Write it in Blood

Cosmo and Arthur Pryce are brothers.  They’re also soon-to-be former hitmen for the local mob boss known as the Baron.  They’ve just taken out the men guarding Little Harkness, a key figure in a rival gang, and are about to bring him back to their boss, The Baron.  Cosmo is the kind of optimist who hopes that he’ll be able to find a wife to move into the house he’s in the process of buying, and that maybe The Baron will get him something nice as a retirement gift.  Arthur is cynical enough to wonder why his brother is even contemplating these things, though the irony is that it’s his actions that are likely to doom Cosmo’s chance at happiness.

“Write it in Blood” is the American comics debut of writer Rory McConville and artist Joe Palmer.  They’ve got history writing for “Judge Dredd” and “2000 A.D.” which implies that they’ve got British comics cynicism down pat.  Their work here mostly bears that out.  Most scenes have a dry deadpan wit to them, which usually involves some pithy line or speech being delivered to a poor bastard dying from his wounds, or just about to be shot in the face.  Don’t expect anything as memorable as “I am the law!” but it’s serviceable enough.

“Serviceable” is actually a pretty good way to describe this graphic novel.  While all the parts are here for a quality crime story — feuding brothers, vengeful mob bosses, hotheaded criminals, a whole lot of dead bodies — they only come together to deliver a story that gives the bare minimum of satisfaction.  It’s straightforwardly engaging, but McConville’s writing lacks style and Palmer’s art lacks flash (and isn’t helped at all by Chris O’Halloran’s drab colors) to make me really want to recommend this.  That said, it’s probably worth noting that this OGN is divided into four issue-length chapters, as if this was originally planned to be a four-issue miniseries.  Making “Write it in Blood” an OGN was the smart move as people would’ve likely forgotten all about it before it was collected.