Line #12 ComicBook/SouthernBastards


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/southernbastards_1_opt4.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Welcome home, old man.]]
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6	-->"It ain't worth the blood."
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8	''Southern Bastards'' is an ongoing Creator/ImageComics series by Jason Aaron and Jason Latour chronicling the exploits of Craw County, Alabama following the return of Earl Tubb, former High School Defensive End and son to legendary former Sheriff Bertrand "Big Bert" Tubb. Earl merely wants to pack up the belongings of a family member moving out of town for medical reasons, eat a rack of ribs, check out his former team the Runnin' Rebs play a game of ball, and get the hell out of town. However, he sees how much worse the town has become, a hotbed of drug dealing and violence headed by the Rebs' coach, Euless Boss. Against his better judgment, Earl decides to do something about it. However, things aren't exactly that cut and dried...
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10	Writer Jason Aaron and artist Jason Latour created the series as a tribute to the best and worst things about the South, of which both come from. The series could be described as ''ComicBook/{{Scalped}}'' meets ''Film/WalkingTall1973''. It topped many people's lists as one of the best comic series of 2015.
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12	The series was put on indefinite hiatus after Latour was accused of misconduct and was forced to leave the comic industry.
13	!!''Southern Bastards'' contains examples of:
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15	* ActionGirl: Berta Tubb, being a former Marine that served in Afghanistan.
16	* ADayInTheLimelight: the third arc is a collection of one shots about side characters-- Sheriff, Esaw, and Boone each get an issue devoted to them while Tad and Materhead share the last one.
17	* AbusiveParents: Euless Boss' father.
18	* ArcWords: "It's worth the blood". This is in reference to Euless and how he's determined to not let go of football no matter what it takes, whether it's being regularly beaten up by football players, undergoing a rigorous training program by Big, playing the game with a bad leg, or [[spoiler: murdering his own father in order to guarantee a position as coach. Big, upon finding out about Euless murdering Earl in front of a crowd who did nothing to stop it, is finally forced to admit that he helped in creating a monster. He commits suicide and leaves a message: ''It ain't worth the blood''.]]
19	* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Not many tears were shed when Euless's father was murdered. Certainly not by his son.]]
20	* AxCrazy: Esaw.
21	* BadGuyBar: Boss' BBQ where you can get really good ribs, pecan pie, and crystal meth.
22	* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler: Coach Boss kills Earl at the end of the first arc.]]
23	* BecauseDestinySaysSo: The circumstances behind Earl's decision to take matters into his own hands are almost supernatural-- the tree over his father's grave is struck by lightning as he chops it down and leaves behind a large branch similar to the stick his father carried as Sheriff. [[spoiler: Subverted when Coach Boss kills Earl at the end of the first arc with it.]]
24	* BigBad: Coach Boss runs both the football team and the drug trade with an iron fist.
25	* CareerEndingInjury: [[spoiler:Euless Boss was rising up as a star athlete until his father's shady associates came to collect their debt. When the elder Boss couldn't pay them, they send a warning by shooting Euless's leg which ended his stardom.]]
26	* CrapsackWorld: Craw County is a terrible place to live.
27	* CreateYourOwnVillain: Back when he was a scrawny teen in high school, Euless was regularly picked on and beaten up by the members of the football team. Earl was team captain back in the day and could have called it off, but personally admits that he never gave a damn and let the team do what they wanted, leading to Euless to become the ruthless crook he is today.
28	* CruelMercy: [[spoiler:In the ending, despite having him at rifle-point Berta decides that rather than killing Euless she'll let him crawl away as she dismantles his empire so that he'll end up with nothing]].
29	* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler: Earl, who's killed by Boss in issue 4.]]
30	* {{Deconstruction}}: Of CleanUpTheTown. [[spoiler: Earl attempts a ''Walking Tall'' style uprising against Boss's fiefdom and dies almost immediately.]]
31	* DeepSouth: Obviously.
32	* DirtyCoward: The current Sheriff is completely incapable of going against Coach Boss, be it for drug trafficking or even murder.
33	* TheDon: Euless is the local crime boss who uses his influence as both a football coach and a crime lord to control the town.
34	* TheDragon: Esaw to Boss.
35	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Big shoots himself after Boss kills Earl, having finally seen the monster he's become.]] His last note? [[spoiler: "It ain't worth the blood.]]
36	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Coach Boss regard Big as his true father than [[AbusiveParents the one he had]].
37	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Coach Boss might be a murdering drug dealer but when his underlings suggest he take a rival team's star player out before the game, Boss is utterly repulsed by the idea. [[spoiler: After losing two games to mediocre teams, Boss decides his standards aren't ''that'' high and decides to go through with it, anyway.]]
38	* FilmNoir: A Southern fried flavor of the genre.
39	* FromNobodyToNightmare: Coach Boss started off as a weakling nobody could take seriously as a football star. Through guts and brutality, he makes himself de facto leader of all of Craw County.
40	* GoneHorriblyRight: Big building the young Boss up from a weakling into a strong man. It worked all right...and turned the boy into a monster.
41	* GreenEyedMonster: It's implied that Earl's natural talent as a football player grates on Euless Boss as adults since Euless had to claw and scrape for every little success he had as a football player.
42	* LeftHanging: [[spoiler: The series ends with Berta deciding to let Euless live in shame while various forces are conspiring to finally take him down.]] Due to the author leaving the industry, chances are that the story will never be continued after that.
43	* MagicalNegro: Big to Euless. Eventually subverted when Big realizes he's created a monster.
44	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Said verbatim by Big when he realizes his attempts to help poor Euless have turned the boy into a ruthless monster willing to kill to keep in power in football.
45	* NeverMyFault: Coach Boss is completely incapable of believing his antics [[spoiler: drove Big to kill himself]] and insists beyond his better judgment foul play was involved. The Sheriff is punched for trying to talk sense in him.
46	* SelfMadeOrphan: [[spoiler: Boss got his position by killing his own father.]]
47	* SeriousBusiness: Football is goddamned sacred in these parts. Coach Boss in particular treats games as serious as a general would battles in a war.
48	* StartOfDarkness: The second arc of the series is about Euless Boss' past (mostly in the form of flashbacks interspersed with the repercussions of him [[spoiler: killing Earl]], and how his shitty life and love of football drove him to become the awful man he is in the present.
49	* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: Earl.
50	* TruthInTelevision: There's not a lot that matters to rural, small-town Alabamians more than football. And if you mess with a town's football team, you're Public Enemy Number One.
51	* WhamEpisode: Issue 4. [[spoiler: After all the set-up of Earl as the BigGood of the story, Boss coldly beats him to death in the streets of Craw County while everyone just stares on in horror.]]
52	** Issue 8. [[spoiler: Euless Boss kills his own father, and Big is DrivenToSuicide by Boss's actions.]]
53	* WrongGenreSavvy:
54	** Earl thinks he's the lone guy to stand up to stop the evil of Boss and the rest of the town will side with him.

Context ComicBook / SouthernBastards