Rating: 
Summary: Crime does not pay
Review: "Torso" is a great comic. Not being a huge fan of crime-fiction myself, I gave it a try based on Bendis's excellent work on the comic series "Powers." Also, I liked the idea of a real-life "super-hero" in Eliot Ness pitched against a real-life "super-villain" in the form of the Torso serial killer. Like Alan Moore's "From Hell," Bendis took a real, unresolved case and weaved a drama around facts. His story-telling is realistic and gritty, and does not contain Moore's flights of fancy. I would have liked to have seen an appendix, separating the drama from the known facts, and why Bendis choose his particular culprit. The art is not a strong initial attractor, but after reading a few pages it starts to flow. The mix of photos and drawings is effective. This is really strong stuff, and I recommend it to comic fans and crime-fiction fans alike.
Rating:
Summary: Crime does not pay
Review: "Torso" is a great comic. Not being a huge fan of crime-fiction myself, I gave it a try based on Bendis's excellent work on the comic series "Powers." Also, I liked the idea of a real-life "super-hero" in Eliot Ness pitched against a real-life "super-villain" in the form of the Torso serial killer. Like Alan Moore's "From Hell," Bendis took a real, unresolved case and weaved a drama around facts. His story-telling is realistic and gritty, and does not contain Moore's flights of fancy. I would have liked to have seen an appendix, separating the drama from the known facts, and why Bendis choose his particular culprit. The art is not a strong initial attractor, but after reading a few pages it starts to flow. The mix of photos and drawings is effective. This is really strong stuff, and I recommend it to comic fans and crime-fiction fans alike.
Rating:
Summary: Crime does not pay
Review: "Torso" is a great comic. Not being a huge fan of crime-fiction myself, I gave it a try based on Bendis's excellent work on the comic series "Powers." Also, I liked the idea of a real-life "super-hero" in Eliot Ness pitched against a real-life "super-villain" in the form of the Torso serial killer. Like Alan Moore's "From Hell," Bendis took a real, unresolved case and weaved a drama around facts. His story-telling is realistic and gritty, and does not contain Moore's flights of fancy. I would have liked to have seen an appendix, separating the drama from the known facts, and why Bendis choose his particular culprit. The art is not a strong initial attractor, but after reading a few pages it starts to flow. The mix of photos and drawings is effective. This is really strong stuff, and I recommend it to comic fans and crime-fiction fans alike.
Rating:
Summary: Raises the bar for graphic novels.
Review: Although this book is relatively thick, I finished it in two hours. Why? Because it is the kind of book where it grips you, with it's great dialogue, its interesting frames, and the great mystery unfolding. I was quite impressed. I originally picked it up off the shelf because of it's interesting cover, but from reading the back I made up my mind and had to take this one home. It won't last you very long, because even someone who doesn't read graphic novels will be hooked on this.
Rating:
Summary: Raises the bar for graphic novels.
Review: Although this book is relatively thick, I finished it in two hours. Why? Because it is the kind of book where it grips you, with it's great dialogue, its interesting frames, and the great mystery unfolding. I was quite impressed. I originally picked it up off the shelf because of it's interesting cover, but from reading the back I made up my mind and had to take this one home. It won't last you very long, because even someone who doesn't read graphic novels will be hooked on this.
Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly deep and detailed.
