Exclusive First Read: Jules Feiffer's 'Kill My Mother'

Set during the Depression, washed in dreamy grays and greens, Jules Feiffer's new Kill My Mother looks like an old noir film; you almost expect Robert Mitchum to step out of the pages, flicking a cigarette lighter. The story is classic Hollywood too: spitfire Annie spars with her mother as she searches for the truth behind the death of her policeman father. But Feiffer's loose-limbed drawings and twisty plotting (and his strong, delightfully flawed female leads) make Kill My Mother a much livelier experience than even the wildest noir. In these opening chapters, we meet Annie, her best friend and her mother Elsie — who works as the secretary for a hard-drinking private detective. And there's a mysterious blonde, because of course there's a mysterious blonde. Kill My Mother will be released August 25.

Excerpted from Kill My Mother: A Graphic Novel by Jules Feiffer. Copyright 2014 by B. Mergendeiler Corp. Published by Liveright Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.