LOOKING AT SIX PAGES OF LOVELESS #1

[MattBrady]

DC Comics has provided Newsarama with a six page preview of Brian Azarello and Marcello Frusin's Loveless, a Western coming out under the Vertigo imprinting begining in October. The preview is in black and white, but the series will be in full color, courtesy of colorist Patricia Mulvihill.

Announced last year at San Diego, we're re-presenting our interview with Azzarello from last August about the series.

Warning: Loveless is a title that will be recommended for mature/adult readers, and contains many un-PC terms of the times. In other words, the text on the pages is not work safe.

From our earlier interview:

Set during the Reconstruction, Loveless stars husband and wife, Wes and Ruth Carter, as two…well, as Azzarello gave the soundbyte version, “Bonnie and Clyde on horseback.”

The project had been simmering in the writer’s head for a couple of years, but was helped along by a couple of recent developments, one, scheduling, and the other, a television drama.

“When I was finishing up my run on Hellblazer, Marcello and I were talking about wanting to continue working together,” Azzarello told Newsarama. “He was getting sick of Hellblazer after a few years, and we were both huge Spaghetti Western fans – we go pretty deep into it – way beyond Sergio Leone. I suppose if I I’m a geek about anything, its operatic violence that’s a hallmark of these kinds of Western films.

“So I’d been wanting to do another Western since El Diablo, so we figured we’d try to get a Western off the ground. But you know what they say about Westerns – they’re washed up, and nobody wants them.”

And that was what they told him. But that was a few months back…specifically a few months prior to the debut of HBO’s Deadwood.

“It didn’t hurt when that came on and turned out to be really well received,” Azzarello said, chuckling. “We got our approval around that time.

“The original idea I had was let’s do a book about an outlaw, partly because, if you ask a person to name three real-life people from the West, you’re going to get Jesse James, Billy the Kid, and they’ll probably throw Wyatt Earp in there, but his hat wasn’t exactly white for a good while there. So, there’s the recognition – it’s a Western, it’s going to have outlaws in it.”

As for the time period, as the writer explained in San Diego, the present day and Reconstruction (the period immediately following the American Civil War) strike similar chords. “At that particular point in the country’s history, half of it was an occupied nation,” Azarello said. “That’s something that I think is very relevant right now – essentially a foreign government was occupying the land, invading houses and looking for troublemakers – pulling people out of their homes in the middle of the night. It’s also some pretty fertile ground that hasn’t been mined.”

As for the husband and wife, Wes and Ruth Cutter, their story begins when Wes, a former Confederate solider, comes home from the Civil War. “Wes comes home to being pretty much, a criminal in the eyes of the law at the time – that was what happened with a lot of those men,” Azzarello said. “They came back home, and while some of their homes were gone because the US government was doing land acquisition and just taking stuff.

“Wes and Ruth get pushed by circumstances beyond their control, and they become very bad people. With Loveless, we’re going to be taking two people who are good, and turning them bad. Its a little counter-intuitive to the way Westerns are constructed, where you get the bad guy trying to turn good. My goal is to make two very sympathetic bad people. I want the reader to understand why they’re acting this way, and sort of believe in their reasons to a point. It’s kind of tough. I’m setting up a mountain for myself, I think.”

As for that title? “They’re husband and wife, so there’s a lot of love for each other, but the title – that’s about the life they’re living.”

On the art side of things, Azzarello can’t say enough about his collaborator. “This is Marcello’s dream project. He’s bringing so much more to this than he was to Hellblazer. There are certain parameters you have to work within when you’re working with a company-owned character - we don’t have those here, so we’re both really, really excited to get this thing off the ground.”



Like 100 Bullets, Loveless is a series with an ending. “I think it’s going to run about four years, unless they’re right and Westerns don’t sell,” Azzarello joked. “I’m at the point where I don’t have to do a series – I could do a miniseries, and then another, and create a bunch of different properties, but I’m committed to the serialized form of comics, and this is how I’m going to show that commitment, but doing something that’s long form like this. But, like 100 Bullets, I know the end, so yeah – it’s a finite story.”

[Lucian Duke]

I like westerns a bunch, and will definitely be checking this one out!

[Kurt Avery]

This is right on time.

I was just wondering a day or so ago when this was coming out. I love Westerns, and to see Brian Azzarello and an Italian artist like Marcelo Frusin on a book like this will be a dream come true. Call it a hard-boiled spaghetti Western, maybe?

The preview is beautiful. I can't wait to see this in color. Azzarello and Frusin have my money.


KAB

[Robert_Coyner]

I seriously cannot wait for this... I was so sad when Frusin left Hellblazer. He is one of my favorite artists to come along in years. But this art is golden! Funny enough, it almost makes me with the book was coming out in b&w on old tattered newsprint - like you might've found in the 1800s! And I love Azzarello's pulp instincts so there will definitely be at least one longtime reader for this series.

[kalorama]

Looks great. I'll check out the first issue but probably wait for the trade for the whole thing.

[Miller]

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but Andersonville was a Confederate-run prison for captured Union soldiers. Wes Cutter is identified as a former Confederate soldier, but "got outta Andersonville" suggests he was an inmate...

Is this just a goof?

Otherwise, yeah, this looks really good. I can't wait to see it colored, although I personally wouldn't have a problem buying it as-is. Frusin is GOOD. I wasn't terribly interested before, but this gives me hope.

If Cutter is the "bad guy," are we going to get a chance to meet the "good guy?"

