STAFF PICKS :: SOUTHERN BASTARDS #10 :: WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 2015

July 29, 2015 By: Rico Renzi Category: DISCUSS, Staff Picks

staff_picks rico_staff_picksRICO’S PICK :: SOUTHERN BASTARDS #10: The boys are back in town and this issue of SoBas is especially rough. Spending a day with Esaw is no plate of ribs with all the fixins’. Aside from all the sex and violence Jason Latour and Jason Aaron stuffed into this issue, proceeds from sales of the variant cover go to the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund: http://www.charleston-sc.gov/index.aspx?NID=1330

From the mouth of Latour, “The variant is available in as high a quantity as your retailer wants to order. But please keep in mind that Southern Bastards remains an unabashedly rated R plus comic book. It wasn’t the plan but this one maybe more so.”

We ordered heavy on the “Death To The Flag, Long Live The South” cover so be sure to come by and grab a copy when you can. Thanks!
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By using the Mother Emanuel Hope Fund
This city’s fund will provide direct financial support for the funeral and burial expenses of the nine victims of the senseless tragedy. Any funds remaining after the funeral and burial expenses are paid will be donated directly to the Emanuel AME Church in ways best determined to benefit the surviving families and the Church.  Donations to this fund are NOT tax-deductible.
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STAFF PICKS :: SOUTHERN BASTARDS VOL 1: HERE WAS A MAN :: OCTOBER 01, 2014

September 30, 2014 By: Rico Renzi Category: DISCUSS, Staff Picks

staff_picks rico_staff_picksRICO’S PICK :: SOUTHERN BASTARDS VOL 1: HERE WAS A MAN: If you haven’t been following Jason Latour and Jason Aaron’s incredible Image Comics series, here’s your chance to catch up.  “Welcome to Craw County, Alabama, home of Boss BBQ, the state champion Runnin’ Rebs football team…and more bastards than you’ve ever seen. When you’re an angry old man like Earl Tubb, the only way to survive a place like this…is to carry a really big stick. COLLECTS SOUTHERN BASTARDS #1-4”

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Southern Bastards :: Thanks and Photos

September 24, 2014 By: Rico Renzi Category: DISCUSS, EVENTS, Store Signings

IMG_5000smlThanks for coming out for our Southern Bastards event with Jason Aaron and Jason Latour! It was a great day and a fun time was had by all! We’ve posted a bunch of photos to show you all the fun you missed if you were unable to attend. Follow us on social media and check back here for news and updates about all the events we organize!

Boss BBQ, Sugah Jug Shirts and more are in our webstore now!
http://heroesonline.bigcartel.com/
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Photos my Matthew Knapik and Rico Renzi — at Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find.

 

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THIS JUST IN :: BBQ AND SOUTHERN BASTARDS T-SHIRTS THIS SATURDAY

September 19, 2014 By: Rico Renzi Category: This Just In

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We have some great updates about our signing with Jason Latour and Jason Aaron THIS SATURDAY! Coach Boss is sending his buddies from Smoke and Go Catering Services to our signing on Saturday so come hungry and bring your wallets for BBQ. They will have ribs, pulled pork, smoked chicken and hot dogs. The SAAA-WEET TEA is on us.
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Also, the Jasons will be bringing some Southern Bastards t-shirts with them! Before Saturday these were only available at SDCC! See y’all Saturday 2-5PM and we may have even more surprises in store. Don’t miss out!
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STAFF PICKS :: SOUTHERN BASTARDS #4 :: SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

August 29, 2014 By: Seth Peagler Category: DISCUSS, Staff Picks

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seth_staff_picksSETH’S PICK :: SOUTHERN BASTARDS #4: When each new issue of Southern Bastards is released, I find myself doing the same thing I did with Jason Aaron’s Scalped: re-reading each issue of that particular story line before enjoying the final chapter. While both books have strong elements of crime fiction within them, the greater similarity is that hold up to multiple readings and remain impressive. Aaron’s reliability as a storyteller is part of Southern Bastards‘ success, but just as key is the quality of the art.

