Z-View: Southern Bastards #1

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Southern Bastards #1 is published by Image.

Writer: Jason Aaron

Artist: Jason Latour

Colorist: Jason Latour [with an assist from Rico Renzi]

Cover Shown: Jason Latour

Welcome to Craw County, Alabama, home of Boss BBQ, the state champion Runnin’ Rebs football team…and more bastards than you’ve ever seen. When you’re an angry old man like Earl Tubb, the only way to survive a place like this…is to carry a really big stick. From the acclaimed team of JASON AARON and JASON LATOUR, the same bastards who brought you Scalped and Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted, comes a southern fried crime series that’s like the Dukes of Hazzard meets the Coen Brothers…on meth.

 

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The Good

  • Everything.  I mean it.  Everything.
  • Jason Aaron has crafted a first issue that sucks the reader in.  We learn just enough about the major players to want to know more.  Aaron’s story has suspense, action, humor, sudden violence, and an underlying mystery that demands to be told.
  • Jason Latour’s art is not only perfectly suited to this story, it is amazing in that it is unlike anything else you’re reading.
  • The colors deserve special mention.  I am a fan of black and white art and stories and generally prefer them to color.  If all comics were colored this expertly, my opinion would change.  Kudos to Latour and Renzi!
  • The ribs at Boss’ BBQ.
  • “I just came for the ribs.”
  • “Any man in this kitchen wants a RAISE… Now’s his ******** chance.” “**** that, man.  I jus smoke the meat.”
  • “Jesus ******* Christ almighty.  You shouldn’t have done that, Earl.” “I shouldn’t have saved your life?” “NO! You ******* shouldn’t have!”

The Bad:

  • Some people will be put off by the violence and profanity.
  • Getting hit with a hot fry basket.
  • What happens when Sheriff “Big” Bert Tubb brings out his baseball bat.
  • What is going on Craw County?  My guess is it ain’t good.
  • That this issue couldn’t have gone on forever.

The Ugly:

  • What happens when you steal from or cross Coach Boss.

Southern Bastards #1  is a comic for mature audiences due to violence and language.

The advance word on Southern Bastards has been on that’s it’s one of the best comics in years.

Believe the hype.  It is. 

Rating: 5 out of 5

 

Joel Carroll and Jack Carter

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I’ve known Joel Carroll for several years.  Whenever I would talk to Joel about a Stallone sketch Joel would beg off because he felt he wasn’t good at capturing likenesses.

Recently Joel was sketching for charity and I hit him up again.  It was for charity so how could Joel refuse?  He didn’t and you can see the end result above.  I really like it!

You can see more of Joel’s art on twitter.

Max Allan Collins Drops a Dime

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Max Allan Collins recently spoke with The Rap Sheet and they covered a wide range of topics.  Here are a few tidbits [with a link to full interview]…

…like a lot of Americans, he [Mickey Spillane] was deeply troubled by the terrorist attacks on September 11, and I think he just had to get Mike Hammer into that fray. But as much as I like Goliath Bone, I think King of the Weeds, with its traditional crime elements, feels more like the final Hammer novel.

The amount of unfinished, unpublished material Mickey left behind was and is staggering. Even now I haven’t read every word of it.

JKP: I understand you’re also now working on a Western, based on an unproduced screenplay Mickey Spillane wrote originally for actor John Wayne. Can you fill in more of the background on that particular tale, which you’ve titled The Legend of Caleb York? MAC: …Over a Bouchercon breakfast I said, “You know what I have? An unproduced screenplay Mickey Spillane wrote for John Wayne. You guys publish Westerns, right?” And my editor sort of pounced.

The interview also covers the next Nate Heller books [and potential tv series], the Quarry books [and potential tv series – the pilot has been filmed] and much more.

The Rap Sheet interview is worth a read!