looking forward to issue #2.