Jason Latour is finally receiving the attention he’s been due as a unique cartoonist in an ever-expanding field of comic book pin up artists. I’ve particularly been impressed with Latour’s ability to convey the mindsets of characters through their facial and body language.  This sounds simple, I know, but how many times have you looked at a comic in recent years and every character’s face looks exactly the same? You don’t have that monochromatic wave of expressions in Southern Bastards. In fact, I would argue that you could infer the story’s meaning by simply reading the pictures without the script. Again, that seems like a fairly obvious role of comic book art, but how often do comics actually succeed on that front?

Southern Bastards exemplifies strong literary and visual storytelling, and if you haven’t yet realized what so many of us already have, make sure to pick up the first three issues or the upcoming trade paperback. Oh, and in this issue Earl Tubb fights Coach Boss. It’s set in the South, you see.SB4

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STAFF PICKS :: SOUTHERN BASTARDS #2 :: MAY 28 2014

May 28, 2014 By: Justin Crouse Category: DISCUSS, Staff Picks

staff_picksjustin_staff_picksJUSTIN’S PICK :: SOUTHERN BASTARDS #2: When I see the word “southern” in anything, I am immediately skeptical. I’m all too accustomed to our region and citizenry being unfairly pigeonholed as a bunch of unthinking bigot morons. Thankfully, Jasons Aaron and Latour sidestep all that, and craft a tale that’s somewhere between pulp and spiritual. I’m sure nearly every one of you read #1; this is a gentle reminder that #2 needs your attention, as well. Aaron is working the spaces between genres like he did in his acclaimed Vertigo series Scalped, and Latour’s art is a blend of darkness and whimsy in the grand EC tradition (don’t let those colors fool you, I see Kurtzman and Davis both lurking in that line work).

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STAFF PICKS :: BLACK SCIENCE TP VOL. 1 :: May 28, 2014

May 27, 2014 By: Seth Peagler Category: DISCUSS, Staff Picks

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seth_staff_picksSETH’S PICK :: BLACK SCIENCE TP VOL. 1: There are several reasons to pick up this first volume of the acclaimed series Black Science. Firstly, it’s an energetic sci-fi tour de force from Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera. There’s a reason these single issues sold out quickly, and if you missed any of them, here’s the perfect opportunity to see what we’ve all been talking about. Secondly, and of equal importance, this collection is only $9.99! Image Comics has been using this price point for the first volumes of their new series’ trade paperback collections, and it’s a smart publishing initiative. In fact, you could pick up this volume and the first collections of Manifest Destiny and Pretty Deadly for just over $30 plus tax. That’s a lot of good comics for not a lot of money. BlackScience_v1

Bonus Pick: Southern Bastards #2: This is yet another sold out Image series, and my favorite new title of the year. Jason Aaron and Jason Latour’s southern crime story employs finely tuned writing and meticulous art to brilliant effect. Their cinematic use of tension and release remind us of how comics can still be used to tell unique stories in unique ways.

Bonus Pick #2: Devil Dinosaur by Jack Kirby TP: This is not the King’s greatest comic work, no, not by a long shot. But it is a series where he draws all kinds of dinosaurs and monsters, and that’s enough for me. Plus, this is the first time the whole series is available in a single trade paperback.

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HEROES REVIEW :: SOUTHERN BASTARDS #1

April 29, 2014 By: Seth Peagler Category: DISCUSS

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I arrived at Southern Bastards #1 with plenty of high hopes. Jason Aaron has long been one of my favorite writers, with his creator-owned Scalped being one of our great modern crime epics, and his mainstream Marvel work on Wolverine and Wolverine and the X-men being of reliable entertainment and quality. Jason Latour is an artist/neighbor whose work I’ve had a chance to see develop and flourish over the past 8 years. He’s proven himself as an accomplished writer on the creator owned Loose Ends and Marvel’s Winter Soldier, and as an artist on everything from B.P.R.D. to Captain America. Needless to say, I had a lot of expectations riding on this book. sb1

