This week's Tradio is the moody and very dark The Roberts, written by Justin Shady/Wayne Chinsang and illustrated by Eric Rose and published by Image Comics.
The Roberts collects the two issue mini series that tells the story of old people in an old folks home. I will dispense with making jokes about that in and of itself since the last time I did, I got in trouble at work. The interesting part of that is that two of these senior citizens are serial killers. Well, they are retired from that "job" but they both have the distinction of being very famous for what they did and also for not getting caught. What would happen if The Boston Strangler and The Zodiac Killer ended up together at the Shady Acres Retirement Home? Would they be best of friends? Bitter rivals? Would they even be able to tell what each other are? The story, told through photo-referenced, black-and-white art tells this tale in a way that makes you see the world through the point of view of each man as they slowly wind down in the winter of their lives. Suspenseful and often tragic, it lets you see how these two men named Robert go about their lives when they suspect that someone else very much like them is in their midst.
Overall, I really like the story. Long on dialogue, but given the length of the overall material, it doesn't out-stay it's welcome. The art suits the tone of the story though you can tell at times just how photo-referenced it is. Additionally, in this volume it includes a lot of extra material that shows what they writer and art used as inspiration and research and even reprints some very disturbing letters from other serial killers that the writer contacted. Lots of good here that you can't go wrong with.
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