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Loveless #1
Loveless, Vol. 1: A Kin of Homecoming
Brian Azzarello creates a Western for the new millennium. Reuniting with artist Marcelo Frusin, Azzarello fashions a tough-as-nails saga that combines all the bloody action and atmosphere of a Sergio Leone film with the provocative storytelling of HBO's Deadwood.
Wes Cutter is a wanted man running from a violent past - the horrors of the Civil War, a brutal stint in a Union prison camp, and the savage fallout of Reconstruction. Now he's on a quest for the one thing in short supply: peace. Joining Wes is his beautiful wife Ruth, a woman who has been to hell and back herself - and hides dark secrets of her own. The road they travel will be a bloody one, leaving a trail of bodies stretching from Missouri to the Pacific Ocean.
128 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2006
4 people are currently reading
260 people want to read
About the author
Brian Azzarello
1,296 books1,105 followersBrian Azzarello (born in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American comic book writer. He came to prominence with 100 Bullets, published by DC Comics' mature-audience imprint Vertigo. He and Argentine artist Eduardo Risso, with whom Azzarello first worked on Jonny Double, won the 2001 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story for 100 Bullets #15–18: "Hang Up on the Hang Low".
Azzarello has written for Batman ("Broken City", art by Risso; "Batman/Deathblow: After the Fire", art by Lee Bermejo, Tim Bradstreet, & Mick Gray) and Superman ("For Tomorrow", art by Jim Lee).
In 2005, Azzarello began a new creator-owned series, the western Loveless, with artist Marcelo Frusin.
As of 2007, Azzarello is married to fellow comic-book writer and illustrator Jill Thompson.
information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Az...
Azzarello has written for Batman ("Broken City", art by Risso; "Batman/Deathblow: After the Fire", art by Lee Bermejo, Tim Bradstreet, & Mick Gray) and Superman ("For Tomorrow", art by Jim Lee).
In 2005, Azzarello began a new creator-owned series, the western Loveless, with artist Marcelo Frusin.
As of 2007, Azzarello is married to fellow comic-book writer and illustrator Jill Thompson.
information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Az...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
September 23, 2024
If a Spaghetti Western were written my Franz Kafka - real feeling of dread and alienation here. Really can see this as a movie - thinking Ben Foster in the lead role - really hope one day there will be a channel dedicated to taking GN and making them into movies or limited series; so many great stories out there!
February 21, 2008
This was new to the graphic novels section of my library, so I decided to pick it up. Mostly, I have a laundry list of complaints:
1. This book is a Western, set in Missouri, but most of the scenery juxtaposes the plains of Wyoming and the woods of the Deep South. Suggestion: before you start writing and drawing, decide on where you want the story to take place and do a little research.
2. A lot of supposedly important characters look way too damn much alike. All the Union soldiers are (understandably) wearing Union blues, so you'd think the artist would choose to differentiate them by their faces. He declines. A number of times I'd be reading and think to myself "Hey wait, didn't that guy get killed a few pages ago?" before realizing that must have been some other soldier with muttonchops and a moustache obscuring his face. Similarly, all the black characters have big exagerrated lips and bug eyes. This causes a few important scenes to fizzle because the readers can't figure out which damn character they're using! I even had trouble picking out the main character, Wes Cutter, on a couple of occassions. Apparently, in the old West, everyone wears cowboy hats and has dark shadows hiding their faces. Suggestion: When you're drawing a comic book which doesn't involve easily-identifiable characters in bright tights and capes, you need to make sure your characters are visually distinguishable.
3. The plot, specifically, re: Cutter's wife. Cutter spends a lot of time going around town telling people that his wife is missing, asking if people have seen her, and even threatening people who might have been involved in her disappearance. And then he goes back to his cabin and has a lot of sex with her. And I'm pretty sure it's not a dream sequence, because she kills a few people, too. I'm not sure why he tries to convince people that his wife is missing; it seems like a big waste of time. And doesn't anyone in the town wonder why that cow"boy" riding around with him has boobs and a really high voice? It just doesn't make sense to me. Maybe it will be sorted out in future books, but I really don't care to spend time finding out.
