Bloodhound, created by Dan Jolley & Drew Johnson, in the simplest sense is a beautiful combination of the classic comic, a cop drama, and a prison story genres. The comic is a display of skilled genre mixing in the literature alone, but it is then maximized by the artists’, Leonard Kirk and Robbin Riggs, attention to detail that could tell the whole story without words. The comic is truly an immersive experience that hooks you from the beginning and keeps you in suspense until the very end.
Bloodhound is about a former FBI agent, too good at his job, that was convicted for the murder of his partner. The FBI needs him again because he’s the only one that can catch this killer thats on the loose, but is held back due to his probationary leave. His methods are unconventional, and don’t follow protocol, but get the job done. The bad guy is given in bits and pieces, just enough to keep the motivation to find him. I don’t want to ruin anything, but this is definitely a suspense filled plot that keeps you guessing until the very end.
Personal character development starts immediately with the standard sanity interview for prisoners. You then get see physical skill in the following scene which shows you his combat skill. While this is pretty cliche, I does give you a feel for the characters early on. The pace moved at a rate where the story neither dragged nor left readers behind.
The characters are clearly portrayed through their histories, tone, wording, and body language, giving them each a unique personality and voice regardless to their duration or importance to the story. The depth and believability that each character is given puts them on a relatable and understandable level, whether you are suppose to love them or love to hate them. It is clear how a character is to be viewed as most of them are constructed to be generic allusions to the stereotype of similar characters in the same genres, such as the FBI agent that plays by the rules, the hardened inmate, or the racy teenager, which makes these characters easy to digest.
Last, but definitely not least, the artist has the same skill level that reminds me of the classic superhero comic. Growing up reading the original Teen Titans, the nostalgia value makes everyday feel like living in metropolis and complex martial arts look like amazing feats of super skill while I was reading. The art that is maintained through the story really brings the characters alive. Sets of frames without words sometimes tell more or the story than dialogue does. From a polar change in expression, to a panic glance, to even just the brush of two hands, the art really pulls you in. There is nothing more to say than if you don’t purchase this comic, at least look at a preview to see just how amazing it is.
While someone might say this comic is a bit cliche at many points or that this story structure has been done to death, I was thoroughly entertained because I saw it as a more skilled rendering of a classic story delivered in a media form for a story usually in cinematic or television series setting. I would definitely recommend this comic because the value of the art and story is well worth the cover price of $19.99.
Brendan, known on the interweb as bigmacd101, is a staff writer for the Red Shirt Crew. He has recently rediscovered his love for writing and is grateful to get back into it with a little help from his friends. He hopes one day to be reunited with his twitter @bigmacd101. Hopefully you will be seeing more of him soon, with a bit of surprises in the works.
The Red Shirt Crew Blog and Podcast Network 