Story Arcs

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In Stinked
Issues 47 - 49

Jack Daw and Mikey are on a road trip to Atlantic City. Jack feels that whatever is going on in his life, Atlantic City is the key. They are stopped by a State Trooper whilst looking for Mikey's cousin, Jungle Garvey Metcalf, who runs a zoo. Jack has been using Graves' magic gun throughout the journey, and has it to hand, but luckily the cop is a friend of Jungle Garvey, and offers to show them the way. On arrival, Mikey is reunited with his cousin, who asks about Mikey's habit. They also meet Wendy, Garvey's exhibitionist nineteen-year-old girlfriend. Garvey has a bunch of guys from Philadelphia arriving that evening for a little sport. Garvey and Billy, the trooper, run a little sideline.

Garvey shows Jack the animals as his wife Mary arrives. Alone, Jack and Mikey take time for a hit. Jack is fascinated by the beauty of the tiger. They discuss the gun. Mikey thinks Jack should get rid of it, and in a drug induced moment, Jack throws the gun into the tiger's cage, then puts his arm through the bars. As the tiger approaches, the guys from Philly arrive, armed. Distracted, Jack tastes the tiger's claws. The guys from Philly are Mafia, and are angry at Jack's behaviour, especially when Jack tries to do it a second time. Mary is a nurse, and  fixes Jack up. Meanwhile Garvey prepares for the Mafiosi to hunt his animals.

Jack has a flashback to his meeting with Graves. With a gun to his head, Graves explains that no-one but Jack is responsible for the mess his life has become, and that he will meet his end through the needle or the gun.  Back to reality, Jack spots Wendy in the woods, but a shot rings out. The tiger has been shot and wounded in its cage. Jack arrives to find the mobsters preparing to kill the beast. Garvey tranquilises it, and Jack enters the cage to retrieve the gun. One of the mobsters shoots the tiger, then Jack shoots him.

The story now unfolds from Mary's viewpoint. Finding Mikey covered in someone else's blood, she discovers that Jack was on the floor with Garvey preparing to kill him. Mikey grabbed the gun and turned it on Garvey, who then shot the rest of the mobsters. Now they are stuck with the bodies of three connected mafia men. Garvey tells Mary to run, but she stays by him. Billy returns and an argument between him and Garvey results in Mikey being shot. Billy figures he will kill Mikey and Jack and make it look like a car-jacking gone wrong, when Wendy walks out of the woods and sees what is happening. Billy tries to strangle her, but Jack comes to her rescue.

The next thing we see is Jack releasing a tiger on the coast. As he talks to Mikey it becomes clear that Garvey knee-capped Billy, then set up a scene where the mobsters appear to have been burying a body, were discovered by Billy and shot. Billy's wound was supposedly caused by the gangsters. Mikey and Jack decide to go their separate ways, with Jack walking the last few miles to Atlantic City, a city of losers where he will fit right in.

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