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Janet Harvey, Megan Levens and Nick Filardi give readers a look into the dark underbelly of Hollywood in their 1930’s noir series, Angel City, available from Oni Press in October.

It’s a tale as old as Hollywood itself: girls who dream of being a star leave their lives behind and head west, falling prey to those who inhabit the seedy side of Tinseltown. Two of those girls are featured in Angel City: Dolores Dare and Frances Faye. The girls quickly find out the illusion is much grander than the reality. Frances, the eternal optimist, kept a smile on her face the whole time, even when things seemed their bleakest.

Predictably, Frances’ story doesn’t end with her name on a marquee. It ends with her being discovered in a dumpster behind Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Dolores’ story didn’t go as planned either. Instead of the bright lights, she operates in the shadows as an enforcer for a local mob boss.

When Dolores learns of Frances’ passing from a newspaper reporter, she puts on a brave face and acts like the news doesn’t affect her. In reality, however, the news devastated her and Dolores launches her own investigation into her friend’s death.

Harvey nailed the period dialogue perfectly without it sounding cliche. Levens and Filardi’s art was dynamic, tonally spot on and complements Harvey’s writing beautifully. Angel City #1 is one of my favourite individual issues of the year, and serves as a perfect opening act in this Hollywood drama.