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Credence (Graphic Novel)

Credence is a graphic novel written by Michael Easton (Soul Stealer, The Green Woman, Eighteen Straight Whiskeys) and illustrated by artist Steven Perkins. It was published in 2013 by Blackwatch Comics. A sequel, Credence II: Lose This Skin is slated for release in 2020.

Summary

Danny Credence is a self-destructive, morally corrupt, methadone-addicted loner who has failed at marriage and fatherhood. He’s also the most decorated cop in New York City – and the only one depraved enough to hunt down the brutal serial killer who is terrorizing the city. Coming from a family of cops, his identity is wrapped up in and defined by the legacy of his badge – being one of ‘the good guys’ in search of the bad ones. As a morally damaged, disturbed individual himself, Credence struggles to stop himself from sliding into a darkness that both repulses and calls to him from both internal and external forces, even as he pursues a murderer who he understands on a frighteningly intimate level.

“I love what Johnny Cash said about Frankenstein’s Monster,” Easton once told Ain’t it Cool News about Danny Credence. “That here was this monster made up from all these bad parts, but he’s still trying to do good.”

Publication and Reviews

Illustrated by Perkins, the story is told in a stark, almost cinematic style, following Credence into a corrupt underbelly of New York and the rubble-strewn landscape of his own psyche. Released by Blackwatch Comics in 2013, it was notably different from Easton’s previous Soul Stealer trilogy. While both stories held perspective from morally conflicted protagonists, Credence was harsher and more abrasive, with a more bleak perspective of its surrounding world.

“Easton excels at delivering the inner darkness of human depravity while finding subtle ways to pierce the shadow with the sharp light of beauty,” wrote Howell in Ain’t It Cool News. “It’s one more example of Easton pushing the boundaries of the box of public expectations. It delivers the goods like a solid police drama, but with a deeper spiritual resonance of how the bad choices we make drive the direction of our lives.”

LA Weekly praised the novel, saying, “If Raymond Chandler was writing graphic novels today…it would read like Credence.”

About the Author

Michael Easton is the author of the critically acclaimed trilogy Soul Stealer, which was named “Graphic Novel of the Year” by Ain’t It Cool News in 2010. That same year, he began developing Credence for Blackwatch Comics. Easton also co-wrote The Green Woman for DC Comics with celebrated mystery writer Peter Straub. Both Soul Stealer and The Green Woman spent several weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. A third printing of Eighteen Straight Whiskeys – a collection of poetry written in Paris after the death of his mother in 1994 – was released in September 2019.

About the Illustrator

Steven Perkins has been a professional artist and writer since 2001. In that time, he’s worked on projects such as Silent Hill, Max Payne, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Se7en, and Credence, as well as his original graphic novel PACIFY. He currently lives in Los Angeles.

References:

The Credence File (PDF)

Michael Easton (official site)

Steven Perkins (official site)

Soul Stealer – Wikipedia

Credence Review – Ain’t It Cool News