The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
skybalon's review
4.0
An interesting graphic novel series produced by a couple of guys who both love the South and are very concerned about the South. The graphics are pretty good and do add to the plot. The story threatens to descend into stereotypes talking about well traveled plot, but is well enough done, that it is worth the read. Like most modern graphic novels it is very much a series that is only for adults.
spiffysarahruby's review
5.0
Like any good Southern Gothic piece, this series is starting show hints of the supernatural. God this series is good; but definitely not for the faint of heart.
jammasterjamie's review
4.0
This has turned out to be a really great series. I can't wait to find out what the hell is up with the dogs.
some_okie_dude27's review
This one's for Dad.
Jason Aaron and I have a few things in common. 1. we both love comic books. 2. we both love football. And 3. we both love crime fiction. So when Jason Aaron decided to take a crack at writing a southern fried football crime comic, it's like he's speaking my language. Despite my doubts, and the fact that Aaron is a heathen Roll Tide fan, I was willing to give it a shot.
I've been consistently surprised with this series, mostly in a pleasant way. I've been impressed in this series' constant ability to keep us invested, despite the premise being as ridiculous as it is. The two Jasons have managed to craft a harsh, mean, and compelling story about tough old southern guys dishing out mean unpleasantries to anyone who gets in their way. It's not always pretty, and it's not always nice. But it is compelling in all the ways a good story should.
As I've noted before, Aaron has a habit of repeating himself in his stories. Not really in theme, but in his set ups and pay offs. In this volume, we end up taking a backseat to the main story as we become flies on the wall to the colorful characters of Craw County. This was particularly interesting to me, as the one off stories were some of my favorite parts in Aaron's previous effort Scalped. Aaron once again shows what he's gifted at: getting into the characters' heads and seeing what makes them tick and make the choices that they do. Aaron continues at a strong pace with the one offs like he did with Scalped, only now he has a better story and better pacing to compliment what he's attempting to convey with the one offs.
Aaron's other great skill is his use of set up and pay off, and the storytelling is very subtle (for the most part) in this volume. The characters in this volume are interesting, and Aaron gives us plenty of meat to chew in as we experience their journeys in this story. Aaron doesn't stoop to explaining to us every nook and cranny of these characters, but allows their actions to define them and fill in the gaps of what we already know. The other Jason even had an issue to take a crack at writing, and he does a pretty good job as well. Guy's not a bad writer by any means.
Despite its many strengths, there are a few weaknesses that hold this volume back from being as excellent as the first two arcs. The Esaw story felt like a relapse to the over the top extremes that Aaron relied on in Scalped and all of the kinks that he had outgrown with Southern Bastards. I knew this series is meant to be harsh and uncomfortable, but the Esaw story took it too far. Also Chris Brunner's art was unappealing as well, it looked like someone who was trying to ape Latour's style and it just went wrong. The anatomy looks wonky and the characters look like they're about to explode at any moment, or have their eyes bounce out of their heads like a Looney Tunes cartoon lusting over a woman.
Latour's art continues to be strong in this arc. A detail I enjoy with his artwork in this series is that he makes the main two characters, Tubb and Coach Boss, look like old, tough hickory trees. They are supposed to be older, tough guys who are as mean as an old hickory tree. It compliments the story's motif about toughness and what it means to be a man. His art continues to have the balance between bounciness and mean spirited grit that you'd expect in a pulp crime noir such as this.
Southern Bastards continues to be tough, harsh, and mean and I have to say that I'm still enjoying it thoroughly as it keeps rolling along. Aaron has a knack for writing about misunderstood tough guys, and he shows that he's damned good at it. Now...how do I get my dad to read this?
Also, if you're curious on who I pull for. I bleed Crimson red for Oklahoma. BOOMER SOONER BABY!
dessa's review
3.0
This one gets a little less laser-focused than the first two volumes, but I enjoyed how each issue follows a different periphery character. Result: everyone is interesting, and everyone is broken, and there is tragedy and violence in the water in equal parts.
crookedtreehouse's review
5.0
This series keeps surprising me. I was fairly sure, based on the end of volume two and the name of this volume, where this story would be going. I wasn't wrong. At the end of this volume, that still appears to be the direction, but there was a lot of story in this volume. Instead of focusing mainly on one character, the way the previous volumes did, this collection offers six different vantage points circling the main story.
It didn't feel like a story spinning its wheels, or adding unnecessary motivations to side characters, it really felt like Aaron was letting us know that, yes, this story is about people and their relationships to each other, and to football, and racim, and violence, but it's mostly about The American South. It's about the town where Tubbs arrived at the beginning of the story, but also about the town he came from, which, it turns out, isn't much better.
Jason Aaron and [a:Jason Latour|4456310|Jason Latour|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1488513529p2/4456310.jpg] have done a superb job showing this story from many different perspectives, almost all of them troubling and violent, and seemingly honest.
I recommend it to anyone looking for a moral play where everybody imagines there a hero but nobody actually is. Yet.
It didn't feel like a story spinning its wheels, or adding unnecessary motivations to side characters, it really felt like Aaron was letting us know that, yes, this story is about people and their relationships to each other, and to football, and racim, and violence, but it's mostly about The American South. It's about the town where Tubbs arrived at the beginning of the story, but also about the town he came from, which, it turns out, isn't much better.
Jason Aaron and [a:Jason Latour|4456310|Jason Latour|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1488513529p2/4456310.jpg] have done a superb job showing this story from many different perspectives, almost all of them troubling and violent, and seemingly honest.
I recommend it to anyone looking for a moral play where everybody imagines there a hero but nobody actually is. Yet.
iffer's review
4.0
Southern Bastards unexpectedly became a series that I look forward to reading when it becomes available to me. Yes, it's exaggerated, and includes stereotypes about the south. However, both Jason Aaron and Jason Latour are passionate about the project, as proud Southerners themselves, and as such are invested in portraying the things that they're proud of about the culture of the South, as well as the complexity and ugliness, all with comic book flair that includes dark humor and violence. This collection, more than the others due to the fact that each issue focuses on one side character of the rural community, is about empathizing with people, in all their flaws. These people feel, for lack of a better word, real, and we love and loathe about them things that we recognize in ourselves and other people we know.
P.S. Thanks to Jason Latour for writing his essay about his feelings about the Rebel flag to address controversy over one of his variant covers.
P.S. Thanks to Jason Latour for writing his essay about his feelings about the Rebel flag to address controversy over one of his variant covers.
ageekyreader's review
4.0
I'm rating this at 4 stars because of the last issue in the volume. We FINALLY get to see Berta Tubb. And thank goodness. For a series that has zero characters you can root for 100% of the time, it was great to see Berta on the pages, and I can't wait to see her meet Coach Boss.
The rest of the volume was a little hit or miss to me, and it's probably because it felt very transitional. We're introduced to a few new characters, we learn more about some, and in general we get thrown even deeper into the county. But really, it all felt like a lead up to seeing Berta back in the South.
The rest of the volume was a little hit or miss to me, and it's probably because it felt very transitional. We're introduced to a few new characters, we learn more about some, and in general we get thrown even deeper into the county. But really, it all felt like a lead up to seeing Berta back in the South.
pavram's review
5.0
Živim uprkos zlim fakultetskim silama i dajem peticu onome što možda zaslužuje i šesticu. Dekadencija maksimus. Kad bi samo još brojevi izlazili češće nego jednom u nikad, eh, nada umire poslednja.
5
5