Sons of Anarchy 3

Written by Ed Brisson
Illustrated by Damian Couceiro
Colors by Michael Spicer
Letters by Ed Dukeshire

112 Pages

Published by BOOM! Studios

Buy it HERE.

TV show had a problem.

A simple story line, one based in believable circumstances. That's what I expected from Ed Brisson, and that's what I got.

The problem that plagued the TV series was these implausible knee-jerk responses of committing murder for any and every conflict that comes across, murder being the only solution to any problem. That and the endless 'double-crossing' going on inside the club -which by the way is a rare occurrence indeed with real Biker Clubs. Stuff like this served to undermine my faith in the solidity of Kurt Sutter's creation and tarnished what could've been a stellar series for FX.

Lots of people don't see it that way, but there you go.

Not so here.

As flawed as Sons of Anarchy on FX was it was with special pleasure I cracked open and read the graphic novel Sons of Anarchy Vol 3. It's set in a time/area/storyline outside of the show. Ed Brisson puts together a narrative that exists purely on its own, without the constant homicidal pizzazz of the TV show.

A tale of Three Clubs.

Way out in the Arizona desert there exists three Biker Clubs:

1. An extension of SAMCRO: SAMTAZ (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle club Tucson, Arizona charter),
2. The Screaming Skulls
3. The Slaughter.

The Head of The Screaming Skulls owe The Slaughter a lot of money for selling/distributing methamphetamine. Problem is, they got robbed and now they can't pay them. The Slaughter says it's all right so long as they can join them (patch over) and sell their wares in Tucson. No deal, Screaming Skull's boss says. SAMTAZ will start a war with them if they try. No club's allowed to deal meth in Tucson, it's Sons of Anarchy territory.

Was this a good read?

Yes definitely. But it could be any story. Not much use of motorcycle beauty shots. Or chase scenes. Or wild shoot-outs. The artwork is solid, true. Ironically, this graphic novel would've been more suitable for film, being that it featured a structure that's pretty low budget to produce: a lot of panels with people just standing there, acting threatening. The one thing going for comics is that you can write the most outlandish visuals in your script and the cost stays the same (mostly). This GN didn't take advantage of that. Pity.

Next Tuesday:

Call Mario! Call Luigi!
No, wait...
It isn't Nintendo. It's Frank Martin's Pipe Creepers.

I got a feeling you're not going to just hit it with some drano.