And that's my problem with this book as a whole. It spends a lot of time going into exposition, action, and a little intrigue, but nothing ever really happens. We never learn what the driving force is behind Cutter's actions. He says he wants to find peace, but he also hints that he wants to burn down the town. He makes secret deals, deceives and kills people, and lays a number of different traps to turn different town factions against each other. But why? There are too many hints of hidden allegiances and plans for vengeance, but nothing is ever clearly explained. I understand the writer is employing a tactic to hook in the reader, but the plots are muddled, convoluted, and just not that interesting. I'm not going to tune in for the next installment when I don't have a clue about what's going on.
For me, this book was a failure, but I'm honestly not sure whose fault it was. It seemed very apparent that the writer and artist did not communicate very well while constructing this book. Otherwise we wouldn't have legions of characters who all look the same. Perhaps they found their groove in later books, but I'm not going to be waiting around to find out.
1. This book is a Western, set in Missouri, but most of the scenery juxtaposes the plains of Wyoming and the woods of the Deep South. Suggestion: before you start writing and drawing, decide on where you want the story to take place and do a little research.
2. A lot of supposedly important characters look way too damn much alike. All the Union soldiers are (understandably) wearing Union blues, so you'd think the artist would choose to differentiate them by their faces. He declines. A number of times I'd be reading and think to myself "Hey wait, didn't that guy get killed a few pages ago?" before realizing that must have been some other soldier with muttonchops and a moustache obscuring his face. Similarly, all the black characters have big exagerrated lips and bug eyes. This causes a few important scenes to fizzle because the readers can't figure out which damn character they're using! I even had trouble picking out the main character, Wes Cutter, on a couple of occassions. Apparently, in the old West, everyone wears cowboy hats and has dark shadows hiding their faces. Suggestion: When you're drawing a comic book which doesn't involve easily-identifiable characters in bright tights and capes, you need to make sure your characters are visually distinguishable.
3. The plot, specifically, re: Cutter's wife. Cutter spends a lot of time going around town telling people that his wife is missing, asking if people have seen her, and even threatening people who might have been involved in her disappearance. And then he goes back to his cabin and has a lot of sex with her. And I'm pretty sure it's not a dream sequence, because she kills a few people, too. I'm not sure why he tries to convince people that his wife is missing; it seems like a big waste of time. And doesn't anyone in the town wonder why that cow"boy" riding around with him has boobs and a really high voice? It just doesn't make sense to me. Maybe it will be sorted out in future books, but I really don't care to spend time finding out.
And that's my problem with this book as a whole. It spends a lot of time going into exposition, action, and a little intrigue, but nothing ever really happens. We never learn what the driving force is behind Cutter's actions. He says he wants to find peace, but he also hints that he wants to burn down the town. He makes secret deals, deceives and kills people, and lays a number of different traps to turn different town factions against each other. But why? There are too many hints of hidden allegiances and plans for vengeance, but nothing is ever clearly explained. I understand the writer is employing a tactic to hook in the reader, but the plots are muddled, convoluted, and just not that interesting. I'm not going to tune in for the next installment when I don't have a clue about what's going on.
For me, this book was a failure, but I'm honestly not sure whose fault it was. It seemed very apparent that the writer and artist did not communicate very well while constructing this book. Otherwise we wouldn't have legions of characters who all look the same. Perhaps they found their groove in later books, but I'm not going to be waiting around to find out.
January 9, 2018
Lots of threads are darned together by an equally copious helping of revolvers, cuss words, and racism in Brian Azzarello's, Loveless Vol 1: A Kin of Homecoming. Perfectly deserving illustrations of wide landscapes are joyfully melded with with more up close depictions of characters and weaponry alike. Words match the stellar artwork and the deserving dialogue does the story justice as well.
Strong contrasts of color and character developments push the story along at a speed that ranges from a turtle's pace to that of a jackalope at breakneck speed. Vicious verbal barbs are cast and fights ensue. Bullets are burst and body parts explode. And so on and so forth.
I'm a huge fan of the Azzarello canon (100 Bullets, The Joker, and all his one-offs are pretty good too, etc...) and I'm super stoked to read the rest of the series.
Two thumbs up. YeeHaww!
Strong contrasts of color and character developments push the story along at a speed that ranges from a turtle's pace to that of a jackalope at breakneck speed. Vicious verbal barbs are cast and fights ensue. Bullets are burst and body parts explode. And so on and so forth.
I'm a huge fan of the Azzarello canon (100 Bullets, The Joker, and all his one-offs are pretty good too, etc...) and I'm super stoked to read the rest of the series.
Two thumbs up. YeeHaww!
