They Came for the Broken Ones

And stayed for the poutine...

[teamtabarnak]

Fifteen months.

Thousands of revisions.

Countless conversations.

One very patient detective from Québec.

Meet Inspecteur Blaise Pascal.

The Body at Least.

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The worst mistakes are the ones everyone agreed to stop looking at.

Dr. Regan Lampe Chief Medical Examiner St. John’s

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Cafe Cleopatre... strip teaseuses... spectacles continuel...

Eh bien, Pascal et Prudhomme had made a few visits, back in their days working Vice for the SPVM.

[teamtabarnak]

He’d been holding the mug for a while before he noticed the tremor.

Not much. Barely there. A ripple in the surface of the coffee.

He set it down.

Watched his hand.

Still.

Then not.

He told himself it was the cold.

The station was always cold.

But later, when he reached for his coat—

he missed it.

Just slightly.

And that bothered him more than it should have.

— B.P.

#TheBodyAtLeast #BlaisePascal #NewfoundlandNoir #NoirFiction #PsychologicalThriller #SomethingIsWrong #CluesInPlainSight #SlowBurn

[teamtabarnak]

It was a child’s toy. Cheap plastic. The kind you’d find at the bottom of a cereal box.

He turned it over in his hand. Once. Twice.

He didn’t remember picking it up.

He didn’t remember bringing it home.

And that was the moment he understood—

this wasn’t something he had found.

It was something that had been left for him.

— B.P.

[teamtabarnak]

Follow him into the dark...

There are things a man tells himself to sleep at night.

And there are things that follow him into the dark anyway.

—B.P.

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Because anything coming from a bashed-in head is probably the truth...

[teamtabarnak]

Look at his head. What's left of it.

[teamtabarnak]

Because what's floating in the harbour is rarely anything good...

[teamtabarnak]

It doesn't give two shits what you want.

[teamtabarnak]

There’s blood in the water and a wrapper in the chest cavity. Welcome to St. John’s.

From the minds behind Team Tabarnak comes a new graphic noir saga where the rain never stops, the dead don’t stay quiet, and two detectives carry more ghosts than they do guns.

THE GUM IN THE COAT is our first volume—a moody, bloodstained, fog-drenched journey into corruption, memory, and murder.

A body washes up in the harbour. A wrapper folded like a star. A number. A metro line. A memory Pascal thought he buried in Montreal.

Inspector Blaise Pascal sees the pattern. Sergeant Louis Prudhomme hears the footsteps. Regan Lampe is already cutting.

And someone out there is leaving messages… in gum.

—

🖤 Webcomic | Noir | Canadian Gothic | Trauma with Trench Coats™ 🕵️‍♂️ Updates coming soon. Cigarettes optional.

[teamtabarnak]

Crime never sleeps but goodness always has gum in its pocket.

[teamtabarnak]

Louis Prudhomme Sergeant, Sûreté du Québec 🖤 Chaotic good in leather 💄 Gum chewer. Heartbreaker. Law enforcement professional (allegedly). 🍳 Known to make eggs while wearing nothing but bruises and a grin.

"You’re lucky he got to you before I did."

[teamtabarnak]

Haunted Sûreté detective, Inspecteur Blaise Pascal. He's named after a famous mathematician but has profound dyscalculia. Burned down the family home at the age of 12. Survived a nightmarish orphanage in Hochelaga. Has no time for bullshit and even less for crime.

[teamtabarnak]

Meet the Cast!

They came for the broken ones...these are the ones who stayed.

🕵️‍♂️ Blaise Pascal

Title: Inspecteur, Sûreté du Québec / RNC Liaison Vibe: Trench coat full of secrets. Skills: Solving crimes, suppressing emotions, brooding on windswept cliffs. Fun Fact: Once burned down his childhood home. Does not want to talk about it. Catchphrase: "I’m fine." (He is not fine.)

😏 Louis Prudhomme

Title: Sergeant, Sûreté du Québec / Tactical Flirt Vibe: Chaos in tight pants. Skills: Charm, improvisation, rescue missions, looking immaculate while doing crimes for justice. Fun Fact: Has a detailed rating system for chewing gum flavour-to-crisis ratios. Catchphrase: "Blaise, mon cœur, you’re going to make me weep in public again."

🐻 Bernard

Title: The Bear of the Montreal Metro Vibe: Urban legend. Government-denied. Skills: Watching. Waiting. Knowing. Fun Fact: Once body-checked a Vatican courier into a turnstile. Catchphrase: [Deep grunt of judgment.]

🧠 Karen Hughes

Title: Sergeant, RNC Major Crimes Unit Vibe: The only adult in the room. Skills: Holding the unit together with duct tape, sarcasm, and unshakable integrity. Fun Fact: Has a sixth sense for knowing when Blaise is lying. Catchphrase: "I don’t care who you pissed off—fix it."

📋 Stephen French

Title: Constable, RNC Vibe: Cinnamon roll with a badge. Skills: Surveillance, kindness, accidentally getting caught in wild conspiracies. Fun Fact: Was the first to believe Blaise about Sabrina. Regrets nothing. Catchphrase: "Sir? There’s... something you need to see."

🔍 Colleen Dunphy

Title: Constable, RNC Vibe: Night owl with a laser brain. Skills: Pattern recognition, quiet obsession, doing the work no one sees. Fun Fact: Once solved a missing persons case while eating dry cereal out of a coffee mug at 3 a.m. Catchphrase: "...I just noticed something."

🧬 Regan Lampe

Title: Forensic Pathologist Vibe: Inuk brilliance with a scalpel and no time for your nonsense. Skills: Autopsies, sharp one-liners, putting misogynists in their place. Fun Fact: Would trust Louis with a gun. Would not trust him with a scalpel. Catchphrase: "You want truth? It's under the ribcage."

[teamtabarnak]

Two Sûreté du Québec detectives...one sassy, one surly. Somehow they end up on an island in the North Atlantic, where nothing is ever as it seems...