So far, Drawing Blood hasn’t pulled any punches when it comes to showing how the life of its protagonist, Shane “Books” Bookman, has descended into utter madness. There’s the threat of the Lithuanian mob, the ever-lingering presence of his hit creation Radically Rearranged Ronin Ragdolls, and the tragic death of his mentor Frank Forrest. Did I mention this all happened in the first two issues?
Drawing Blood #3 begins at Forrest’s funeral, where Books attempts to pay his respects…but it’s hampered by the fact that Forrest’s wife blames him for what happened. On top of that there’s a legion of Ronin fans outside the funeral, and the aforementioned Lithuanian gangsters attempting to collect on the $2 million Frank owned them. In short: it’s not a good time for Books.
All the story threads start to converge in Drawing Blood #3, but the picture they paint isn’t pretty. Forrest died by his own hand – quite literally, as it turns out he chopped off the hand he used to draw with. Books is struggling with guilt over the fact that he reached out to Forrest to help him run his indie comics studio, and that might have contributed to Forrest’s suicide. I think the eulogy the priest delivers at Forrest’s funeral sums it up best: it talks about a man who was beloved by the comic book industry, but it’s pretty clear that love turned sour a long time ago. The fact that Books is struggling with his own success is rather foreboding, especially with how this series opened up.
As if to further reflect Books’ conflicting feelings, Ben Bishop delivers a series of hallucinations that reflect his guilt. Of course the Ragdolls make a reappearance – this time via a group of cosplayers – but in a fitting twist, Books has a drunken conversation with a statue of the Virgin Mary. The real kicker is a nightmare where he witnesses Forrest grinding away at a series of clocks, before being pushed into their gears which swallow him whole. This entire sequence, rendered in a icy gray-blue haze by Brittney Peer, stuck with me long after I closed the book. Bishop’s that good.
Drawing Blood #3 is a sobering reminder of how suffering for your art shouldn’t be a badge of honor. One phrase repeated throughout the issue is “Hollywood, man – it’ll break your heart”. It’s an echo of Jack Kirby intoning that “comics will break your heart”, and the King didn’t miss.
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