June 9, 2015
Great art, but just not the story for me. Wasn't prepared or receptive to the language and the sexual violence.
March 22, 2013
Azzarello's penchant for droll wordplay in his trade titles (Counterfifth Detective, Strychnine Lives) didn't prepare me for this travesty, which is both unfunny and phonetically forced. The Deadwood-lite noir western within is, well it's worse than the title. Antiheroes with neat little Shakespeare beards, sculpted teen-fantasy women (who dupe an entire town into thinking they're a dude), gratuitous interracial rape fantasies, you name it. Granted, the writing's OK. But this ain't Deadwood by a damn sight.
August 25, 2022
Good action and a badass anti-hero straight from the Spaghetti Western tradition. Unfortunately, the various plots are all over the place and nothing is explained at all in this first volume so you might be a bit lost as to what the heck is going on. They also have everyone talk in an exaggerated southern accent that gets annoying to read long before the volume is over.
July 27, 2023
So I followed this series about halfway through, back when it was coming out as individual issues. Was happy for chance to snag the whole series in three volumes, cheap/used. So does it hold up? Well, in some ways better than others, and mileage is likely to vary a lot depending on one's personal tastes/threshold for rather matter-of-fact depictions of the worst of humanity in a historical context. Azzarello's noir background makes him the perfect fit for a bleak Revenge Western, though his slow-burn teasing out of everyone's true hidden motives/endgames strains our sense of why we should care after a while, and in an ensemble cast where anything resembling a moral center is scarce, that's a problem.
May 27, 2011
Brian Azzarello brings his noir sensibilities to the frontier in this Western set in Reconstruction-era Missouri.
The war is over, and with residents seething under Union occupation, Confederate veteran Wes Cutter returns to town to take back his land from Union soldiers and to find his wife. Nobody in town particularly trusts Wes, but he somehow gets by on his wiles, manipulating both sides to gain a position of power.
Much like his opus 100 Bullets, Azzarello goes for the slow burn, setting a ponderous mood and telling the story carefully and obliquely. His characters dole out information sparingly, in clipped dialogue, and flashbacks don't always announce themselves as such. Azzarello doesn't spoon-feed information; you have to work for it. And while I love the hard-boiled tone Azzarello brings to the material, it drags on a bit too long. He's still setting up the pieces without much payoff in this volume, and although there is action in the form of shootouts, these encounters only raise questions about the plot. Why do people still tolerate having Wes Cutter in town when people seem to drop dead around him on a daily basis? Should we just attribute it to a more violent era, or are the people surrounding Wes simply that oblivious?
At once helping and hindering the storytelling is Marcelo Frusin's dark, yet somewhat disjointed, art. Many times the reader has to go back and piece together exactly which of the many similar-looking Union soldiers we're dealing with in a scene. Sometimes this seems intentional, other times you wish for a rock-solid storyteller like Eduardo Risso, Azzarello's partner on 100 Bullets.
In spite of all my problems with the book, I still enjoyed it. I fear that Azzarello's glacial pace won't allow for the plots to come together satisfactorily, since the book was cancelled and there were only two more volumes completed, but it's still an interesting effort to bring the Western back to comics in modern form.
The war is over, and with residents seething under Union occupation, Confederate veteran Wes Cutter returns to town to take back his land from Union soldiers and to find his wife. Nobody in town particularly trusts Wes, but he somehow gets by on his wiles, manipulating both sides to gain a position of power.
Much like his opus 100 Bullets, Azzarello goes for the slow burn, setting a ponderous mood and telling the story carefully and obliquely. His characters dole out information sparingly, in clipped dialogue, and flashbacks don't always announce themselves as such. Azzarello doesn't spoon-feed information; you have to work for it. And while I love the hard-boiled tone Azzarello brings to the material, it drags on a bit too long. He's still setting up the pieces without much payoff in this volume, and although there is action in the form of shootouts, these encounters only raise questions about the plot. Why do people still tolerate having Wes Cutter in town when people seem to drop dead around him on a daily basis? Should we just attribute it to a more violent era, or are the people surrounding Wes simply that oblivious?
At once helping and hindering the storytelling is Marcelo Frusin's dark, yet somewhat disjointed, art. Many times the reader has to go back and piece together exactly which of the many similar-looking Union soldiers we're dealing with in a scene. Sometimes this seems intentional, other times you wish for a rock-solid storyteller like Eduardo Risso, Azzarello's partner on 100 Bullets.
