I do not think that there can ever be enough books about anything and I say that knowing that some of them are going to be about Pilates.The more knowledge the better seems like a solid rule of thumb, even though I have watched enough science fiction films to accept that humanity’s unchecked pursuit of learning will end with robots taking over the world.-Sarah Vowell
Friday, September 11, 2020
Southern Bastards Vol 1: Here Lies a Man by Jason Aaron (Writer), Jason Latour (Art and Color), Jared K. Fletcher (Letterer)
Jason Aaron and Jason Latour, the creators of this comic are both from the South and decided to write something that tells how it really is in the South. I would like to say that there is a panel in the book that shows a Confederate Memorial at a stoplight in town and I swear it looks like one that I've seen a million times before when I used to live in this particular city. You would stop at the stoplight and stare at the memorial and turn either go straight or turn left. I was always turning left to go to the library. Now that memorial has been taken down. I haven't been up there to see what the area looks like without it yet. But I'm telling you that's the authenticity they put in this comic to really show you the South.
The book opens with Earl Tubbs leaving a message on the phone for someone and driving a truck to his dad's old place that his Uncle Buhl had been living in until he had to go to a nursing home. Now the place needs to be cleaned out and Earl who hasn't been to Craw County in a very long time is there to do this one job. Years ago when Earl's daddy was Sherrif he cleaned up the town with just a baseball bat.
Earl runs into someone he used to know at the local ribs joint named Dusty who's in trouble with the Coach and who has sent Esau to deal with the problem. But Earl won't let that happen and he attacks Esau and saves Dusty's life who isn't all that grateful. Earl goes home and meets a kid in his tree hoping to watch TV who quickly runs away and Earl tried to chop down the tree that hangs over his father's grave with no success.
Then Earl goes to the football game and Dusty comes out from the woods half-dead looking to talk to the Coach. Dusty dies overnight and Earl tries to talk to the Sherrif but that gets him nowhere because the Sherrif is in the Coach's pocket. He goes to his dad's home and there\s a lightning storm and he yells at the sky that he's leaving that he wants to have nothing to do with this. Then he looks down at the tree that is no longer there and what was left of it was what resembled a bat. He saw this as a sign and set out to make things right in Craw County.
Throughout the book, he keeps leaving messages for someone. Who are they? Will he succeed like his father did? I have to say Jason Latour did an incredible job on the art. The way he drew the panels in different sizes in order for you to get the feeling going on at the time and the use of red throughout to demonstrate anger and hatred is just amazing. Jason Aaron tells a wonderful story that grips you to the end and makes you anxious to read the next volume. If you're interested in more of their work Jason Aaron writes my favorite version of the Incredible Hulk as well as Wolverine and some of my favorite Star Wars comics. Jason Latour has drawn one of my favorite comics, Gwen Stacey, Winter Soldier, Wolverine and the X-Men. These guys are really out of this world and definitely deserve more than five stars so I'll give them six.
Listed on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Southern-Bastards-Here-Was-Man/dp/1632150166/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2C4ETO0SP497W&dchild=1&keywords=southern+bastards+vol+1&qid=1599833353&sprefix=southern+bas%2Caps%2C358&sr=8-1
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment