Southern Bastards: Gridiron | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Review

---

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Southern Bastards: Gridiron

Written by Jason Aaron

Art by Jason Latour

Published May 2015 by Image Comics

#Comic, #GraphicNovel, #Mystery, #Crime, #Contemporary

---

Now, I'm going to preface this review with: I have never been that interested in any kind of sport ball.  This volume is incredibly saturated in sports ball.  So I didn't love it.

However, (You knew there was a however coming didn't you?) I still think that this comic in general has a lot to offer.  Now stereotypes tell me that people in the south love their community activities, which as you guessed, would include sports ball of all shapes and sizes.  This particular town in question prefers HandEgg (Football but I prefer to accurately describe the sport).  I was willing to listen to this story about this sport because it was giving me insight into one of the most intriguing characters in the previous volume.

I have to say that when I picked up issue number 5 I figured it was going to pick up where the last volume left off.  I was wrong.  I didn't realize then, but having continued reading the comic, I know now that this series is not a chronological story.  It isn't plot driven.  It is character driven.  It is a story giving you a definition of this town through its inhabitants.  Each volume focuses on a different character.  This volume focuses on the main antagonist of the last volume and the next volume focuses on someone different.  I feel like the longer the comic runs the more all of these stories will twist together into something tangible and perhaps even a forward moving plot, there was a bit of a mystery involved in the first volume it might be wise to get back to that.

I cannot say at this moment whether it will be successful at this.  However I think it has a lot of promise and for the time being, I have faith in what they are doing with it.

I will stick around even though I, someone who grew up in Massachusetts and never cared about communal activities ... reading is a pretty solitary act, until you start talking about it on the internet that is... I will stick with it because I really love the atmosphere of this comic.  I feel like it perfectly captures something completely other to me.  It may be a bit of the uncanny.  I like the way that it moves so slowly and that we are focusing on different aspects of these stories because it means that at some point it will catch me by surprise.

I really love mysteries and thrillers and horror.  I feel like this comic has the potential to be really great at that.  Is it for everyone? No.  Is it still worth checking out if you have an interest in it.  Of course.

Now you might be wondering.  Michaela, you are always going on and on about the art in comics.  Well, yes, I am, because I love art.  I do have to say that the art in this comic is not my favorite.  It is blocky and harsh and I usually prefer softer lines and more flowing panels.  However, (See that pesky however keeps showing up) I think that the art style here perfectly matches the story they are trying to tell.  I'm not going to sing its praises but the strength of this comic is in its atmosphere and most of that is created through the art style.