Comic Review: Redneck #17

Redneck #17

Image Comics

Writer: Donny Cates

Artist: Lisandro Estherren

There’s a vampire wedding and you’re invited. After two big, bloody story arcs, Redneck has been taking things a little more slowly. The Bowman family are hiding out with a different clan in Texas, and things have been going well. The previous issue ended with a jump in time, ten years in the future, with Bartlett on one knee proposing.

Redneck #17 shows the wedding between Bartlett and his old girlfriend/current vampire, July. The whole Bartlett family is there, and we see their “binding ceremony”, a wedding for vampires. The two exchange vows and commit to each other while standing in direct sunlight.

Oh boy, what a good issue. Despite his many writing duties, Donny Cates really hasn’t dropped in quality on any of them. This is, pretty much, a straightforward wedding issue. There have been two high profile comic book weddings this year, but this one doesn’t have any of that extra drama happening. The ten year time skip builds off of things that were already introduced previously in this current story arc, so when they pop up it doesn’t happen out of nowhere. The character progressions feel natural. On top of that, we get a little more lore added to the vampires in this world, with how they do their weddings/binding ceremonies.

I think the art is at its best in Redneck when there’s violence and/or blood. This being a wedding issue, nothing like that happens. But I still do like the art. Lisandro Estherren and Dee Cunniffe both make this book look good. I especially like the color in this issue. With the characters being technically dead, they are all on the pale side. The exception being July, who’s pregnant, and really stands out compared to the crowd in the church. I only have one minor complaint about the art in this issue. While Bartlett and July are standing in the sun and burning, the burning is just some red dots. There’s smoke behind them, but there’s just floating red dots to represent them physically burning. It’s not anything that ruins the book, it just took me a minute to realize what it was.

With the end of this story arc in sight, there is trouble on the horizon. But after two high profile comic book wedding this year, it’s nice to see one actually happen and have a happy ending to it. It’s nice to see the Bowman family have something nice happen for once. The story is good, and the time skip doesn’t hurt or drastically change the characters at all. The art is great and adds to the softer tone of this issue. If you’re a fan of Redneck, you’ll definitely enjoy this issue.