STAGGER LEE REVIEW

[Terry Verticchio]

Reviewer: Terry Verticchio terryvert@hotmail.com
Quick rating: Excellent.

When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

<a href="http://www.comixtreme.com/gallery/data/media/3/StaggerLeeGN.jpg" target=_blank><img src="http://www.comixtreme.com/gallery/data/thumbnails/3/StaggerLeeGN.jpg" border=0 align=right></a>Writer: Derek McCulloch
Art: Shepherd Hendrix
Letters: Richard Starking, and Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt
Design: John Roshell of Comicraft
Publisher: Image Comics



Review: The legend of Stagger Lee goes back to the turn of the last century. It’s a simple story about one man killing another, but of course the story wouldn't have become a legend if some embellishment didn’t happen afterwards.

I became aware of the legend during my own research into jazz and blues music, and I was immediately struck by how so much myth had surrounded this man. Stagger Lee was a man so bad that “Flies don’t fly around his head in the summer and snow don’t fall on his house in winter”. Now whether he was as bad as all that is hardly the case. What is important is that people began to believe it.

This book takes place after Lee Shelton shoots Billy Lyons in a bar on Christmas Eve in 1895 in St. Louis. Now considering both men were black, there wasn’t much of an outcry for charges to be laid. Unfortunately for Shelton, Lyons had powerful family, and a case was made. This book follows the trial of Lee Shelton, but it’s more than that. It is a history of the legend itself. How the truth was turned around by gossip and, most of all, by the new medium of recorded music. Songs immediately began to tell the tale of that fateful night, and as could be expected the truth got turned around.

The story is also about the other people involved in the case, either directly or indirectly, about the politics of the times and world these people lived in. It’s quite a multi-layered story and includes a glimpse into Lee Shelton's past life.

As this book is over 200 pages, it was a long read but not a laborious one. It has excellent dialogue and wonderfully colourful characters. Though, I feel that McCulloch plays things a bit too fast and loose with his examinations of the Stagger Lee legend through out the ages. The story-proper is tightly woven and seamless, and I can find nothing wrong with any of it.

The art by Shepherd Hendrix is perfect for the story. It strikes the perfect tone for the subject matter. Again, I think Hendrix is also verging on satire and parody when it comes to the examination of the legend. But his characters are all clearly defined and the art itself is clean and well detailed.

This is a great story with lots of heart and emotion and also delves into our predilection to change the truth to suit our own needs and desires, which is appropriate considering the artistic liberties McCulloch admits to have made to form the story. But I for one don’t hold it against him, as I am guilty of that licence as well. Hey, whatever makes a good story better.



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[Liam Creswick]

Gald to hear it, and glad to see a review, I was gunna check this book out, but wanted a review first. Cool Stuff, gunna get it.