Redneck #1 Review (Image)

This Definitely Isn’t Twilight

Written by: Donny Cates
Art by: Lisandro Estherren
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 19, 2017
Review by: Josh Vermillion


I didn’t really know a whole lot about this book or the creative team coming into it, but how can you not want to read something called Redneck with a chowing down on some flesh on the cover? I’m usually down to give any #1 issue from Image a try, so let’s jump in and find out what this one is all about.


This first issue throws us into some hard-to-decipher thoughts from Uncle Bartlett Bowman, who has a very clear Texas accent that makes reading the book just a little bit harder. We learn that he comes from a family of vampires and it seems that each one has different sets of powers, as his niece Perry is the only one other than the old Granpa that can read minds.

Three of Bartlett’s nephews, Slap, Greg, and Seamus, come storming out of the house and get into the truck. Their dad, JV, tells them they can’t go into town because he doesn’t want them to hurt anyone and get the town after them, but they go anyway. These vampires don’t want to hurt humans, so they drink cow’s blood to get by. JV is worried about what they’re going to do in town, so Bartlett offers to check on them when he finds out they’re going to a strip club.

Bartlett gets there and finds the boys outside about to get into a fight with a few guys from the club. Bartlett steps in to take them on himself, but a Father Landry walks up and tells them all to run along. The vampire kids go home, which leaves Bartlett to talk to Father Landry alone.

Bartlett wakes up the next morning on the porch of the house covered in blood and his hand on fire, but he doesn’t remember what happened. JV comes outside and throws Bartlett on his ass, where he sees that the cows have been slaughtered and Slap is on fire hanging from a tree. They’re convinced that this is going to lead to the other boys murdering the entire town or the town hunting the family, and the issue ends with Bartlett shooting Slap out of the tree.

This is a good enough first issue. There is a lot of inner monologue throughout and the art takes a little bit to get used to, but the story is intriguing enough. The concept of vampires that don’t kill humans and try to stay away from them isn’t exactly new, but it’s a tried and true concept that is can be interesting moving forward, depending on where Donny Cates takes the story from here.

Bits and Pieces:

Donny Cates gives us a story that isn’t necessarily original, but it has some intrigue moving forward from here. The art is good once you get used to the style, but takes a few pages to adjust to. If this book can take the concept it has established so far and build on it in a new way, I think this book will be really good. We just have to see where it goes next month.

7.5/10