Torso/Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko

Torso by Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko; true crime, graphic novel; 280 pages

Another true crime graphic novel! This one is about the serial murderer dubbed the Torso Killer, who terrorized Cleveland in the 1930s. Elliot Ness, better known for his work on the Al Capone case in Chicago, was working in the city at that time, and he teams up with two of the last trustworthy detectives in a corrupt town to track down the killer.

This was another case that I wasn't overly-familiar with, so I had no clue where the story was going. The authors had to do some improvising at the end, as the true killer was never apprehended, but their theory fits the facts of the case, and ties in nicely with popular theories about the murders. I was intrigued enough with the case that I spent the rest of the evening researching it online.

For all that I style myself as a comics nerd, I admit I haven't had a lot of exposure to Bendis' art, so at first I was a little turned off by the stark black and white images, with faces often in such deep shadow that it was hard to make out who was who. However, as the story progressed, I got the hang of reading Bendis' style, and started really loving his page layouts (whenever the good guys start to feel things slipping out of control, the whole page turns slowly sideways! Loved it!). The art is also interspersed with actual photos from the case--provided by the local public library, according to the thank-you note at the end! Overall, I thought this was a great addition to the true crime comics world.