Loosely based upon the life of William Davies (an opium-addicted snake oil salesman who was also Hildagarde Esper's uncle), NARCOTIC follows the downward spiral of an idealistic medical student whose fall from grace leads him to opium dens, a carnival freakshow, swanky drug parties, dingy brothels and finally the barrel of his own revolver. In the Esper tradition, this rocky road to ruin is periodically interrupted by perverse imagery that is as beautiful as it is shocking (the cesarian birth of a baby, car wrecks, a snake fight), all crudely scissored into the narrative at the least expected moment.
