GHOST RIDER: TRAIL OF TEARS by Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain
I was never a huge fan of Marvel’s Ghost Rider character, but recently a friend sold me a few boxes of comic books and I decided to give Trail Of Tears a shot. Garth Ennis is famous for extremely well-crafted non-super-hero comics (Preacher, Crossed) and extremely dark subject matter. His pervasively bleak thumbprint lends itself well to a story about the “spirit of vengeance.” Trail Of Tears is one of the coolest graphic novels I’ve read.
When Travis Parham, a confederate soldier wounded on the Civil War battlefield, is rescued and nursed back to health by ex-slave Caleb, Travis becomes a changed man. But Travis and Caleb soon endure a hate crime so vicious that Travis sets out on a quest for vengeance and discovers a hooded figure riding horseback on a similar quest… and his head is a skull and it’s on fire.
Completely engaging from start to finish, Trail Of Tears has all the elements of an oscar-winning historical drama, only there’s the addition of a vengeful demon thrown into the mix.
will you be offended? Marvel rarely releases comics that push further than a hard PG-13. This is about as dark as a mainstream PG-13 Marvel comic gets.
I just got into comics and recently finished the first compendium of The Walking Dead. It’s pretty good, but it feels so dramatic. It’s like an entire season of a daytime soap opera compressed into a few issues. I personally liked Invincible better, and Crossed is definitely on my wishlist.
I’d really love to see a Josh Top 10 of your favorite books/series.