First Impressions: Jason Aaron & Jason Latour’s Southern Bastards #1

I felt uneasy while reading this. This story features a nasty part of the South, one that I have been fortunate enough to have never encountered. It’s a crime series, though I’m not so sure that the ones committed in this issue are the ones the story will be centered around. The art makes me feel like it’s going to be a supernatural horror story, but in the afterword, Aaron says that it’s “about a place you can love and hate and miss and fear all at the same time.” Both Jasons are from the South and both seem to share this sentiment. It makes me uneasy, but I want to read more.

I like that the main character is an old, weathered dude. You don’t see that much. Earl, dude, returns to his childhood home to pack up the house now that his uncle who was staying there has been carted off to a nursing home. It’s not a place he wants to be and he only plans to be there for three days at the most, but you get the feeling his stay will be extended. To enhance the hate-filled atmosphere, glimpses of the past and moments of violence are often presented in the unsettling red you see on the cover. It’s somewhat nauseating, yet I’m intrigued.

The first four issues have been collected into the first volume and it’s one of the DRM-free titles. It seems like they’re rolling out every other month. I wonder if Comixology has subscriptions for just the GNs. It’s fine if they don’t; I’ll just buy them as they come. I’m going to wait for #5 to be released before I get volume 1; I want to see if every other month is what they’re going to stick to. I hope I don’t regret this.

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