Review: Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko, Torso (Image Entertainment, 1997) Sometimes it seems like every city wants to claim a serial killer. Look at the number of municipalities who seem almost proud that Jeffrey Dahmer spent a portion of his upbringing in them; Akron, Ohio, just down the road from me, is one of them. A little closer to home and a little farther away in time, though, Cleveland was the home (and may still be...) of one of the most notorious serial killers active in the first half of the twentieth century: the Torso killer. Bendis and Andreyko brought the Torso Killer, and Elliott Ness' hunt for him, to stark, ugly life in the series of comic books that has since been collected in this graphic novel. All those faults I found in Doran's A Distant Soil are absent here; Bendis and Andreyko know exactly what they're doing with keeping the reader up to speed with what's going on with each character, know exactly how much they can fit into any given page without overwhelming the reader's sensibilities, and did meticulous research on the case (living in Cleveland, it's kind of hard to get away from the details; the Torso Killer is one of our local public television station's favorite subjects). Only a piece of the ending has been shifted from the way the actual case went, presumably for dramatic effect. But the book does not just stop at the Torso Killer, delving into the private lives of some of the folks who worked on the case, as well. The result is a cast of well-drawn characters, a good (and faithful, for the most part, to the truth) story, intriguing artwork, a fine script, and a bang-up mystery. How can you possibly go wrong? *** ½
Rating: 
Summary: i wish they would have followed through
Review: despite being very well paced, stylishly presented and interestingly plotted, "torso" suffers from a disapointing conclusion. the book should have been about 1/3 longer to fully develope the characters and themes presented, especially simon's revelation near the end. ness's relationship with his wife didnt come into play as much, nor was it as important as it was meant to be. i really wanted all the the personal attributes of the charaters to be more definately linked to the story and to be more fully developed. i would have been fine with it being simply a "cops and robbers" story, since up to a point, it works fantastically in that regard. but the climax is over before i had time really get excited, souring the story's thriller aspect. i really liked the drawing style combined with the old photos. they both helped to give the story a surreal feel, which complimented the over-the-top nature of the plot itself. but at the end it almost felt as though the authors got sick of writing it making for a very disapointing outcome. **1/2
Rating:
Summary: i wish they would have followed through
Review: despite being very well paced, stylishly presented and interestingly plotted, "torso" suffers from a disapointing conclusion. the book should have been about 1/3 longer to fully develope the characters and themes presented, especially simon's revelation near the end. ness's relationship with his wife didnt come into play as much, nor was it as important as it was meant to be. i really wanted all the the personal attributes of the charaters to be more definately linked to the story and to be more fully developed. i would have been fine with it being simply a "cops and robbers" story, since up to a point, it works fantastically in that regard. but the climax is over before i had time really get excited, souring the story's thriller aspect. i really liked the drawing style combined with the old photos. they both helped to give the story a surreal feel, which complimented the over-the-top nature of the plot itself. but at the end it almost felt as though the authors got sick of writing it making for a very disapointing outcome. **1/2
Rating:
Summary: NOT a childrens book!
Review: I'm paying more and more attention to BMB lately, and I like what I see. This was initially due to the release of the Powers trade collection, and now we get Torso, one of Bendis' earlier works, and just as good. This is a great dramatized account of a real event. Elliot Ness, fresh off of the Al Capone/Untouchables episode, has relocated to Cleveland, Ohio and becomes involved in the first serial killer case in the US. Bendis uses some great narrative and visual effects in this story, including skewed page layouts and story panels that shuffle hither and yon. Large panels and fadeouts between chapters give it a very cinematic feel. The black and white artwork is very simple and straightforward, incorporating photographs for scenery at times. Bendis also has a knack for writing extremely realistic dialogue. In fact, I can say that the dialogue is realistic almost to a fault. Put it this way: have you ever read a court transcript, with all the "ers", "ahs", and repeated words, and wondered "geez, do people actually talk like that? How does anything get said?" Sure enough, that's what Bendis uses here, and while it does give the story a more realistic feel, it can get a bit tedious at times. Don't get me wrong, though: the story flows very well, getting 2 thumbs up for pacing. The ending may or may not be a letdown, depending on how much you expect from this, but overall, it's an enjoyable read. One thing that could have helped this book out, purely from the historical perspective, is more info on the case in the appendix. I'd like to have a better handle on who's who and what's what. But as it is, you get some brief writeups and crime photos, pretty interesting in their own right.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad, not bad at all
Review: I'm paying more and more attention to BMB lately, and I like what I see. This was initially due to the release of the Powers trade collection, and now we get Torso, one of Bendis' earlier works, and just as good. This is a great dramatized account of a real event. Elliot Ness, fresh off of the Al Capone/Untouchables episode, has relocated to Cleveland, Ohio and becomes involved in the first serial killer case in the US. Bendis uses some great narrative and visual effects in this story, including skewed page layouts and story panels that shuffle hither and yon. Large panels and fadeouts between chapters give it a very cinematic feel. The black and white artwork is very simple and straightforward, incorporating photographs for scenery at times. Bendis also has a knack for writing extremely realistic dialogue. In fact, I can say that the dialogue is realistic almost to a fault. Put it this way: have you ever read a court transcript, with all the "ers", "ahs", and repeated words, and wondered "geez, do people actually talk like that? How does anything get said?" Sure enough, that's what Bendis uses here, and while it does give the story a more realistic feel, it can get a bit tedious at times. Don't get me wrong, though: the story flows very well, getting 2 thumbs up for pacing. The ending may or may not be a letdown, depending on how much you expect from this, but overall, it's an enjoyable read. One thing that could have helped this book out, purely from the historical perspective, is more info on the case in the appendix. I'd like to have a better handle on who's who and what's what. But as it is, you get some brief writeups and crime photos, pretty interesting in their own right.
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