Image Comics releases a crime story about two retired hitmen who drove to Texas with a hostage in Write it in Blood, the graphic novel.
So I would expect to have another comic that is based on a novel. I mean I get all the other comics that are based on a regular novel but somehow the author collaborates with an artist who can illustrate the whole story in a comic book adaptation. And this story is much more like Lost Soldiers on Image whose two retired soldiers committed a crime in 2009. The story is written by Rory McConville and illustrated by Joe Palmer. Rory is the one who wrote an ingenious and entertaining Future Shock for 2000 AD prog 1972, after winning the Thoughtbubble talent search award in 2015. And Joe Palmer also collaborated with Rory to illustrate 2000 AD, but he also drew other comics such as The Judge Dredd Megazine, the short story of Panel X Panel, and a webcomic of The Outrunners.
The front cover shows an exquisite landscape where two men are standing in the middle of nowhere, and suddenly the artist had colored the corpses as a warm color defining their deaths. More importantly, the landscape seemed very familiar from my travels, and it gets more nostalgic whenever you’re outside of town and there are these clouds coming closer, hoping that it’s going to rain or to make fog. Then again, the whole set takes place in Texas, so I hope that this story can be much more menacing than before.
The story starts when everyone at someone’s house has been killed by two hitmen, after that he’s carrying a baldy old man to the trunk of the car taking him as a hostage. What makes the story so weird is that after they took the hostage back to the trunk and drove out of town, they intend to take that guy out just to get some grub at a Dinner, now I’m very confused now. The plot is that those two works with some gangster for the money, but somehow after taking the old man alive and gave them hospitality, the two are traitors now by jeopardizing their retirement plans just to take an old man’s golden Rolex watch. However, the Dinner owner is actually related to the gangs because they let the old man and the two men inside to eat. But after that, at night when they’re at the gasoline, one of the members tries to shoot them and calls them a traitor because Arthur slept with the Baron’s wife, which is totally messed up for the duo. Now the two are going to some consequences, and they actually found a solution to write a letter to the boss himself, as an apology for Arthur’s behavior. After he read, he found himself in confusion from all that excuse which is coming from that letter which is his “Heightened Emotional State.” So after all the mischief adventures of the two killer stooges against the boss and his gang, I only find the solution to all of that, is that Arthur is a complete douchebag.
The story seemed to be more random than you can ever think. The fact that one of the main characters just slept with the old man’s wife, he has an ungrateful urge to kill him in cold blood. The story can be confusing and dealing with a lot of consequences between the main characters. No wonder why is this comic called Write it in Blood, because the whole story is a death sentence. The art is interesting, and I mean the cover art though, I haven’t talked about his drawing style yet. The only thing that I can say about the art is that the characters are more cartoonish, and it depends on the facial gestures and expressions. They actually interact as they do in real life, it’s almost like some Mexicans talking happily. When I think about the art style like this, it almost reminded me of The Simpsons, because the story and the art are much more beyond my expectations. It’s a crime, comedic genius. If you ever want to come across with a comic that focuses on a grudge against an idiot who fucked it up, then this is for you.
Newsdesk