Scars

I've decided to take a quick break from dropping the posts about my recent holiday reading to talk about....well, my bank holiday reading.

This weekend just gone I was back down my in-laws when I came across Scars amongst a pile of comics I had left there to store (my own home, as I've mentioned prior, is quite full). Now finding this book was not an accidental thing as I had just previously spoken with my neighbour in my office about it while trying to gauge whether she'd be interested in reading comics.

However, upon finding Scars amongst this discarded selection of trades if occurred to me that, while I have had this title for nearly a decade (roughly since it's 2008 release), I had never actually sat down and read it.

Therefore, I decided to take advantage of the three day weekend and do just that.

Warren Ellis' Scars is essentially a horror/crime fusion of a comic series, containing 6 issues of a story which follows John Cain, a police detective who's seen it all as he returns to his job after a terrible loss. However, his rather tough, seemingly emotionless surface is broken down when investigating the brutal murder of a young girl, a case which takes Cain right to the edge in order to solve it and catch the killer.

Now, I've tried my best to describe the plot as simply as possible in order to prevent spoilers (I think I've done ok) but, while the basic beats are all there, the one thing I haven't mentioned is about how absolutely, gut-wrenchingly brutal this comic is. Pretty much straight from the foreword, we are told repeatedly that this comic is quite a nasty comic and I don't think that's an understatement as the story takes a seriously dark and disturbing path.

There is no better example of this than in the discovery of the victim's body, whereby Ellis offers a reaction to scare us before going all out and showing us it in all it's gruesome glory. This is the first part of the book that actually made me feel quite a bit uncomfortable (and I always thought I had a high tolerance for such things).

That said, this doesn't make Scars a bad book, as I enjoyed how Ellis has put together what feels like a quintessential crime story to the almost noir degree, with the broken cop going rogue in his pursuit of justice. What really made me love it though was Ellis' (and others), notes at the end of each issue, giving some insight into why Scars could be the most realistic crime story going.

However, what I really, truly loved about this book was the art. I've never heard of Jacen Burrows before (or admittedly after), but his work in this is fantastic and goes a long way to selling Ellis' gory vision. I think what I enjoy most is that it isn't regular monochrome, instead looking like it's practically white with some light shading, which I think helps give it a subtler look than most other black and white stories I've read.

The big draw for me though are the Gutters (seriously!!!), which here are all black and, when combined with the panels, gives each page and almost dark photo album vibe in my opinion. But also, what really makes me awe is how they change as the book progresses, looking straight and standard at the beginning but looking more warped and creepy towards the end. It's a small thing (if I've looked at it right), but I enjoyed it.

And I've got to say, that's got to be my answer for the book overall. Sure, it was creepy and dark and maybe a little too brutal, but I enjoyed it. It was a nice story which some killer art and some really cool insights into how the creators made this series. That said, I'm not entirely sure if Scars has any re-readability to it (maybe in another few years when I've forgotten) but it was still a good read and I'm glad to got to check it out.

Even if I do wish I'd gotten to it a bit sooner than I did.