Donny Cates & Geoff Shaw Balance the Epic and Intimate in God Country
Main Art by Geoff Shaw & Dave Stewart
Writer: Donny Cates
Artist: Geoff Shaw
Colorist: Jason Wordie
Letterer/Designer: John J. Hill
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: January 11, 2017
Plenty of comics deal with religion, including the pop-star cosmology of The Wicked + The Divine, the apocalyptic prophecies of East of West, the blasphemous absurdity of Battle Pope, the pagan slaughter of the “God Butcher/Godbomb” storyline in Thor: God of Thunder and the John Wayne-flavored sacrilege of Preacher. Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s classic series about a wayward holy man imbued with the power of a minor deity had a lot to say about Texas and God, two huge entities that also figure into the new Image series God Country, written by Donny Cates and illustrated by Geoff Shaw with colorist Jason Wordie. Cates and Shaw have crafted a take on religion and family that’s personal and compelling, and the first issue is a strong setup for a series that could become yet another Image standout.
Opening with an ominous quotation from prose author Cormac McCarthy and featuring narration by what sounds like a southern-fried Nostradamus, this debut issue carries the weight of doom from the start. That doom is personal for protagonist Roy Quinlan, whose father, Emmett, is a mean, crazy old man suffering from what seems to be Alzheimer’s—and who knows what else. Roy refuses to put him in a home, despite the pleadings of his wife and the advice of the local sheriff.