Two graphic novels for fans of the movie Sinners

If you are a fan of Ryan Coogler's 2025 movie Sinners, these two graphic novels have elements that you might enjoy.

The Smell of Starving Boys by Loo Hui Phang with art by Frederik Peeters (2017) 112 pages

I don't fully understand what happened in this story, least of all the meaning of the title, which is used twice by one character. Still, if you were a fan of the movie Sinners, and one of many who want a further story exploring the Choctaw vampire hunters who are chasing Remmick, this might fill that niche. Instead we have Comanche who are fighting supernatural threats in 1872. The story is definitely dispelling the heroism of whites in the pre-settler American West. Our protagonists are a perverted surveyor who considers the West virgin land to be taken, a scam artist gay photographer, and a young woman disguised as a boy to escape her patriarchal family. There is a vampiric bounty hunter, wild mustang stampedes that are like natural disasters, and a silent Comanche in touch with the supernatural forces at play. The large format hardcover has gorgeous art with lots of horizontal vistas. Translated from French.

Bluesman by Rob Vollmar with art by Pablo Callejo (2008) 208 pages

This story is structured like a traditional twelve bar blues song, with three sections each made of four chapters. There is woodcut style artwork, which fits the late 1920s setting. Two itinerant musicians, Ironwood and Lem, are looking for a place to perform as well as room and board. Racial tensions lead to murders in a rural cabin and Lem, who is innocent, must go on the run. The middle section gets into the investigation of the crime scene. There is a black Sheriff of the county, who is trying to see justice done even as rich and powerful whites call on mob violence. Lem falls in with some railroad hobos, but the mob and the Sheriff stay on his trail. Some historical analysis of blues musicians is interspersed in the story. The dramatic thrills would also be appreciated by fans of Sinners.