Tripwire Reviews DSTLRY’s Blood Brothers Mother#1 By Brian Azzarello And Eduardo Risso

Out For Blood

Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows reviews DSTLRY’s Blood Brothers Mother#1 out in May…

Blood Brothers Mother#1
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Eduardo Risso
DSTLRY

Ever since Chip Mosher and David Steinberger left Comixology at Amazon a year and a half ago, the pair have had quite an impressive new career at the helm of their newer enterprise DSTLRY. Poaching creators from other publishers like Image and DC has proven to be fairly successful so far. Jock’s Gone series was a big hit last year and it looks like Blood Brothers Mother is likely to be another one.

The creators are probably best known as the writer and artist on DC/ Vertigo’s acclaimed 100 Bullets series, a hard-boiled crime series that ran appropriately for 100 issues and garnered a number of Eisner and Harvey Awards in its ten-year history. So the pedigree here is a very solid one. Blood Brothers Mother is a pulpy western which features three children who see their stepfather murdered in cold blood by their father who has just been released from prison in Mexico.

Visually, Risso has moved from the coloured line art of 100 Bullets to the vivid wash he utilises here. The art is very haunting thanks to the colour palette used on Blood Brothers Mother.

In terms of its writing, Azzarello shows that he hasn’t lost his sharp pacing or ear for dialogue. The script is sparse and lets the artist work his magic when he needs to but it moves the story along when it is required .

There is a visceral brutality here which instantly connects with the reader, a cinematic power which immerses you from the start. The oversized format also gives the story real room to breath and lends it a truly epic feel.

100 Bullets used the modern idiom of the crime story to tell its tale while here we are cast into the unforgiving landscape of the western, which perfectly echoes the emotionally muscular torment of the story that unfolds. You can see its DNA in the work of Western legends like Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci, and at times Blood Brothers Mother feels like a Spaghetti Western on paper.

It is a very impressive debut issue which plants enough intriguing plot seeds that make you want to see how the rest of the series unfolds.

JOEL MEADOWS

The Blood Brothers Mother#1 is out in May from DSTLRY