It’s the close of the second act of The Fade Out, as writer Ed Brubaker moves the pieces around his hellish, crime-soaked chessboard and ramps up the tension around the mysterious death of Valeria Sommers, the toll it’s taken on Charlie Parrish and how much longer Gil Mason has before he reaches a breaking point.

In this issue, Phil Brodsky is out to discover who is blackmailing the head of Victory Street Studios as Charlie continues to piece together the hazy details that led to Valeria’s death. There’s also the case of Gil, who — as noted by his wife — has been in a much better mood recently. Of course, for people who know Gil, that’s not always a good thing.

As usual, Brubaker takes his time here, slowly building drama and revealing small details that guide the plot until the final page, which is both a moment of clarity for the book but also one that will make things much more complicated as The Fade Out #9 moves into the story’s third act.

Instead of ending the second act of the story with an action set piece, shoot-out or something more spectacular, Brubaker goes for the slow burn and allows the story to play out organically, having faith in readers to get a bigger rush from the last page reveal than some shoe-horned cliffhanger with a Hollywood feel.

You know what? It completely works. The main plot, featuring Charlie’s drive toward solving the Valeria Sommers murder and the various sub-plots — including Gil’s state of mind and the brooding muscle-for-hire Victor Brodsky — continue to effortlessly weave together as all of the characters in the piece are inevitably headed toward a collision course; and this is where those seeds are planted.

The Fade Out wouldn’t be half as successful without the work of artist Sean Phillips and colorist Elizabeth Breitweiser, and here, the duo pulls off Brubaker’s dialogue-heavy script with a spellbinding energy. Phillips is a master of mood and emotion, which serves him well here, as he accentuates plot twists and subdued character moments with perfect expressions and body language.

Charlie, in particular here, is a man on the edge, and every trembling drag he takes from his cigarette and wide-eyed look of shock is illustrated masterfully to heighten the mood.

Breitweiser’s colors only add to the feeling of the issue, as she transitions seamlessly from shadowy warehouses to mahogany-lined bars and a colorful costume party on Halloween. Phillips and Breitweiser allow readers to fully buy into not just the characters but the setting of The Fade Out through the art, and, in turn, it makes the scripts from Brubaker pop right off the page.

The Fade Out #8 delivers another solid issue for a series that has been delivering the goods under the radar since its debut. As more questions begin to be answered, even more are being asked. Now, the wait is underway until September, when the third act kicks off.

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