Here is the latest in our year-long look at one cool comic (whether it be a self-contained work, an ongoing comic or a run on a long-running title that featured multiple creative teams on it over the years) a day (in no particular order whatsoever)! Here's the archive of the comics posted so far!

Today we look at a great one-off issue of Gotham Central by Ed Brubaker and Brian Hurtt

Enjoy!

Issue #11, "Daydreams and Believers," is about a temp at GCPD named Stacy. She has a very specific job...

What a clever bit by Brubaker, to establish the concept of a bureaucracy where a civilian has to turn on the Bat-Signal.

Besides an impressive look into the mind of an intriguing new character, the goal of this issue of Gotham Central is to show the various detectives of the GCPD in a different light, as viewed by someone who they don't normally pay attention to, so she picks up on all their little quirks and habits. It's a very interesting device by Brubaker that works very well. In a comic that revolves around characters who are, generally, THEMSELVES "background characters," having another background character bring their personalities to the forefront is a great idea.

And, of course, Brian Hurtt is a wonderful artist. I don't think you need me to say that, as it is evident, but, well, Brian Hurtt is a wonderful artist. His characters are so extremely expressive it is nuts.

Here are two more snippets from the issue (note, the joke with Josie is that she has psychic abilities where she can a connection to inanimate objects, so of course she is always going to be able to find her mug no matter where they hide it)...

and

The main crime in the issue revolves around an escape and the bizarre theft of a cadaver. Brubaker handles the resolution of that case sublimely, as the punishment for the criminals is brutally effective.

This was a stand-out issue in a stand-out series. An issue to be proud of by both Brubaker and Hurtt.

Sadly, this issue was omitted during the original Gotham Central trade paperbacks (they chose to collect other stories involving Renee Montoya for the Half a Life trade rather than this issue as a sort of epilogue to that story, and then the next trade picks up with #12, which began a new storyline), but it is now collected in the second volume of the Gotham Central hardcover collection.