That Texas Blood #9

That Texas Blood #9

Image Comics 2020

Written by Chris Condon

Illustrated by Jacob Phillips

"EVERSAUL, 1981," Part Three-

A tense confrontation on the Wellman ranch, once a bastion of the psychedelic dream, leads to a growing rift between Eversaul and the Law in Ambrose County.

After the sensational first arc of this series we’re back in time to a previous case and one of the current sheriff’s first. This has all the excitement and tension that the first arc had and in a lot of ways it’s so much more tension and creepy. I say this because while we think we know what to expect we are far from being in the realm of correct in our thinking. This is a different case and has different folks and while it contains some massively grotesque imagery already there is still so much more to come. I like the addition of the private investigator to this story because of what he adds to the mix as not only an unknown quantity but as his status as an outsider to this community as well. There are aspects to this that are added which we aren’t expecting or haven’t seen yet that really manages to add to the whole creepiness factor.

I am a fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter continue to flesh these characters out in ways that we’ve never seen before. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story, the twists & turns and the revelations along the way we’re glued to the pages.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen is magnificent to see. What I love about these layers are how we see different avenues open up and how all of these add such great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are impeccably achieved. I’m so very impressed with the way that this actually reads and how as a fan of the medium it brings the reader into this like a fully immersive experiment.

If there is one thing negative I can say is that I wish we’d get to see more backgrounds being utilised. Otherwise, the linework that we see is fantastic and how the varying weights and techniques are being utilised to bring out the detail work that we see throughout is utterly fabulous. I love how we see the faces and facial expressions throughout the book as well as they expand the characterisation beautifully. The backgrounds we do see expand and enhance the moments while also working within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope of the story is marvellous. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is gorgeous! The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows such a stellar eye for how colour works.

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Time and again this series has remained amazingly well told. It also retains the high quality of storytelling that we’ve seen since the first moment it hit stands. We are seeing some of the most amazing writing and intriguing characterisation alongside some brilliantly rendered interiors. This is why folks love this series and if you haven't read it yet do yourself a huge favour and make sure you start picking this up.