Bloodshot World
Many graphic novels exist due to a collaborative effort between the writer and the illustrator. For the talented creatives who are both writing and drawing their own books, they have to plan out a story and then consider how to lay that story out in a visual medium. For artists illustrating another author’s script, it means interpreting the writer’s words and directions in a way that readers can follow the story. For graphic novel writers who don’t draw their own stories, they hope that the illustrator interprets their work in a way that synergizes with what the writer has pictured in their head. This collaboration between illustrator and writer may seem like a sort of tug-of-war between what each creative wants, but writer Jeff P. Jones’s latest offers a fresh take on this dynamic. His book Bloodshot World is a collection of Jones’s stories with each drawn by a different illustrator.
The book’s blurb describes the book and its aesthetic, which it proclaims is the “bloodshot aesthetic,” as “engrossing grotesque, the irresistibly strange, the hauntingly dark,” which is a description that frankly doesn’t do the book justice. Included in this collection is a myriad of tales that go from horror with “As You Are Now, So Once Was I,” about a zombie whose diet of flesh allows him to recall his humanity, to “Tribute,” a sentimental story of a chance meeting between two actors on the set of the original “The Wizard of Oz.” A book with “Bloodshot” in the title might have readers expecting to be swimming in gore, and while there is plenty in Jones’s zombie tale and the surreal story of a woman removing her own heart, the tales rely more on emotional resonance rather than visceral images.
Some might look at the word “Bloodshot” as a kind of bait-and-switch, fooling readers who were expecting a gruesome anthology like “Creepshow.” However, the stories, when read individually, are entertaining and thought-provoking. “Another Cop Tale,” which features a familiar story of a world-weary beat cop taking a well-meaning rookie under his wing, demonstrates Jones’s keen eye for the more subtle and human elements in storytelling. Such nuance could have been risky for Jones, who must have his characters convey emotions without necessarily having the benefit of lines of description to explain those emotions to his readers.
That’s where the illustrators come in. While all the stories are in black and white, each illustrator contributes to their respective story with their unique artistic style, from AJ Smith’s and Elena Cerisciola’s charmingly animated style in “Tribute” to Grego Pulp’s visceral “Creepshow”-inspired aesthetic of “As You Are Now.” Each individual illustrator also uses their artistic strength to tell the story Jones wants to tell; a clear example of this is “The Source of My Troubles,” a story written along with Paul D. London and illustrated by Marco Bovi. Taking place in a gigantic landfill, Bovi’s illustrations show both the nuances in characters’ faces and the chaotic mess that surrounds them (and is perhaps a metaphor for the characters’ chaotic soul).
Forays into literary criticism notwithstanding, the entire book seems like a teaching tool for any adult graphic novel writer/illustrator who might be browsing a particular library’s (or librarian’s) graphic novel section. These stories, while solid, are also excellent demonstrations as to how comic stories are created from conception to illustration and how both writer and illustrator bring their individual visions together to create a story told in the visual medium.
Bloodshot World
By Jeff P. Jones
Art by Marco Bovi
Markosia, 2024
ISBN: 9781916968981
Company Age Rating: Teen Plus
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
