Torso by Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko
Requirements: CBR Reader, 136.4 MB.
Overview: Cleveland: 1935. Eliot Ness, fresh from his legendary Chicago triumph over Al Capone and associates, set his sights on Cleveland and went on a crusade that matched, and sometimes even surpassed, his past accomplishments. Dismembered body parts have started washing up in a concentrated area of Lake Erie Sound. Their headless torsos have left no clues to their identity or the reason for death. Elliot Ness and his colorful gang of "The Unknowns" chased this killer through the underbelly of Cleveland for years. As far as the public was concerned he was never captured. But what really happened is even more shocking. This award-winning collection includes a historic photo essay of the actual murders.
- Torso was nominated for an International Horror Guild award for best graphic story and for 3 International Eagle Awards.
Torso was winner of the 1999 Eisner Award for "Comic Book Excellence, Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition".
Genre: Comics, Crime, Serial Killer, True Story, Digital, Mature Reader.
Torso
- Brian Michael Bendis writer
Marc Andreyko artist
Published by Icon Comics.2012.
- Torso is a true crime comic book limited series written by Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko, with art and lettering by Brian Michael Bendis. It is based on the true story of the Cleveland Torso Murderer.
Torso was originally published as a six-issue limited series by Image Comics.
Torso tells the story of the real life "Torso Murderer", a serial killer who was active during 1934 to 1938. He received his nickname because he left only the torsos of his victims. Without fingerprints or dental records, these victims were very difficult to identify in a time before DNA testing. The investigator on the case was Eliot Ness, Cleveland Safety Director and former head of the Untouchables.
On January 12, 2006, Variety reported that director David Fincher would be directing a film version of Torso for Paramount Pictures. The producers are Bill Mechanic, Don Murphy, Todd McFarlane and Terry Fitzgerald. Screenwriter Ehren Kruger is set to adapt the series.
In a September 27, 2009 unedited episode of Fanboy Radio, Bendis confirmed the Torso film which had been greenlit had been canceled and the rights have reverted back to Bendis.
- 1930s Serial Killer Stalks Cleveland. Reviewed by A. Ross on December 15, 2005
- I’m not usually that interested in serial killers, be they real or fictional, but I’ll check out almost any graphic novel, and so I picked this up from the library recently. The book is a fictional recasting of the grisly "Torso Killer" murders that took place in Cleveland roughly between 1935-39. One aspect that makes it a touch more interesting is the involvement of Elliot Ness, fresh from his legendary "Untouchables"-leading, Capone-busting successes in Chicago. After the end of Prohibition, Ness left the G-men and was hired in 1935 by the city of Cleveland as Director of Public Safety. This coincided almost exactly with the emergence of a gruesome serial killer who decapitated and often dismembered his victims, leaving most of the remains in or near Lake Erie Sound. (Note: Contrary to what some reviewers have written, this was hardly the first serial killer in America. The first reliably documented serial killer operated in the 1890s in Chicago and was the subject of a very entertaining recent book, Devil in the White Castle.)
The story documents the initial investigation by a pair of tough-talking police detectives while Ness is busy purging the police department of corrupt cops. However, as the corpses start mounting up, the mayor forces Ness to take charge of the Torso case. The bulk of the book is then a pretty straightforward police procedural, as Ness and the lead detectives pursue various angles. The most notable of these is Ness’ controversial decision to clear out a large shantytown of unemployed people and burn it to the ground in order to deny the killer an easy target population. The investigation is handled pretty well, with good pacing and great dialogue peppered with plenty of period slang. Personal lives are woven in, somewhat less successfully, as Ness’ marriage crumbles and one of the detectives reveals a shocking secret. These subplots feel kind of tacked on and underwritten. The climax falters a little bit as well, as the writers deviate slightly from reality in order to create an action-packed finale which never happened. However, the real suspect (Dr. Francis E. Sweeney) was interrogated by Ness, and was protected by political family, and did more or less elude justice as the book depicts.
The artwork is pretty interesting, incorporating period photographs and documents into the bold black and white artwork. Some of the layouts and paneling are quite creatively done (especially the interrogation sequence), although one section which requires turning the book sideways for several spreads is really awkward and annoying. A section at the end provides additional original photos and documents relating to the case, which are interesting, but need more context. The book really needs a few pages where it is explained what is real and what the writer invented or rearranged (for example, in real life, the postcards taunting Ness weren’t sent until after the killings stopped), and what happened to Ness and the suspect and detectives over the rest of their lives. Since this series came out, a large number of original police files were discovered following the death of one of the lead detectives and several other works have appeared, including two books (In the Wake of the Butcher: Cleveland’s Torso Murders and Torso: Eliot Ness and the Search for a Psychopathic Killer) and a documentary (The Fourteenth Victim – Eliot Ness and the Torso Murder). Overall, well worth checking out.
Download Instructions:
http://festyy.com/wLqx7Z — Torso (2012) (Digital)
- Mirror:
- http://novafile.com/ghfhmr0b69zv — Torso (2012) (Digital)
http://festyy.com/wLqx7V — Torso (2012) (Digital)
