12-GAUGE COMICS – @12gaugecomics
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
STORY: David Tischman
ART: Kody Chamberlain – @KodyChamberlain
COLORS: Kody Chamberlain
LETTERS: Ed Dukeshire
EDITOR: Keven Gardner
COVER: Brian Stelfreeze
ISBN: 978-098369372-7; paperback – 6.5 x 0.3 x 10 inches (July 21, 2012)
112pp., Colors, $14.99 U.S.
Trace Adkins is a Grammy-nominated singer and also an actor. A decade ago, Adkins joined 12-Gauge Comics president, Keven Gardner; comic book writer, David Tischman; and comic book artist-designer, Kody Chamberlain, to bring to life a new comic book hero, Luke McBain.
The character appeared in the 2009-10, four-issue miniseries, Luke McBain. It was written by David Tischman; drawn and colored by Kody Chamberlain; lettered by Ed Dukeshire, with cover art provided by Brian Stelfreeze. In 2012, the miniseries was collected in the trade paperback, Luke McBain Vol. 1. The series focuses on the title character who returns to his small Southern hometown after a long stint in prison and confronts his powerful family.
Luke McBain is set in the small town of Eden, Louisiana, (population 14,983). Eden is where Luke McBain returns after a 14-year hitch in prison for a crime he did not commit. Luke's brother, Paul, is running the family business, McBain Timber Mill. The mill is the town; it controls the town. People either work there or work in jobs that depend on the business.
By the time Luke returns, Paul has made himself rich. He has modernized the mill, which means fewer jobs for the town. With jobs gone, the result has been that local shops have closed. Closed shops and fewer jobs have made the people of Eden angry and scared. No one can do anything about that... except Luke, the only one who knows Paul’s secret. Reunited with his beautiful ex-girlfriend, Callie Flack, Luke McBain does what he has always done, fight for what is right. The hardest choice Luke McBain will have to make, however, is just how far he will go to stop Paul.
Honestly, I had never heard of Luke McBain, neither the miniseries nor its trade collection. I recently attended the Lafayette edition of the Louisiana Comic Con 2019 and visited local comic book creator and artist Kody Chamberlain's table. I wanted to buy something, and I spotted Luke McBain Vol. 1 and bought a copy, which Kody autographed for me. [When I first bought this comic book, I thought it was a recent publication.]
Luke McBain reminds me of the character, “Robert “Gator” McKlusky,” which the late actor, Burt Reynolds, played in one of my all time favorite films, White Lightning (1973). Like “Gator,” McBain is the kind of guy who can navigate the contentious social-economic byways of the small Southern town, and he can fight his way past the dangerous hired thugs that seem to populate such places (at least in Southern-set crime fiction). Like Gator, McBain ain't afraid of the local law, personified in Eden by Eden's Sheriff Chris Morrison.
Although Luke McBain has only appeared in one comic book series thus far, David Tischman, plays him as an emerging figure, as if the best is yet to come. I think one thing that will surprise readers, as it did me, is how restrained McBain can be, although he never really backs down from a fight.
In the hands of Kody Chamberlain, Luke McBain, story and title character, are a quite storm, a force of nature that blows into a town that could use a sandblasting. This comic book reminds me of Larry Watson's 1993 novella, Montana 1948, which was published as a hardcover book, in the way it plays with the dark secrets within a family that has two strong-willed and estranged brothers.
Chamberlain makes Luke McBain dark and edgy, like Watson's story, with his highly-stylized, but also photo-realistic illustrative style. Chamberlain also brings flexibility to Luke McBain. The concept can come across as a standard Southern crime-action story with a hero that is more type that character. In the rhythm of the narrative and with his coppery-noir coloring, Chamberlain tells the story in a manner that is offbeat. The reader does not exactly get the expected story of a guy who returns to his small Southern hometown for some payback.
Luke McBain Vol. 1 isn't a great work of Southern gothic or Southern crime, but Tischman and Chamberlain keep it interesting by never giving us the expected. Ultimately, the resolution is surprising and satisfying in a way that makes me think Luke McBain has more stories in him.
7 out of 10
[This book also includes a selection of back matter that reprints Brian Stelfreeze's cover art for the series and Kody Chamberlain's character sketches for the series.]
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Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site or blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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