Posted on: January 11th, 2012 REVIEW: The Strange Talent of Luther Strode #4
If you want to know the truth, I do these posts completely for my own benefit. I, personally, don’t even read reviews. I read tweets primarily. That’s right, there’s actually someone out there that sees your self-promoting tweets and says, “Yeah, what the hell. I’ll read that.” Then there are podcasts and the scattered sage wisdom of my friends and family. But let’s say that you do actually read reviews before you buy. (You pansy) Let’s say you patrol the blogs to find a good book. If you do that, chances are you’ve already heard about The Strange Talent of Luther Strode.
If not, let me catch you the hell up. Luther Strode is a six part Image mini-series by Justin Jordan with art by Tradd Moore. I would like to take this opportunity for a moment of pause so that you can say the name “Tradd” out loud………feels good, right? Tradd.
You know those ads of old in the back of comics/magazines/pulp for the muscle building guides? Some scrawny dude at the beach gets his girl taken away and sand kicked in his face by some bruiser, then he reads this book, kicks the other guy’s ass and gets the hussy back? Well this story is based on that idea. And if it actually worked. And if it came with a price.
Most of the time, I could understand if someone read a comic that I liked and it wasn’t for them. Different strokes, right? I swear to you, if I ever found a person that didn’t like this book, I’d kick sand in their face. This book is just so well crafted. I genuinely like all of the characters. You just want everything to work out for them. Luther, the proverbial scrawny dude turned lethal weapon, is just that stand-up guy that does good simply because he doesn’t know any better. Even when he has this blood-thirst, it doesn’t really phase him. He’s like an ass-kicking Jimmy Stewart. Hell, if that doesn’t get you to read the book, I don’t know what will.
I love the muted surrealism. Here you have these completely normal characters in a completely normal setting and then all kinds of weird things happen and they react just like any normal people would. Even though this is a wild story, I feel like it could actually happen just because these characters are so real. How awesome is that? Pretty damn, thank you.
Are you sold yet? No? Fine, screw you. Let’s talk more about Tradd…….Tradd. Even in the beginning of the story, there was action. But now that “the shit” is officially “getting real”, there are so many gruesome panels! Yes, the action is great. I love the variety of punches and kicks but Tradd’s turned that dial up to 11 and we’re making guys’ heads explode with kicks! YES! And you could glaze over and not pay attention to the art, sure. You could focus on the dialogue and it would still be good. But when you see a panel and say, “Wait. Is that a guy’s face skin…oh, yeah. It is.” I’d say that something worth looking at.
Issue 4 dropped this week and we’re really getting into the explanation of the whole concept. With two issues left, you can get caught up now and impress all your friends with your knowledge of the book before it wraps up. Also, don’t pass up on reading Justin Jordan’s write-ups in the back. Really funny. The man could write a step-by-step guide to snow-shoeing and I’d find it interesting. (Maybe not-but I’d still want to read it)
Tradd.