Write It in Blood

Old disputes come unburied at an inopportune time for two hard-luck gunmen in this fast-paced and high-body-count country noir. McConville (Big Jim) opens things in a corpse- and bullet-casing-strewn house in rural Texas, where the criminal Pryce brothers, having just gunned down several rivals, are arguing over whether their boss, the Baron, might give them a gold watch upon their retirement. Arthur’s cynical, while the childish Cosmo mutters, “It’d be a nice gesture.” Their fractious-yet-loving dynamic sustains through the tangle of violent double- and triple-crosses that follow as the lava-tempered Baron discovers Arthur has been sleeping with his wife and a rival gang comes after the brothers for holding one of its members hostage. Cosmo’s convinced he can patch things up with the Baron, while Arthur fantasizes about escaping to Mexico. McConville’s scripting is pitched between hyperbolic and laconic as the gangsters jaw and scheme over coffee between blowout gun battles. Though in the end, it races a bit too quickly to the finish line. Art by Palmer (the Judge Dredd series) offers big-sky epic, with wide-open frames, harshly canted faces, and washed-out primary tones. This sibling saga is one seriously brash and bloody piece of work. (Mar.)