Staff Picks (Jul13): Sons Of Anarchy #1

Publisher: BOOM! Studios

Where do I begin? Oh yes….heart palpitations. When I heard BOOM! was going to be moving forward with a Sons of Anarchy comic, I had heart palpitations.

The date was September 3, 2008 and I was channel surfing one night when I came across a commercial for an upcoming series premiere for a show about a motorcycle club. Well, color me interested. I grew up in a Harley-riding family, which originated my interest in the show, and my interest continued when I met the main character in the first few minutes of the episode -- Jackson “Jax” Teller as played by Charlie Hunnam. Any warm blooded female who has ever seen the show knows what piques my interest about the character of Jax Teller.

Super attractive main character aside, I have been obsessed with this show for years, ever since the very first episode, partly because the majority of the cast is easy on the eyes, but mainly because Kurt Sutter does an amazing job of developing those characters and plotlines. Throughout the last five seasons of the show, I’ve laughed, cried, screamed, gasped, and felt every emotion under the sun because the writing makes you feel all those emotions… sometimes in the same episode. You become so invested in these characters to the point where I have yet to recover emotionally from a few of the major deaths on the show, and I know die-hard fans of the show share my emotions. Kurt Sutter does not shy away from the gruesome or any type of shock value and I believe that’s part of why I keep coming back for more week after week, season after season. I told myself “If Opie (my second favorite character on the show) dies, I’m done watching the show,” and when Opie died I kept watching. The show is that good.

Tonight I’m going to sit down in my living room surrounded by three Sons of Anarchy posters hanging on my walls, and I’m going to begin to re-live season 5 on my DVR in preparation for season 6 premiering this fall. In the meantime, I know I will have a Sons of Anarchy comic to look forward to in coming months as well. I have high hopes for this comic. Kurt Sutter has set the bar high for what is SAMCRO.

~ Heather Weigand