Series Review: The Strange Talent of Luther Strode

Brutal. Brilliant. 

  All good things ... I'm starting to think that I picked the perfect time to start reading comics again. Go me! I spent most of last weekend (my family can attest) tap-tap-tapping on the laptop keyboard making with the words and writing about one of my favorite comics of the last few months, The Strange Talent of Luther Strode. For whatever reason -- the return of Brian K. Vaughn and the out-and-out greatness of Saga I'm sure had a lot to do with it -- the final issue of The Strange Talent of Luther Strode (sort of) felt like a stealth release, but, trust me, there is nothing stealth about this series. If you've been 'waitin' for the trade' on this one than you're in for a treat.  Waiting for the trade, however, means that you probably weren't the first one on your block to see artist Tradd Moore draw a guy getting strangled by his own intestines, yeah ... you read that right. Charles and Owen of the Panel Culture podcast, made a really great point about how the bruatality and the violence in this series may turn some people off, but there's more 'there' there than most comics and that's something worth supporting. The good people at Comics Bulletin, Danny Djeljosevic, said it would be O.K. for me to write an series review and I went a little overboard, except, I didn't, I really like this story.  I'm not going to go all 'fanboy' and say that tSToLS is not without its criticisms, but its one for the ages, a comic that people will remember and talk about for years to come. It's going to read well as a tpb, no doubt, however, it's a 'rare' species in comic books nowadays because each issue is a complete chapter. Sure its got the requiesite cliffhangers -- a good comic will, and should -- but each issue fits within the framework of the series and the storytelling never feels flabby, if anything, it's ... muscular. Thanks again to Danny and Jason Sacks over at Comics Bulletin.  The above image is the 'official' cover for the Issue #6.  Tradd Moore also did an alternative cover (right) that's available at Larry's Comics http://larryscomics.net/shop.html 
If anybody wants the spot me the $20, I'm good for it.  Here's the beginning of my review:
   

    The Strange Talent of Luther Strode goes for the jugular and gives no quarter; a bloody bildungsroman, a magnum opus of guts, gore and ultra-violence hanging within the frame of morality. Writer Jason Jordan, artist Tradd Moore and colorist Felipe Sobreiro craft a skintight narrative that lures the reader with lurid images of eyeballs rocketing from sockets and body’s broken asunder limb from limb; below the meat, however, beats the heart of a mannered meditation on good versus evil. Jordan tells his story the old-fashioned way (read: ancient) with an eye on the Aristotelian ideal of dramatic structure: beginning, middle and end ...

Read the rest at Comics Bulletin: http://www.comicsbulletin.com/main/reviews/miniseries-review-strange-talent-luther-strode