Honestly, Gun Honey isn’t the type of comic that I would normally read. At least at first glance. Even as a queer woman, the various cheesecake covers for this pulp noir series feel a bit too male gazey for my liking. Much like the old Top Cow Tomb Raider series, its scantily clad, ultra-curvaceous and provocatively posed heroine visually blasts the message that Gun Honey isn’t a book for me.

That said, Gun Honey, from writer (and Hard Case Crime co-founder) Charles Ardai and Malaysian artist Ang Hor Kheng, comes with some serious pedigreed praise – not to mention series cover art by the likes of Bill Sienkiewicz, Adam Hughes, and movie poster legend Robert McGinnis. Meanwhile, endorsement quotes are from such big names in crime fiction as Ed Brubaker, Max Allan Collins, Stephen King and Duane Swierczynski.

So I was paying attention even before I got to the bit about Gun Honey being 2021’s best-selling non-premier comic, according to Diamond Comic Distributors. Oh, and the Titan Comics series already having a TV adaptation in development.

The TV adaptation is worth mentioning because Gun Honey – which is out today in graphic novel format, collecting issues 1 to 4 – brings to mind such on-screen entertainment as La Femme Nikita, its various reboots, and Anna. Gun Honey is supremely cool, but also kinda (and consciously) trashy at times. With its mature content, this stylish, hardboiled crime tale is definitely an adults-only read.

That said, barring the times Gun Honey leaned too hard (for my liking) into gratuitous nudity, I really enjoyed the story of supremely efficient weapons smuggler Joanna Tan. Sometimes you’re just in the mood for R-rated popcorn thrills, and Gun Honey consistently delivers. Hor Kheng may fall prey to some weird perspective distortions at times but the artist has a suitably kinetic and scratchy style that brings the action to noir-ish life.

Nicknamed “little mouse” during her childhood on the mean streets of Singapore, Joanna has a special talent for delivering guns wherever her typically dodgy clientele want them. She’s the best at what she does, and it helps that she has no hang-ups about what her supplied weaponry is used for. Problems arise though when the “Gun Honey’s” latest assignment – sneaking a pistol into a high-security prison – leads to the escape of a brutal criminal. Faced with the threat of prosecution, Joanna is forced to track down the dangerous ex-con, with the unwanted assistance of government agent Brook Barrow.

Ardai manoeuvres Joanna into situations where she must disrobe a lot, but there’s no question that our heroine is more than very tasty eye candy. Joanna is a great character: adeptly walking a moral and representational slackline. She’s presented as a highly competent on-the-fly problem solver, doing whatever it takes to get the job done. And, to be fair, she’s never drooled over by the men and women she works with. Even in seedy circles, she is respected for her skills and self-sufficiency.

A further point to appreciate is that Joanna isn’t overly feminised at a characterisation level, or that her feminine traits are treated as a weakness. Joanna experiences an array of emotions but there are no teary breakdowns to “soften” the character. Matter of factly, she shrugs things off and gets on with the task at hand.

Gun Honey is a great concept, with loads of potential to explore in future story arcs. Evidently, that’s a shared opinion because the second series is out later this year. In Volume 2, Joanna must contend with a vengeful rival who frames her for murder, leading to a frantic chase from Malaysia all the way across the United States and Europe, to Monaco.

You have plenty of time to get up to speed with the breakout series before then. Volume 1 of Gun Honey is out now. Get your physical or digital copy here, or find more purchase options here.