by Stephen Hardman
Black Mask Studios is one of the most acclaimed independent publishers around right now. Low print runs coupled with huge amounts of internet hype have ensured sell-out first prints on all their titles, and some titles being traded online for hundreds of dollars. Yet behind the hype and the frenzied scramble to get hold of the next big thing, lies a roster of seriously good comics created by some of the comic-book world’s most exciting new writers and artists.
It’s hardly surprising that Brian K Vaughan should be partly responsible for changing the face of digital comics. He created Y: The Last Man, the seminal Nineties comic, and he is the writer and co-creator of Saga, a multi-award winning sci-fi fantasy comic which has set a new benchmark for quality in monthly comic books.
Continue reading REVIEW: The Private Eye – Brian K Vaughan, Marcos Martin, Muntsa Vicente
Brian K Vaughan is one of the most well-respected comic book writers around thanks to his seminal work Y: The Last Man with Pia Guerra. He’s also written for Marvel and DC on titles such as X-Men, Batman, Swamp Thing, and Spider-Man. He also created Runaways with Adrian Alphona, a series featuring teenage superheroes which Wizard magazine called “one of the best original concepts from Marvel in thirty years.” A new creator-owned series from Vaughan, published by Image Comics, was always going to be a mouth-watering prospect.
My knowledge of the American South comes mainly from reading James Lee Burke novels and watching Angel Heart. It’s fair to say this probably hasn’t given me a particularly well-rounded view. Southern Bastards may not do much to round out what I know of, or rather what my impression of the South is, but it damn sure makes me feel like I visit there every time I read an issue of the comic. The quality of Jason Aaron’s writing in Southern Bastards, together with the art of Jason Latour, throws the reader headlong in to the hot, dirty, violent, football-obsessed world of Craw County, and its cast of damaged characters. While Craw County is a fictional location, Aaron and Latour have clearly drawn on their own experiences of being raised in the Deep South to bring this part of America to life so vividly on the page.
