Books: Road to Perdition

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Road to Perdition
Written by Max Allan Collins
Art by Richard Piers Rayner
1998




Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/


Of course straight away you're thinking of the Tom Hanks film - right? The one directed by Sam Mendes - that was such a disappointment seeing how it was his follow-up to the universally beloved American Beauty (and just saying the title is enough to get that plinky plonky piano theme stuck in my head). But whatever. You're thinking of the Road to Perdition film and how (if you've seen it) that it was really long, and really boring and you can't even remember anything else about it. Because - let's face it: it was rubbish.

But that's a shame. Because that rubbishy movie was enough to keep me from giving this book a go. And what I should have thought (looking back now) is not that "Oh there's that comic that that lousy film was based on" - but rather: "Hey - they based a film on a comic that doesn't have any superheroes in it? Maybe that means it's worth a look?"

Ok. So. It's not the greatest comic of all time and my mind managed to stay unexpanded for it's duration. But it's clear, to the point and a diverting lunchtime read that (most importantly) is much much better than the film it's based on (and thinking about it now: it sure is a strange thing to base a movie on. I mean - I know that for most people comics look like storyboards which make them seem like half the work is already done: but - compared to other books out there there's nothing about this that feels like it's crying out to be transferred to celluloid - but whatever).

I think I read on the back of the book that it took four years to make - which seems a little excessive - but then I've never tried to make a comic book. The artwork is really nifty and manages to slip between panels that look half finished (and I mean that in the best possible way: it's like the artist just got down the needed energy and the right dynamics and then left the rest to exist in the reader's mind) and highly detailed cross-hatching stuff that all seems very historically accurate.

Moral of the story: don't judge a book by it's - erm - film adaptation.

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Links: Comic Book Resources Interview with Max Collins, Time Review.

Further reading: Violent Cases, Back to Brooklyn, Criminal, Turf.

All comments welcome.