In spite of all my problems with the book, I still enjoyed it. I fear that Azzarello's glacial pace won't allow for the plots to come together satisfactorily, since the book was cancelled and there were only two more volumes completed, but it's still an interesting effort to bring the Western back to comics in modern form.
April 17, 2014
I really want to give it 3 1/2 stars. I'm not giving 4 because this is only the beginning, and, the other reason is that there were some things that were a bit confused, you can't really make a difference between flashbacks an reality, and there are some points were I get lost, like, who is the girl with Wes ? Is she his wife ? But, he say that his wife get out, so ... I'm a bit lost over that point.
In the other hand, this vol. got me interested. I like westerns, and it seems like a good one.
The story revolves around a man, Wes Cutter, that get back to his home, only to know that the Union took his lands ... There is someone that is killing soldiers from the Union, and a murder of some black people ...
Black people are fighting for their freedom, or at least, they are arming themselves to fight ...
This are the points of the story, and what it seems to be about.
... I'll continue reading this series.
In the other hand, this vol. got me interested. I like westerns, and it seems like a good one.
The story revolves around a man, Wes Cutter, that get back to his home, only to know that the Union took his lands ... There is someone that is killing soldiers from the Union, and a murder of some black people ...
Black people are fighting for their freedom, or at least, they are arming themselves to fight ...
This are the points of the story, and what it seems to be about.
... I'll continue reading this series.
June 13, 2012
A decent start to the series, though it's a little light on plot and heavy on portent. But the characters are interesting enough, and Wes Cutter's standing in town is a particular situation of interest.
November 26, 2012
Brian Azzarello begins his moder western saga with an intense, realistic and nuanced volume. "Loveless" offers a group of interesting characters with lots of potential. If that potential gets utilized and the tone of the storytelling remains as vibrant, this might turn into a winning series.
July 29, 2015
Last read November 1, 2007.
February 23, 2009
I am not a big graphic novel fan, but this was fun!
July 25, 2011
the good, the bad and the ugly and zombies
June 28, 2012
Western puro y duro con un guión áspero y dibujos que pudieron acompañar mejor.
July 6, 2012
If you like Clint Eastwood style westerns, then this book IS for you.
December 23, 2012
dark, gritty work -- feels like Azzarello was just starting to hit his stride with the series when Loveless got cancelled at issue #24 / trade paperbook Vol 3. :(
July 2, 2013
Great characters and a daring setting. However, the storytelling is often muddled.
June 4, 2016
It started very well the first issues but with the time, was knda boring and the end was weird and strange and lazy, but I think that everybody should read it.
September 26, 2018
A violent story about an ex-Confederate soldier, who, once released from a POW camp at war's end, returns to his homestead in the South only to find that it's been expropriated by the occupying Union army military government. The story revolves around his efforts to regain his land.
Although the drawing was good, the story line meandered -- the protagonist's memories or musings are handled visually, not as a flashback, but transposed on the main story-line so that things that happened pre-War are side-by-side with things happening post-War. This is somewhat confusing until the reader realizes that the flashbacks are simply being inserted within, not just into, the story line. Do not expect to find much subtlety or nuance in characterization. This graphic novel is raw, and features stereotypical Western villains, frightened townspeople, and other typical Western characters. The protagonist is a dead ringer for Clint Eastwood - complete with poncho and dangling cigarette.
There was quite a bit of violence and some graphic sex scenes. I thought some of the scenes and references to racism, constant violence including gang rape, were simply exploitative/gratuitous and therefore distasteful. The book may well offend some - whatever the protagonist thinks, he says. However, the book is pretty much "redeemed" by the surprise ending... which I shall not give away since it would be the spoiler to end all spoilers.
Although the drawing was good, the story line meandered -- the protagonist's memories or musings are handled visually, not as a flashback, but transposed on the main story-line so that things that happened pre-War are side-by-side with things happening post-War. This is somewhat confusing until the reader realizes that the flashbacks are simply being inserted within, not just into, the story line. Do not expect to find much subtlety or nuance in characterization. This graphic novel is raw, and features stereotypical Western villains, frightened townspeople, and other typical Western characters. The protagonist is a dead ringer for Clint Eastwood - complete with poncho and dangling cigarette.
