Advance Review — ‘That Texas Blood: Hell Comes To Allison Ranch’ #2 Goes To War
by Tom Smithyman
Overview
After a first issue that spent a lot of time establishing the story, this chapter gives us more of what we want. There’s a nice back and forth as one character struggles with an important decision while our beloved sheriff enters a war zone close to home.
Overall
9/10It may be Texas, but for Sheriff Joe Bob it feels more like Baghdad.
Given that That Texas Blood: Hell Comes To Allison Ranch is set in 2003, just as US ground troops are again attacking Iraq, the comparison seems intentional.
Unlike the military, Joe Bob and his deputy Wilson aren’t prepared for what they find at the Allison Ranch. The largest cattle ranch in the country is engulfed in flames and there’s some baddies firing all manners of weapons — including a rocket-propelled grenade — at law enforcement. Baghdad indeed.
Writer Chris Condon bounces his story between this life-and-death struggle and a moral quandary with Travis Terrill, who is trying to decide whether to compromise his beliefs to make a ton of money. Throw in his kid brother, who you just know is going to make things more complicated before this six-issue miniseries reaches its climax.
Condon wisely uses Travis’ struggle to ease the tension from the fire and explosions going on around Joe Bob and Wilson. But even Travis’ situation starts to get more tense as he’s visited by the ranch owner’s sister.
Illustrator Jacob Phillips also gets to jump from the conflagration to the more subdued dialogue pages. Obviously it’s the fight scenes that grab our attention, but even the quite scenes between brothers are well done, as we’ve come to expect from Phillips.
That Texas Blood has become one of the most compelling series of the decade. After a semi-slow start in the last issue, this mini seems will on its way to recapturing the magic that we’re used to.
That Texas Blood: Hell Comes To Allison Ranch #2 — written by Chris Condon, illustrated by Jacob Phillips, color assists by Pip Martin, and lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou – will be available tomorrow in comic book stores and on digital platforms from Image Comics.
