Torso

Torso - Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko (1998-99)

I have been on quite the journey over the past few years trying to catch up on all that I've missed in the realm of comics and graphic novels. Few collections have struck me so much as Torso, a true crime account of the Cleveland Torso Murderer of the mid-1930s. If you know me well, you know I like to read about some pretty messed up stuff, and obviously that is represented well in these pages. While the dreary mood and gruesome storyline of Torso were enough to win me over, it was really easy to get attached to the happenings and people caught up in this insane invent. What really took it over the edge and what really helped to make the graphic novel easily one of the best I've ever read is Brian Michael Bendis' art direction. The drawings within the panels aren't all that impressive, it's more how they were combined with actual photographs from the various murder scenes and elsewhere in Cleveland. Also, just the way the panels are set up on the page (at least in a number of instances) stressed the sense of mystery and confusion, and additionally made the book even fun to read. Torso is pretty much perfect in every way.