Villordsutch reviews Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: A Spoon Too Short #4…
As the pages closed last month [read our review here] we witnessed the voiceless Kingdom-Brown family – in the UK – regain the power of communication via the means of song, thanks to some smart thinking of Sally and Susan McDuff. With this Dirk – in Africa – has begun to fit the jigsaw pieces of interconnectedness together and we left him handing over a party list of wants, that and he deciphered the elephants, named Mwassa, scribbles.
Opening this chapter on Dirk’s teen years, we find him in the custody of the British Police Force due to a misunderstand of exam answers and payments received, during his incarceration in a police cell he’s visited by the General – who we witnessed last issue – who begins to call Dirk by another name.
We return to the present day and the party Dirk arranged is now in full swing and he’s plying both Madluck (the Ranger) andhis new assistant/client Tamasha with oysters, lobster, asparagus and champagne; from this he then leaves primitive urges to kick in.
Once the fire is truly burning and the bait is set – for those that are stealing the voices – Dirk springs his trap and a full orchestra swings into action around the camp, interrupting both lust and lost voices.
This could possibly be the first Dirk Gently comic that could come with a NSFW attached to it, for it gets a wee bit saucy midway through. There is some rather excellent, devious writing here from Arvind, as Dirk sets a trap using live horny bait, powered by lust. This trap set is also delivered rather fantastically by the art from Ilias Kryiaszis and Charlie Kirchoff; one panel (technically two) in particular in which a bedded Dirk is lay on his cot and a small sub-panel highlights his opening eye when the urge grabs both Madluck and Tamasha.
We also get to see our cause of the voices being stolen, though not wishing to spoil that for anyone I shan’t discuss it here. What I did like and shall mention is the final page of young Dirk and the numerous pieces laid out in front of him.
Dirk Gently: A Spoon Too Short #4 is another brilliant chapter in this series. Arvind, Ilias and Charlie are honestly delivering something fantastic.
Rating: 9/10
Check out our interview with Arvind Ethan David here.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
. url=”.” . width=”100%” height=”150″ iframe=”true” /]
Originally published May 25, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