Upon my first reading of Southern Bastards, I quickly realized it was hitting close to home. I’ve lived in Charlotte my entire life. There aren’t many of us who can say that anymore. North Carolina isn’t the South of Southern Bastards’ Craw County, Alabama, but my Dad hails from Jackson, Mississippi, so I’ve got some deep south in my blood. Southern Bastards pulled up some of my memories of Mississippi and made me angry and wistful at the same time. The Mississippi of my memory is quiet and spacious, and seemingly hot all the time.  There’s all kinds of beauty surrounding you, but it’s not always easy to see it, because there’s plenty there to offend and infuriate. It’s an odd juxtaposition, the vast expanse of natural beauty and the racism and violence that occurs within it. It’s all part of what modern southern songwriter Patterson Hood refers to as “The Duality of the Southern Thing,” and it’s always there. Southern Bastards does a better job of encapsulating this duality that just about any comic I’ve ever read. sb2

Aaron and Latour wisely don’t acknowledge this equal parts blessing and curse with a slap-you-in-the-face, didactic approach.  Instead, they use open space and quiet moments to intended effect.  These are storytellers seasoned in Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, William Faulkner, and Flannery O’Conner. They know a little can go a long way. They also know that the South is full of spiritual things that can be as unsettling as they are revelatory. Southern Bastards’ protagonist Earl Tubb sees this all too well in the first issue when he sees a giant tree growing right out of his father’s grave. Earl surmises that it sprouted from the legendary stick that his daddy used to clean up Craw County. It’s quite a sight, but for all the mystery it represents, it’s not necessarily something Earl wants to see. Earl comes back to Craw County for the first time in forty years, and you see in his face that home can be a place full of memories and still somewhere you don’t want to go. It’s like North Carolina writer Thomas Wolfe said: “You can’t go home again.” sb3

When we first meet Earl, he’s been in the big city (Birmingham) for years now, and he quickly realizes why he left his hometown. For all the good memories, there are plenty of things difficult and terrible about Craw County. While the series will surely tell us more about all of these things, it strikes me that it’s not an accident that Aaron and Latour chose Alabama as the locale for their story. Aside from the obvious fact that Aaron hails from the state, it’s worth remembering that Alabama is notable for several things other than football. On the cultural front, Muscle Shoals’ Fame Studios was a place where black and white musicians came together to make some of the most enduring American records, even in the midst of the unrest around them. And then you have Birmingham itself, where the violence of the Civil Rights struggles came to a head in 1963. Southern Bastards seems to be very conscious of so much that makes the South a wonderful and troubling place.

There’s a phrase applied to music that says “always serve the song.” It refers to the idea of pushing your ego out of the way in a performance and letting the song’s inherent soul be revealed to the audience. Though a different medium entirely, Aaron and Latour clearly serve the song in Southern Bastards, and it’s one that will get stuck in your head if you let it. This is a comic of deft storytelling and uncommon soul. I, for one, can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

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STAFF PICKS :: WINTER SOLDIER VOL. 4 TPB :: AUGUST 7, 2013

August 06, 2013 By: Seth Peagler Category: DISCUSS, Staff Picks

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seth_smlSETH’S PICK :: WINTER SOLDIER VOL. 4 TPB:  After writing and drawing books for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Vertigo, and 12 Gauge, our friend and neighbor Jason Latour landed the task of taking over writing duties for Ed Brubaker on Winter Soldier.  Alongside artist Nic Klein, Latour offered a smart and funny take on the man formerly known as Bucky. The pair also introduced memorable new cast members like Robards and Electric Ghost, both of whom further defined the Winter Soldier and his world.  Latour and Klein’s run received due acclaim, and though the series was ultimately cancelled (you know Marvel will relaunch it closer to the next Cap movie), their work was a fine addition to the character’s storied history.  This collection gives you an idea of what can happen when like minded creators get paired on a book that makes perfect sense for them to collaborate on.  It’s also, more importantly, an example of good and entertaining comics.

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