-Miller

[thefellowship12]

I am definitely picking this up, I love Azzarello's writing, from Broken city to Jonny Double they're all good to me.

If the art looks this good in Black and white i cannot wait to see it in colour (not saying that b&w books are worse than colour).

Definitely picking this up, westerns are awesome and I'm looking forward to this a lot, glad there is a definite ending.

[buji]

newsarama, you're killing my wallet. no seriously. how can i not pick up a title like this when i read a preview like this.

just those six little pages... dialogue, story, pacing, art... fantastic! i guess i'm going to have to trust in the talent & decisions of the entire creative team here, but to be honest the previews look just gorgeous in simple black & white.

here's to hoping this title is a big success; it certainly seems to be the sort of quality title i would love to follow for the next 4 years or so.

[whippis]

I'm down. Glad to see Vertigo trying non-magic realted titles. Trigger is very cool.

[NightRiver]

Hot Damn! This looks awesome. I love me a good spaghetti western, and this is gonna be great.

[Miller]

Originally posted by whippis
I'm down. Glad to see Vertigo trying non-magic realted titles. Trigger is very cool.

Yep. Vertigo is a great little imprint. FABLES, Y, 100 BULLETS, LOSERS, and now this, along with the other good stuff they bring to the table, like HELLBLAZER and the other 'magic' titles...

I'd like to see them do a police-procedural type of comic, or a really good war book--that's about all they haven't covered, besides romance.

-Miller

[Bakema NL]

But you know what they say about Westerns – they’re washed up, and nobody wants them.”

Let "them" talk. I'm there, this looks definitely cool and somehow there's not enough western that can satisfy my appetite right now.

[hanpansu]

Originally posted by Kurt Avery
This is right on time.

I was just wondering a day or so ago when this was coming out. I love Westerns, and to see Brian Azzarello and an Italian artist like Marcelo Frusin on a book like this will be a dream come true. Call it a hard-boiled spaghetti Western, maybe?

The preview is beautiful. I can't wait to see this in color. Azzarello and Frusin have my money.


KAB

FYI Marcelo Frusin is not Italian but Argentinian. He is a former assistant of 100 Bullets artist Eduardo Risso, especially on Risso's Boy Vampiro. They work in the same studio in Argentina. I wouldn't be surprised if Frusin got his break in comics through Risso.

Two good links for some gorgeous Frusin art:

http://www.marcelofrusin.com/

http://www.splashpageart.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=18

I can't wait for Loveless

[Supreme Convoy]

Holy Crap! My pull list is just getting bigger as the months go by!

[cory w]

This looks (and reads) amazing. I've been SO excited for this book ever since the first news about it was released last year. I wish I wouldn't have read that preview, because now I want the rest RIGHT NOW. Screw waiting for the trade.

Now, Azzarello needs to cook up a sweet WWII finite series with similar art, and I'll be happy as a pig in sh*t. I loved his Sgt. Rock.

[Steeven]

Well YEE, and might I say, HAW!

The last thing I need is another comic to add to my pull list, but I can't pass this one up!

[EyeAm]

This sounds really interesting, I love spaghetti westerns and I've been wanting to read something by Azzarello for a while now so I will definitely be picking this up. The artwork in the preview was great and I like the fact that it's a finite story but not a mini-series.

It would be kind of cool if they never coloured it traditionally and just had a sort of sepia wash over the inks.

[cook]

This looks really, really good. I'm glad Azzarello seems to be moving away from the ad naseum wordplay dialogue that 100 Bullets is written in.

[G Dog]

I am stoked for this. I've been waiting impatiently since it was announced last year. I wonder if the colouring is going to be along the lines of the promo piece at the top of the article? That would be incredible!

[B. Snuggles]

I'm a huge fan of Azzerello's work on 100 Bullets and will give this title a shot on that alone. Also, the art on the previews was pretty cool it was somewhat reminiscient of Rizzo's work on 100 Bullets and from a previous poster I see why.

[cory w]

Originally posted by G Dog
I wonder if the colouring is going to be along the lines of the promo piece at the top of the article? That would be incredible!

Odds are, Patricia Mulvihill will be coloring it in a similar fashion to her work on 100 Bullets. Which, for me, is preferable. It's always better when color compliments the artwork than to overpower it.

[Robert_Coyner]

Originally posted by hanpansu
FYI Marcelo Frusin is not Italian but Argentinian.

Thanks for pointing that out! Always good to know.

Also, Andersonville and Blackwater are both towns in Virginia, with Blackwater near the Tennessee border. He could have meant the bird had followed him when he passed through Andersonville on his way back to Blackwater - if they are in Virginia anyway... I noticed the same thing, but the way it's written, it could easily be meant in this way...

[Regulator]

Originally posted by cook
This looks really, really good. I'm glad Azzarello seems to be moving away from the ad naseum wordplay dialogue that 100 Bullets is written in.

Yeah, the very thing that made 100 Bullets unique to me when I first found it is making it very hard to keep reading. For Tomorrow was full of that kind of crap too. It would be ok if he did it once in a while, but cramming in half a dozen per issue is really getting old.

[thefellowship12]

I like the wordplay in For Tomorrow, but then again i'm one of the small few who liked the writing. is it just me or does the art look a bit like Jock's art from the Losers?

[cory w]

Originally posted by thefellowship12
is it just me or does the art look a bit like Jock's art from the Losers?

Personally, I'm feeling more of a Risso/Charlie (walking dead) Adlard vibe than jock.