Writer – Jason Aaron
Artist – Jason Latour
Southern bastards #11 is a magnificent piece of work. In this issue we begin to fully see what the book is. Southern Bastards is setting the stage with story arcs that introduce characters, giving them their own space and perspective to show us their lives. We learn what they love, what they hate and what fills the with burning desire.
Each of these complex, fully realized characters has their moment in the spotlight where we come to understand them, to grow to love them , hate them in equal measure. And now we see all of the rail lines of these characters lives are on converging on a single point in time and space.
There will a reckoning, and there will be violence. Not Hollywood violence, carefully choreographed to look majestic in its bloody showdown. This will be a reckoning of sweat, and mud and dangerous, powerful people doing their best to kill each other. It won’t be pretty, or pleasant but it will be very powerful and authentic. While each character is richly developed, the real main character of the series is Craw County, Alabama. The setting is so richly detailed, you feel like you could walk through its back streets and swamps, taste the BBQ and feel the sweat on the back of your neck, as you cheer on the Reb’s.
There are a few basic kinds of storytelling conflicts that all drama can be broken down into – you can have man vs man, man vs himself and man vs nature. At first I thought this was the story of bad men in conflict with each other but as the story develops I am coming to believe the real antagonist of Southern Bastards is Craw County itself.
It has given birth to this collection of Bastards and reared them and shaped them and sent them Into inevitable conflict with each other. I get the sense that that is what this place does, spits out Bastards in an unending line and then orchestrates its children to kill each ph other in a relentless, inevitable cycle of corruption and violence.
If you aren’t reading Southern Bastards this issue is an excellent jumping on point. take the trip down south and visit Craw County, Alabama. See the sites, meet the people and thank God you don’t have to live there.