All my ex's live in Texas.

That Texas Blood

Written by Chris Condon
Illustrated by Jacob Phillips
172 pages
published by Image Comics

Buy it HERE

"He didn't know what love was. Throw some at him and he put up a shield like it was an attack and not an embrace."

As a graphic novel clustering 6 issues together, That Texas Blood certainly doesn't feel thick or dense, quite the opposite. I'd imagine reading this thru 6 floppies would feel very slender and underweight.

So it's a good thing I bought the graphic novel version, it was extremely well paced and easy to read. The story held together fairly well, and the illustration while similar to Reckless which I reviewed a few weeks back did not at all look like 'clip art' or 'mailed in.' Jacob Phillips should be given ample credit for bringing very relatable and emotionally present characters to this story. His facial expressions are always spot-on and particular to each character's emotional pitch.

We start with Joe, the old (70) Sheriff who's doing the usual rounds in Amoroso County Texas; knowing the locals on a first-name basis as well as their past(s). A key moment when a man who's been known to beat his wife is pulled over for speeding but instead blows his head off!

Things quickly move forward in a different development as another body is found. A miscreant named Travis whom nobody liked and a lot of people would've wanted to kill. Travis' brother Randy -who lives in L.A.- gets wind of his death and heads to Amoroso Co. to exact revenge. Some of the writing really singes off the page:

"And like that... Like the flicking of a fingernail on a match-head, the flame igniting, encircling, encompassing, devouring whole, it came back.

"Every dirty deed, every dark secret, every whisper of every name he'd ever wronged... They hung in the air now like a fog, too thick to see, heavy like lead."

Randy's rough and tumble adventures in Texas lead him to the villain of the story: Kurtner. He's a man that Travis owed money to, and who feels he can squeeze Randy for since he and his brother were partners in crime years ago.

As a comic book story, in that you'd expect action and sizzling body angles, experimental viewpoints and artistic wizardry this is not your book. Rather, it's all in the extremely well rendered facial expressions and open writing which gives this story life. TTB would work very well as a conventionally shot indie movie. It has that look. Miraculously though Jacob Phillips manages to keep it lively and never gives it the 'mailed-in' look.