Mark Murphy’s Tiki Joe Mysteries @ Slave Labor Graphics

[ENGLISH] In 1959 Las Vegas, WWII veteran Joe Halliday is enjoying the good life, running his bar, Tiki Joe’s, and dating a smart, beautiful woman. But his Polynesian Pop dream is shaken when the local Mafia hits him up for « protection » money. Joe isn’t the type to give into extortion, and with the support of his stalwart army buddies, he decides to take on the Mob in SLG Publishing’s new graphic novel by Mark Murphy, Tiki Joe Mysteries Volume One: High-Stakes Patsy. Tiki Joe and Murphy were natural fits at SLG, which publishes tiki drink and art books under their Club Tiki imprint. « Tiki Joe Mysteries is a deliberate blend of two of my favoite passions — detective fiction and mid-century popular culture, » said Murphy, whose previous graphic novels, the NBM-published House of Java series, were critically acclaimed. « It’s the book I’ve always wanted to see on the stands — a book filled with tough guys, beautiful girls, bullets and tiki masks! »

Tiki Joe Mysteries Volume One contains two stories, « The Pay Off, » about Joe’s confrontation with the mob, and « The High Stakes Patsy, » about his entanglement with a robbery involving a jewel heist and a troupe of female stunt motorcyclists. With action, beautiful dames, a cool-under-pressure hero, and Murphy’s clean, classic drawing style, Tiki Joe Mysteries is an exciting and nostalgic tribute to the Rat Pack era’s culture of cool.

Tiki Joe Mysteries Volume One: High-Stakes Patsy will be in stores in July 2008. It’s 96 pages and will retail for $9.95. It can be pre-ordered from comic book stores now with the Diamond code MAY083554. A preview is here. Mark Murphy’s website for Tiki Joe Mysteries is at www.tikijoemysteries.com.