Anything has the potential for being turned into compelling comics. Here’s another example: “Lucifer’s Sword MC: Life and Death in an Outlaw Motorcycle Club,” published by Motor Books. This graphic novel is a fictionalized account of the sort of action that Phil Cross has witnessed as a member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club since 1969. I love the gritty straight-forward approach to this book. You’re placed right into the action. The new guy is either going to sink or swim. It’s a tough club to join but the members are sort of rooting for him. They’re not so bad after all. It’s what can happen when you’re in the club that can get messy.
Written by Phil Cross, with Darwin Holmstrom, and illustrated by Ronn Sutton, this is some good honest storytelling. Frenchy is a young man set for adventure. He loves motorcycles. He has some problems with authority. And he needs some direction. He stumbles upon a pool game with members of Lucifer’s Sword Motorcycle Club. After a brief misunderstanding, they vote on it and decide to make Frenchy a prospect, complete with his own jacket labeled, “Prospect,” just as a reminder. Little does he realize right then that he’s starting at the bottom rung as the club’s janitor. And that’s the least of his worries as he quickly must prove himself against a rival club and much more.
You are invited to join a motorcycle club, byway of this book, and you can see for yourself. The story moves fast but it’s also careful to bring you in with various details. You get a sense of how this social group behaves. Left to themselves, they’re just fine. But, push comes to shove, they’re ready to defend themselves. Frenchy learns that the hard way but he’s a quick learner.
“Lucifer’s Sword MC: Life and Death in an Outlaw Motorcycle Club” is published by Motor Books and you can find them right here. And you can also find the book at Amazon right here.
