God Country #1
Writer: Donny Cates
Artist: Geoff Shaw
Colorist: Jason Wordie
Letterer and Design: John J. Hill
Publisher: Image
A review by Robert Coffil
I’ve lived in the south since I was 14 years old. I didn’t hear the phrase God Country until I was 18 years old in college and an Airforce Colonel addressed the ‘south’ as such. I thought to myself, “what a horribly vainglorious phrase”. When I saw that Donny Cates’s new book took that name, I was almost immediately predisposed to being put off by it. However, Cates has done some interesting work, namely Paybacks, that has me willing to take a risk on a book. Boy, am I glad I took a leap of faith on this book. It was a joy to read.
God Country #1 is book that immediately sets itself apart from the other books on the shelf by having a lot of heart. Lots of number one comics get shelf space and have good high concepts that don’t necessarily translate well on the page. Cates and his team take the name of the book and distill it into a story about a family struggling to stay together through turbulent times. The family’s struggles are rooted in love for each other. There is no easy answer. This makes the book feel authentic.
I’ve worked in healthcare for a couple of years. Numerous times I’ve personally heard stories from families that struggle with former patriarchs/matriarchs who have cognitive disorders. I was worried because if this comic didn’t handle this well, it could come off hackneyed. It doesn’t and it works.
The framing for the story is that of something akin to a myth. There is a narrator, but he is neither omniscient nor omnipresent. The narrator serves to fill us in on details that might not otherwise be relayed to the reader. I liked this.
The art by Geoff Shaw with colors by Jason Wordie is wonderful. There is a metaphysical weight that all the family members seem to be carrying because of the burden they are bearing. The son, Roy, is visibly torn between taking care of his young family, with a wife and child, or dealing with his father whose dementia has worsened quickly since the death of his wife. The colors of Wordie add mood and shadow that only help to add emotional weight to the story.
The Verdict
Buy it! God Country #1 has all the markers of a special book. It combines a mythic fable with heart that you don’t normally get in a monthly comic. I eagerly await the next issue.
