Home » Posts tagged "Brian Azzarello"

Book Links: Stoker Awards 2018 Final Ballot for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel

It’s time for another roundup of reviews of the titles on the 2018 Stoker Awards Final Ballot! Monster Librarian has completed reviews of all the titles in the category for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel.  To make it easy for you to find them, we are providing links to the reviews below.

Nominees on the final ballot for the 2018 Stoker Award in the category for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel include:

Monstress Volume 3: The Haven by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda

Moonshine Volume 2: Misery Train by Brian Azzarello, art by Eduardo Risso

Bone Parish Volume 1 by Cullen Bunn, art by Jonas Scharf

Abbott by Saladin Ahmed, art by Sami Kivela

Victor Lavalle’s Destroyer by Victor Lavalle, art by Dietrich Smith

 

Check out our reviews, then (if you haven’t already) check out the books and see if you agree with us, and with the choice for the Stoker Award winner!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graphic Novel Review: Moonshine Volume 2: Misery Train by Brian Azzarello, art by Eduardo Risso

Moonshine Volume 2: Misery Train by Brian Azzarello, art by Eduardo Risso

Image Comics, 2018

ISBN: 9781534308275

Available: Paperback, Kindle and comiXology editions

 

I need to be up front about a few things in this volume. There is racist language, and physical and threatened sexual violence against PoC.

The second volume finds gangster Lou Pirlo, Delia, and some of her family in a train car, running from the police. With Hiram Holt missing or dead, with his family wanting revenge, and the gangsters back in New York City equally wanting his head on a pike, Lou  finds himself clapped in chains and thrown in a different type of gang altogether. He also has another problem; he was bitten by a werewolf. When a cottonmouth snake strikes him, and doesn’t end up killing him, his fellow prisoners know something is not quite right. The gangsters are also wise to the werewolf menace in Appalachia, and have sent a deadly monster hunter on their trails.

 

Volume 2 is better than the first, with a more cohesive story and intense action. One of the gangsters from volume 1, L’Ago, is much more front and center dealing with the Holt family. However, the story is still missing something. I still can’t get invested in the characters, perhaps because they are too flawed and stereotypical. I had high hopes, since it is a 2018 Stoker nominee, but I don’t feel invested in any of the characterss. As much as I enjoy reading about flawed characters, there needs to be something redeemable, or at least worthy of respect, for me to engage with the text. I don’t get that here. If you want a good noir crime series by this team, pick up 100 Bullets. Recommended, with reservation.

 

Contains: blood, nudity, racism, threatened rape violence

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

Editor’s note: Moonshine Volume 2: Misery Train is a nominee on the final ballot for the 2018 Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel.

Book Review: 100 Bullets: Brother Lono by Brian Azzarello, illustrated by Eduardo Risso

100 Bullets: Brother Lono by Brian Azzarello, illustrated by Eduardo Risso

Publisher: DC/Vertigo, 2014

ISBN: 1401245064

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Harsh. Violent. Brutal. Unforgiving. Azzarello returns to 100 Bullets, revisiting Lono, a ruthless killer, whom we discover has found God in a Mexican orphanage. Lono’s still got some bite however, so whenever he feels the old violent urges coming on, he has himself locked up by the local authorities. Trouble comes by way of a drug cartel that sets its eyes on the church’s undeveloped land. Unfortunately, this gives Brother Lono the go-ahead to let his demons out to play.

Azzarello is a master of street-level dialogue and kinetic pacing, while Risso’s art invokes elements of crime noir and a Sergio Leone western. and colorist Patricia Mulvihill’s palette sets the mood wonderfully, a perfect compliment to Risso’s exotic line work. Recommended for adulst

Contains: sexual content, profanity, and extensive visual graphic violence.

Reviewed by Bob Freeman