Dying is Easy – Comic Book Review and Summary

Review and summary of Dying is Easy by author Joe Hill, illustrations by Martin Simmonds

Spoiler Free Review

Dying is Easy is a noir mystery graphic novel from highly prolific author Joe Hill. The main character Sydney is a disgraced cop who turns to stand up comedy instead of a therapist and finds himself the suspect in a murder case.

The book is a very dark comedy of errors. It’s easy to see the dark parts. The art is dark, the characters are glum and tragic, and the plot is a murder mystery. But the comedy parts are there in the shadows. It doesn’t have many jokes, except a solid pun punchline at the very end, but it’s funny in the way life is funny. Nothing makes sense, everything makes sense, sometimes you just have to laugh at the absurdity of it all, it’ll keep you from crying.

The mystery itself expertly lays out the pieces of the puzzle and is solvable by the reader if you’re paying close enough attention. It’s the kind of story that would read completely differently the second time because the little details will become ah ha! moments.

The characters in Dying is Easy are true to life, whether you like it or not. This book does not seem to have been well received and one of the complaints I saw pop up on a lot of reviews is that the main character isn’t funny enough. Look, just because he performs at a comedy club is no guarantee he’ll be funny. Plus, comedians don’t owe you funny every moment of the day. This isn’t about his act, it’s about his tragic, unfortunate life.

I’ve known more than my share of comedians in my life, I don’t know how it happens but stand ups just find me. I can tell you that they are just as miserable as the rest of us when they’re not “on.” They are just able to pick out the little gems that make you laugh from the garbage pile that is our society. But they’re entitled to other emotions just as you are.

Plus, Dying is Easy is written by Joe Hill. He’s known for horror. Why did anyone think this was a straight comedy to begin with? That’s a silly assumption not a valid criticism.

Anyway, I’m shocked that people hated this book so much. It’s a solid mystery and highly entertaining. And no, the art isn’t ugly, it fits the noir setting and has some gorgeous colors to boot. Get out of your ass random Goodreads reviewers.

I’m a big fan of Hill’s and I think Dying is Easy is a solid entry to his graphic novel library. Strongly recommended for anyone who wants to see how he performs a bit outside of the horror box.

5/5 microphones 🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤

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Dying is Easy Summary

This Joe Hill graphic novel opens with Sydney Homes, an ex cop, performing stand up comedy for a nearly empty club. After his set him and two other comics sit around talking about how miserable they all are. Which, if you’ve ever met stand up comedians is painfully accurate.

They complain about another comedian, Carl Dixon. He’s a joke thief and they joke about wanting him dead.

Out back in the alley where everyone goes to smoke Sydney snaps and beats up Dixon who then uses his skills as an imitator to mock him from the ground. He won’t shut up about the worst thing that ever happened to Sydney. When he was a cop a perp killed herself to avoid prosecution. That wouldn’t have bothered him too much except she did it by stepping in front of a truck and killed the innocent driver too. To this day he blames himself.

The next day the cops are looking for Sydney as a suspect in the murder of Dixon. He was found dead in the same alley that Sydney left him but he was definitely still alive then, still running his mouth.

Although he definitely shouldn’t, he flees and decides to collect clues on his own as a fugitive. He finds a witness that says the victim’s wallet was stolen.

He tracks down the two men who robbed Dixon and they get in a fight in a moving vehicle. One of the men gets trapped but Sydney and the other man flee the crash scene just as the police arrive.

The men did rob Dixon but they were just trying to get back what they thought was owed to them. Dixon had been pawning stolen goods at their shop and caused them a lot of trouble.

The news shows Sydney that the police are not arresting these men for the murder based on a new witness statement. They still want Sydney.

His line of questioning brings him to a movie set where the new witness works and once again he flees the cops. There’s a lot of fleeing in this book.

Through more fact finding he finds who he believes to be the actual murderer. It wasn’t someone who wanted to kill Dixon, it was someone who wanted to kill Sydney. Hold on it gets a little complicated here but it ties up a lot of plot points. The husband of the sister of the woman from that old case who killed herself wanted to prove himself to his wife by doing what she’s always wanted to do, avenge her sister by killing Sydney.

She’s blamed Sydney for the death of her sister and harasses him every chance she gets. She also constantly harasses her husband just because she’s shrill and awful. So the husband wanted to take back his masculinity and stumbled upon Dixon face down in the alley doing a spot on impression of Sydney. At least spot on for a rage filled drunk to be convinced by.

He lost it and finished him off on the pavement.

The cops find them all together and the husband pushes Sydney off a ledge in an attempt to finally kill him. This pretty much confirms that he’s the bad guy. He gets arrested and Sydney just has a couple of bruises.

He decides to make amends with the two men from the car fight and tells them he has a lot of connections with the police so he can help with their other charges like theft and reckless endangerment.

Although Dying is Easy seems to have wrapped up Sydney still has some questions. He confronts his friend who is a waitress at the comedy club. She’s been helping him flee this whole time but he thinks there’s more to it.

She was sleeping with Dixon and thought they were monogamous. When she found out he was cheating she was furious. She found him limp in the back alley and put her high heel through his skull. She was just pretending to help Sydney but she was actually the reason the cops always knew where he was and showed up at every step along the way.

She points a gun at him and the men from the pawn shop show up to help him incapacitate her so she can be arrested as the actual final nail in the skull.

Case solved, for real this time.