The Terrible Axe-Man of New Orleans
Written & Illustrated by Rick Geary
Published by NBM

Rick Geary’s latest true-crime account – he’s been authoring these heavily researched re-creations of history’s startling, scandalous or unsolved crimes for nearly three decades now – takes readers to New Orleans in the years 1918 and 1919, when six people were murdered and another six grievously wounded by an unknown assailant.

In The Terrible Axe-Man of New Orleans, Geary’s careful eye for detail and rigorously researched backgrounds pay off in spades.  Opening the book with an overview of New Orlean’s history, dating back to its founding by French settlers, the transfer of power to the British, back to the French, the Louisiana Purchase, the arrival of the Cajuns and the birth of Fat Tuesday (otherwise known as Mardi Gras), Axe-Man establishes the flavor and culture of its setting quickly and clearly.

The style of homes, manner of dress and other period- and location-specific elements are integrated into Geary’s illustrations, further grounding the narrative in unimpeachable fact.  After spending considerable time setting the scene, once Geary dives into the Axe-Man’s crimes, the story allows for no let-up.  Geary moves from attack to attack, offering whatever details are available – the ancestry of the victims (often Italian immigrants), their occupations (grocers predominantly), and even the position of the bodies in the first instance.  The spread of the Axe-Man’s crimes across seventeen months and completely divergent neighborhoods (including one in a suburb) is chronicled diligently.

Taking a documentarian approach, Geary provides very little dialogue, preferring to narrate scenes in caption, moving quickly from fact to fact.  By doing so, Geary avoids taking the liberties of assuming how certain people might have behaved.  Reconstructed from recorded accounts, the narration presents the facts – such as they are known – to the reader to judge for him or herself.  Discrepancies in testimony and in the Axe-Man’s methods are presented, and an epilogue suggests one possible theory to the Axe-Man’s identity.

His pen and ink approach to the art suits the story’s historical setting.  Using mostly thin, crisp black lines offset by white space, Geary’s pages capture the essence of each era his true crime tales visit.  Many images of victims appear modeled after family portraits, enforcing the idea that these were real people, and the attention to architecture and clothing grounds readers in that truth.  With a documentarian eye, Geary opts for straightforward panel progressions and straight-ahead panel compositions that even the most novice comic reader can easily follow.

After several decades of true crime studies, Rick Geary remains as consummate and professional a storyteller as ever.  He presents the facts of each case in a clear and direct manner, indelibly inscribed by his concise narrative and pristine pen and ink illustrations.  The Terrible Axe-Man of New Orleans was never captured, but his crime and more importantly his victims are memorialized in this terrific book by a modern comics master.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 6th, 2010 at 7:00 am and is filed under Comic Books, Graphic Novels, Mike's Musings, News & Views, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.