Advance Review: The Stars Come Out For DSTLRY’s ‘The Devil’s Cut’

Talk about a who’s who of comic book talent. New creator-owned publisher DSTLRY has assembled an Avengers-like roster of founding talent, including industry heavy hitters Mirka Andolfo, Brian Azzarello, Jock, Joelle Jones, Tula Lotay, Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV.

That group, along with several other big names in comics, has assembled DSTLRY’s first comic, called The Devil’s Cut. Named after the portion of alcohol that is captured during whiskey’s aging process, The Devil’s Cut features 11 short stories. The quick installments don’t follow any particular theme but cut across genres, including horror, sci-fi, Western and spy craft.

One of the highlights is a hilarious spy story written by PK Colinet and Elsa Charretier, who also illustrates. In it, the spook’s cover is blown, so she walks readers through her rules of escape. The creative team ingeniously takes simple, trite coping mechanisms (set the small stuff aside, break the problem into manageable bits, etc.) and turns them into getaway worthy of James Bond. Charretier’s illustrations are top-notch and brought to life by Nick Filardi’s vibrant colors.

Another equally entertaining – though quite disturbing – entry comes from writer Stephanie Philips and Jones on art. Inspired by a true story, What’s Mine is Hearse tells the tale of a woman who has fallen in love with a man she is autopsying. Philips fills the five brief pages with more puns and double-entendres than you can count, but in a delightfully disturbing way. Jones’ artwork is gorgeous and sensuous – clearly illustrating how unhinged the woman really is.

Not surprisingly, Tynion and artist Christian Ward offer up a horror story, where a man is sent to a billionaire’s house to steal a machine that shouldn’t exist. It’s a tight story that will leave readers with more questions than answers.

That’s part of the danger with short stories like these. They are more difficult to tell than multi-issue series. The creative team must grab the reader quickly, not rely on much exposition and then bring the story to some kind of ending.

Azzarello and artist Eduardo Risso nail that formula in their Western called Deleted Scene, #2. What was this scene cut from? Who knows and who cares. It’s brief contemplation of love (“Y’think…folks say love’s a funny thing ‘cuz if they said what it really was, wouldn’t be funny at all?) will leave you thinking long after you’ve finished reading the four pages. Extra credit to the always amazing Risso for his beautiful Western landscapes.

It’s easy to understand why DSTLRY is going to expand eight of these stories into full-blown series over the next year and a half. The first, called Gone, will focus on The Stowaway, which was written and drawn by Jock.  

The variety of the storytelling techniques and the artistic styles helps to hold readers’ attention as they jump from story to story. But really, it would make just as much sense to savor these tales – to read only one or two at a time, then put the oversized book down to contemplate the narrative’s lessons. And, of course, what’s nice about a collection like this is that if you’re not into a particular story, it’ll be over in a page or two.

So think of this amazing collection as an amuse-bouche – an appetizer of many great stories to come. It will have to hold us over until we can have another sip of The Devil’s Cut.

The Devil’s Cut will be available for purchase on August 30, 2023.