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Troubled Souls (Graphic Novel) == == Troubled Souls is a graphic novel written by popular comic book author Garth Ennis written in 1989. This was Ennis’s first ever Graphic Novel.

Publication History
Troubled Souls was published by a publication group called Fleetway, but the graphic novel series was published into Fleetway’s comic magazine Crisis. The company only published issues 15-20 and 22-27 into the Crisis magazine. The issues only lasted from April 4th, 1989 until September 16th, 1989. The Graphic Novel was officially published fully by Fleetway in 1990.

Plot
The story is set in late 80s Northern Ireland during the real life Irish Troubles. The story follows a young man named Tom Boyd. Tom encounters a man named Damien at a diner. Damien (who works for the IRA) tells Tom to plant a bomb for the IRA or not only Tom will die, the people Tom loves will also die. Tom out of fear and not wanting to be labeled a coward, goes to plant this bomb. Tom is very traumatized after doing what he has done. Tom feels if he had not done what he did he would have lost everything, but even after Tom does the IRA’s deed he still ends up leaving everyone he loves and cares about to basically regather himself. After he decides all of this Damien is given the task to kill Tom to cover up their tracks, and when he gets one on one with Tom he decides he cannot do it and ends up going into hiding with Tom. The two end up becoming friends and seem to connect really well until Tom realizes he wants his old life back and runs from Damien. This ultimately leads Damien to being shot to death by soldiers in the street. This leads to Tom leaving everything behind again and leaving Belfast for good. The story has a very dark ending.

About the Author
Garth Ennis has always written dark and emotionally draining comic book work throughout his very long and detailed career. Ennis is very much known for his comic book series The Boys, which was adapted into a show by Amazon Prime Video, and his other works with Marvel, with The Punisher: Max being his most famous Marvel work. Ennis is also Irish and was born in Ireland.

Background
The story really the very dark nature of the Troubles of which Northern Ireland went through for almost thirty years. It also highlights a very historically popular and violent Irish faction called the IRA. One of the supporting characters for this novel is a part of the IRA and is stated to be there out of the love of his dead brother. This story, as dark as it may be, really highlights some very strong emotions such as love and pain, but also some sense of pride. A common theme in Ennis’s comics may be violence but these three emotions are very prevalent with other comic book characters of Ennis. The story also has a very unique art style done by artist John McCrea.