Aloha, Hawaiian Dick is a follow-up series of the early 2000s series Hawaiian Dick: Byrd of Paradise, Hawaiian Dick: The Last Resort, and Hawaiian Dick: Screaming Black Thunder.
The titular private investigator is Byrd, a detective that has retired to Honolulu where he ends up taking cases that involve supernatural anomalies. All the series take place in a Noir Hawaii in the 1950s. With this new series, we start out in the 1970s with Byrd’s younger brother Mike, meeting with a reporter or the like to talk about a certain musician Tread Lightly who was big in the Jazz scene of Honolulu. From here, we move into the actual story of how Mike Byrd encountered Lightly.
The story starts in suburban Kansas City. Mike is at a card game where he loses, and then heads to his office to get information on a case he is about to start, a simple cheating case, get photos of the wife with her new lover. When Mike learns who the supposed boyfriend is of a major player in organized crime, Bobby Garozzo, he gets a little worried, but just asks for more money. As he is outside the house waiting to get his photos of this person, his camera jams and he gets noticed. When Garozzo finds out that he is Danny Byrd’s brother, he has an offer to get out of trouble, to find Tread Lightly. Mike wants to get out of town and just blow off the case, but he is unable to get the funds for that and sets up a trip to Hawaii.
There is a backup piece in the back called The Jazz Interlude, which actually brings in the Byrd in Hawaii, that gives this book his name. This also introduces Tread Lightly and friends. Byrd is thrown into the murder case of a local bartender and a singer, who showed up at his office with three gunshot wounds in his back.
Aloha, Hawaiian Dick is written by B. Clay Moore, who wrote the original Hawaiian Dick series as well as books such as Superman Confidential. With art by Jacob Wyatt, who has done art for books such as Regular Show, and the new Ms. Marvel series, and the cover by Sean K. Dove, who mainly does retro-inspired work so he fit really well with the series. Moore’s writing has a very sharp and witty feel to it that makes the book feel that it comes from the 50’s instead of the present. Wyatt’s work give a great retro vibe as well, which flows nicely from the different time periods in the book, giving each its own distinctive feel. Overall, it is a good crime/detective story so far and I can not wait to see what comes next.
Title: Aloha, Hawaiian Dick
Issue No. 1
Publisher: Image
Release Date: April 20, 2016
Rating: 15+