At Paste magazine, writer Van Jensen (“The Flash,” “Green Lantern Corps”) and artist Nate Powell (“March”) have announced a new graphic novel, titled “Two Dead.” The story of an escalating conflict between the police and the mafia set in the South after World War II, told from multiple perspectives, “Two Dead” will be published by Gallery 13 this November. Here’s the synopsis of the book:
After World War II, tensions rise in a Southern city ruled by organized crime, touching countless residents as they struggle to make sense of the new world. A sudden act of violence sets off a series of bloody events between the police and mafia as they lash out against one another. As the violence worsens, desperation grows to stop it, by any means necessary.'Two Dead'Told in multiple perspectives—from a seemingly untouchable mafia don, to a gun-happy seasoned detective succumbing to the depths of his schizophrenia, to a newly minted police lieutenant haunted by his recent service in the war, and two African-American brothers, one mired in corruption and the other leading a local militia in an effort to see that justice is served—Two Dead is at once a white-knuckled and unputdownable thriller, a roman à clef inspired by true events, and a book about post-traumatic stress disorder and the underlying social traumas of how war and segregation affect their survivors on all fronts.
In joint statements at Paste, Powell and Jensen revealed they have been working on the book for years: Jensen said it had its genesis when he moved to Arkansas in 2005 to become the crime reporter at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and began looking into the Little Rock Police Department’s records from 1940s. “I dug into departmental records, archived newspapers, obsessed with the history,” he explains. “This history included organized crime, systemic racism, mental illness and unhinged policing. I first attempted to write this as a comic book a decade ago, and then began collaborating with Nate a few years after that. In the years since, the book has only felt more necessary and urgent. It’s a story that digs into cycles of violence, the lasting damages of racism and the incredible pain caused by bad police.” Powell, who hails from Arkansas, said “I’m always eager to bring my home state to life through comics, and each book doubles as a love letter to Arkansas in all its contradictory beauty.”
For more from Powell and Jensen as well as a first look at the interior artwork, head on over to Paste. “Two Dead” will be released on November 19, 2019.
