It's hard to classify this book. Southern-fried pulp noir? Sixty-something Vietnam veteran comes home to his deep-South home town and picks a fight with the local kingpin (a football coach) and his gang of rednecks. The art style is as brutish as some of the characters, and the atmosphere is gritty small-town corruption. This one is dark, violent and profane, but a great story nonetheless. ( )

Southern Bastards – Here Lies a Man, by Jason Aaron and Jason Latour, invites us to dive deep in the South of the United States. Mixing fiction and even the authors' memoirs, the criminal series was nominated for several Eisner awards and won a Harvey for Best New Series.

The colour palette is filled with dark reds, browns and yellows, which give us the feeling that we are catching a glimpse of hell on Earth. The first page shocks the reader with the image of a dog defecating in front of several signs advertising roadside churches. And the premise is quite simple. In a city that feels powerless, a man decides, against another, that it is time to assert himself, although the chances of winning are few or even non-existent.

Earl Tubb is the protagonist who returns to a small town in Alabama to empty his old uncle Buhl's house. But, unfortunately, he gets into trouble with Boss, the local football coach, turning his (initially brief) stay into a descent into hell.

In his speech, Earl is rational, even soft, and he had sworn he would stay away from the city and the fame of his late father, who had been a sheriff there 40 years ago. But, eventually, he starts to walk around with a baseball bat. After the death of an acquaintance at the hands of the Boss Coach team, leaving is no longer an option.

While facing the coach and, consequently, an entire baseball team, Earl tries to communicate with someone whose identity is only revealed in the epilogue. Right up to the end, the reader is treated to as much authenticity as clichés. Craw County presents itself, in a rural, ultra-violent, southern setting, with lots of barbecues and lots of football.

This first volume doesn't unfold any further, focusing on introducing the characters and backstory, allowing the reader to settle in and see enough curiosity aroused in them to look forward to the next chapter.

The South is known for a past of corruption in small towns. Both authors are southern boys with a love-hate relationship with their origins. Aaron, who promises never to return to the South, describes it as the most peaceful place he's ever been. But also as "a place we can miss and love and hate and be afraid of, all at the same time." As for Latour, he has returned to the South, because he realized that he loves its nonsense. ( )

Dark, ugly, and mean.

...what's not to love?

Not sure how accurate a depiction of the south is, but considering the author is from there, I'm guessing perhaps uncomfortably so. That being said, this truly is alien territory for a mostly urban white Canadian boy such as myself, so I find this irresistible.

Bring on volume two, y'all. ( )

I ummed and ahhed about rating this 4 stars or 5, because while the comic lives up to the hype, it's hardly original. But in the end, it was just so good, I had to give it the full 5.

I enjoyed Aaron's Scapled, so I had high expectations for this series, and with this first volume it lives up to those expectations. Aaron just seems so good at these violent and gritty, hidden side of America, type stories.

The art by Jason Latour is also amazing, and I think probably the real star of the show. The colours are all washed out, but with this tinge of red, with the red getting darker when things are about to go down.

The ending to this was surprising to me, in the way that Game of Thrones was. Turns out the hero dies pretty early on. So the rest of the series is going to be different to what I was expecting, which in a way makes me all the more excited for the rest. ( )

All caught up and will now start reading the individual issues as they come out. My pull list is getting huge.

This was an odd comic, but really good. I love the southern grit though. So much fun. ( )