There was quite a bit of violence and some graphic sex scenes. I thought some of the scenes and references to racism, constant violence including gang rape, were simply exploitative/gratuitous and therefore distasteful. The book may well offend some - whatever the protagonist thinks, he says. However, the book is pretty much "redeemed" by the surprise ending... which I shall not give away since it would be the spoiler to end all spoilers.
Read
December 4, 2019Loveless Vol 1. Released from a prison camp Wes Cutter returns home to find that the very people he fought against in the civil war have taken over his land and the surrounding area. With his wife missing and no one particularly happy to see him Wes Cutter isn't in for a warm welcome.
I am not impressed with this western noir. Its very dark gritty and full of sexual violence. It is also heavy with swearing. I can do dark grisly bloody but I am not a fan of reading about sexual violence. The excessive amount of swearing just tells me that the author lacks creativity and does not have a way with words. Hopefully there will be more of a plot in the next one??
I am not impressed with this western noir. Its very dark gritty and full of sexual violence. It is also heavy with swearing. I can do dark grisly bloody but I am not a fan of reading about sexual violence. The excessive amount of swearing just tells me that the author lacks creativity and does not have a way with words. Hopefully there will be more of a plot in the next one??
March 22, 2018
Interesting. Not sure that I want to read more, but I was intrigued by the time jumps, the gorgeous art and the unflinching dialogue. I like the sense of mystery and mood, but I still don't find myself caring what happened to who or why - and that's a big problem when it comes to keeping readers around for an ongoing series.
Frusin's art is great - moody, dark, violent. Great, emotional stuff.
Azzarello - as becomes his usual - great at hinting at things, dark things mostly, but I'm not quite sure he's going to pull it all together in a satisfying way.
Frusin's art is great - moody, dark, violent. Great, emotional stuff.
Azzarello - as becomes his usual - great at hinting at things, dark things mostly, but I'm not quite sure he's going to pull it all together in a satisfying way.
April 2, 2020
I do admit, i just love grim westerns.
And Azzarello's crisp writing manages to capture the bleak, existential despair perfectly.
Perhaps better still, the story dances nimbly between characters, drawing them together inexorably until you almost want them to crash into each other violently.
And while Frusin is undoubtedly one of my very favourites, his work here, and the master on display cannot be disputed.
This is absolutely top drawer storytelling and I am all in to see where it goes.
And Azzarello's crisp writing manages to capture the bleak, existential despair perfectly.
Perhaps better still, the story dances nimbly between characters, drawing them together inexorably until you almost want them to crash into each other violently.
And while Frusin is undoubtedly one of my very favourites, his work here, and the master on display cannot be disputed.
This is absolutely top drawer storytelling and I am all in to see where it goes.
December 27, 2018
A solid western tale featuring outlaws, corrupt lawmen and revenge. Always revenge.
It's interesting having a protagonist from the South shortly after the civil war, I mean he says he was fighting for what's his, but he was still on the side of the pro-slavery advocates.
Enjoyable enough, not sure if I'll pick up the next one though.
It's interesting having a protagonist from the South shortly after the civil war, I mean he says he was fighting for what's his, but he was still on the side of the pro-slavery advocates.
Enjoyable enough, not sure if I'll pick up the next one though.
May 4, 2019
This is great - first thing of azzerellos who’s has his own feel to it rather than feeling like he’s trying to copy someone else (usually Garth Ennis) - only a pain that the only edition I could get from my library in Denmark was in google translated Danish. So tjat possibly took away from end product
March 3, 2021
Azzarello has done loads of stuff that get my attention and want to read everything that will happen.
I'm not all that sure is this one of those, mostly because I had fuck all understanding what was going on. And that is mostly because the art: Why do so many characters look so much like every other character.
But after all, this series caught my interested. I want to know how this will end.
I'm not all that sure is this one of those, mostly because I had fuck all understanding what was going on. And that is mostly because the art: Why do so many characters look so much like every other character.
But after all, this series caught my interested. I want to know how this will end.
September 23, 2019
Civil War-era. I couldn't tell anyone apart, the pacing was all over the place, everyone's a rapist, and the way you know the main character isn't as bad as the rest of the Confederates is when he says the war isn't about slavery, it's about freedom.
February 12, 2019
Westerns are often problematic to say the least if not outright racist. Unfortunately, Loveless appears to fall in the latter category containing lots of racist images and racist terminology.
October 8, 2019
An ok read. A lot of the characters look very similar and easy to get confused
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews