Blood, Skulls, and Chrome

Issues 1 - 5

Written by Hannu Kesola
Edited by Marta Tanikulu

Artwork team:
Mohammad Ramlan, Luciano Regazzoni, Jo Mason - pencils/ink
Beth Varni, Randell Coffman - colors
Jerome Gagnon, Brandon DeStefano - lettering

Buy them HERE.

Somewhere in Texas

is a Motorcycle Club known as "The Steel Knights." They operate out of a clubhouse run by an eyepatched older guy named Mike -presumably the club's President.

Club members include:

  • Jack, their First Lieutenant, who has sexual performance problems and drinks too much.
  • Billy, the good looking one who does some of the muscle work.
  • Garth, hired strong arm stuff.
  • Cale, a dreadlocked wildcard of the bunch who does unpredictable things.
  • And Joey.

 

... not a club member but a significant player is the 'body disposer' person in the name of Mr. Jones (Sons of Anarchy had a cameo with writer Stephen King doing the same thing).

The long arm.

Added to this pile is the ever watchful eye of the local law: Sheriff Cooper, a fat, chocolate bar munching policeman with a desire to catch The Steel Knights at their first slip-up. Not to give too much away, but there's a dead body he gets to start with.

Issue One starts off with a revenge story that has dangerous repercussions. You see, there's also a rival club to The Steel Knights called "The Lake Street Boyz," a gang of Latinos who sometimes encroach on the Knights' turf.

There's trouble brewing.

Woven into the narrative is the Knights need to stay in the black as they try to keep the illicit drug trade going through moving Meth Amphetamine through their region, and get paid for it by the suppliers.

I was glad to be able to follow the story fairly closely. It didn't veer too far off the topic, and plot elements brought up early on were kept in the mix of things throughout. So that's a good thing. BSAC story-wise has a pretty solid feel to it.

Feels rushed.

However, if you're looking for stellar artwork I'm afraid to say BSAC doesn't deliver. I chalk that up to the creative team trying to just get their story told, to get it out there. It's not so distracting as to ruin the reading experience for me (I enjoyed reading this very much) but it's there:

  • Anatomical inaccuracies.
  • Buildings with hardly any adornment.
  • Club House interior shots with blank walls and almost no furniture.
  • Lost opportunities to show off the motorcycles (as you would think the title would suggest).
  • Characters throwing punches that are hard to find on the page.

Not every page is like that, Issues Three and Five have pretty good art. I wish every installment of BSAC looked as good as them. As this team gets more of its product out there and keeps up with the story (there's a live action movie in the works) I won't hesitate to pick up more of their comics should Hannu and company make more.

Next Tuesday:

Dusting off a Future-noir story from 1993. Think Sam Spade meets C-3PO.

Blue Lily 1 and 2 by Angus McKie
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