Release Date: April 30th, 2014

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Publisher: Image Comics

Written By: Jason Aaron

Art By: Jason Latour

Price: 3.50, Dig. 2.99

Review:

Finally, there’s a seemingly good comic book about the South put together by creators with some substantial notoriety in the industry. With Jason Aaron and Jason Latour involved, that means this book wont be ignored. Hopefully it’s here to stay but it ain’t what you see on TV.

Being Southern myself, my first instinct was to ignore the hell outta this book because…well, just because. Self deprecation and self loathing is something you become good at in the South. That is, if you ever realize the predicament you’re in. Then I found out that both creators are Southern when I read a preview by a writer who also happened to be Southern and skeptical himself. He claimed it’s the most accurate portrayal of Southern, country life he’s ever seen in any medium. He wasn’t exaggerating.

This book follows the exploits of Earl Tubbs who returns to Craw County in Alabama to help his Uncle Buhl move out of his house and into a retirement home. You know you’re country when you tell people you grew up in a County instead of giving them the name of a city. Apparently, Earl’s daddy was a sheriff during some particularly nasty incident involving several people with weapons who he dispatched with a baseball bat signed by several of the game’s greatest players. Earl bumps into an old “friend” who has turned into a beat up, drunken, red-eyed bastard who owes somebody named Coach Boss a lot of money. Earl can’t turn his back, being the good guy Marine he is, so he saves this wretched pile of crap and inserts himself into something he managed to get away and stay away from for 40 years.

From the 1st page, you know it’s gonna be different and ugly but painfully real and honest at the same time. I can see Clint Eastwood putting on a 50 pounds and playing the part of Earl perfectly with the weathered face full of a lifetime of hurt and anguish. The pain in all of the character’s faces, body language, and dialog perfectly capture the desolate, isolated feeling people have in one-horse towns throughout the South.

I may sound like I hate where I’m from. That’s because I do. But I also love it with a passion and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. In the South, you’ll get a warm welcome and stern looks for interracial dating. They’ll invite you to Sunday dinner and proceed to tell you you’re going to hell if you ain’t a Christian. They’ll help you change your tire while they check your license plate to make sure you’re Southern too. You can get fed, taken care of, and given a helping hand, and all the while get taken advantage of in ways you could never imagine if you ain’t from around here. They accept you until they find out you aren’t like them. Then they give you dirty looks and watered down sweet tea instead of the extra sweet, extra strong stuff. Also, the two afterwords on the last couple pages by the two country boy creators actually choked me up a little bit.

The art is gritty, rugged and tough. It’s rundown and beat up much like several of the characters, buildings, and environments seen in this 1st issue of Southern Bastards. The hate, anger, and pure rage jump off the page and smack you in the face with its accurate representation of Southern, country, shotgun-town life. It’s raw and real. It looks, feels, and smells Southern. I use the word pain a lot in this review but it really is the best way to describe the art and the book as a whole. Fear, desperation, and panic are all on display on several characters’ faces. The couple of action scenes the book has are brutal and visceral like a Wolverine story when he goes berserk. Jason Latour is perfect for this book.

While I may not be from a place as small as Craw County Alabama, I do sympathize and identify with the people in this book. It’s everything the title promises even though that may not be the most heart warming of tales. Get ready for ass whoopin’s galore, rebel flags, racial stereotypes, yes ma’ams, most likely some crystal meth, probably some animal cruelty, plenty of shotguns, bible thumpers, and tons of good food because Southern bastards is about to blow the lid off of the true South and all of its nasty little secrets. I just come for the ribs though.