Disclaimer: The title says review, but with a grain of salt. Who am I to judge what books are good? Your taste in comics is not mine, my taste is not yours. This is more of a look at my reading journey and whether or not I recommend that you follow me there. This will be reserved for trades, early previews, and digital runs that I’m checking out. Today, we take a look at a That Texas Blood. First, a description from the Image Comics website:
CRIMINAL colorist and first time solo artist JACOB PHILLIPS and writer CHRIS CONDON break onto the scene with a brand-new ongoing series! Like Paris, Texas gut-punched by No Country for Old Men, this mature neo-Western crime series kicks off when the search for a casserole dish leads to a dark and tense confrontation on Sheriff Joe Bob Coates’ 70th birthday.
I had been seeing a lot of people on Twitter talking about the book and based on that I bought the first volume. It is safe to say that I was looking ahead to what the book should be and by the end of Volume One, I was feeling a little lukewarm about the title. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the (recently ended) Image Comics BOGO sale at Barnes & Noble, I might not have given TTB another chance. But I did, so let’s take a spoiler free look at That Texas Blood, Volume Two.
W: Chris Condon
A: Jacob Phillips
From the Image Comics website:
Sheriff Joe Bob Coates travels down the long and winding road of memory to a dark night in 1981 that saw a boy killed, a girl missing, and a mad cult on the loose in Ambrose County, Texas.
The look of the book is very reminiscent of to No Country For Old Men. I took a road trip to Roswell, New Mexico last summer, which meant the way back home to Oklahoma was through a lot of nothing in West Texas. I can feel that vibe in this book. Middle of nowhere. Muted colors. The way the color red pops when it is used. An excellent part of the book is when there is no dialogue in the panel. Phillip’s art tells the story and Condon steps back and allows it to do so.
Like the description says, the story starts with Sheriff Joe Bob Coates recalling a past case involving a dead boy, and a missing girl, and a cult. Throughout the issues the story weaves in and out of present day as Joe Bob tells the story to his pastor and later his coworker Ana. The uneasy feeling gives off elements of No Country For Old Men and Once Upon a Time In Hollywood throughout this book.
The scary thing about this is that it’s scary because it could be ripped from the headlines. The horror in this book is the horror that this could happen in your backyard. Without spoiling anything, a then deputy Joe Bob struggles to get his sheriff to take action against a rumored cult and finds help in a mysterious private eye named Harlan Eversaul. With a name like that, you would think that Eversaul can’t be trusted, and that’s exactly how he is received by the Ambrose County Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff Cooper treats Eversaul like the outsider that he is and Joe Bob is forced to go the extra mile to pursue all the answers, often against the orders of his boss.
After I read this collection I was ready to seek out the third volume. Something is building in That Texas Blood, and I need to see what that is. If you enjoy police drama, crime, or cult related stories, this book is for you. My only suggestion is that you read it during the day. Do yourself a favor and start with the first volume, and then add That Texas Blood to your pull list asap.