Road to Perdition
"Road to Perdition" is a graphic novel created by Max Allan Collins, published by Paradox Press in 1998. Set against the backdrop of the Prohibition era in the Quad Cities region of Iowa and Illinois, the story explores themes of gang vengeance and honor through the lens of Michael O'Sullivan, Jr., who recounts the tumultuous life of his father, a hitman for the local crime boss, John Looney. The narrative begins with young Michael witnessing the violent world his father inhabits, leading to tragic consequences when their family becomes the target of an assassination plot, resulting in the deaths of his mother and younger brother.
As the tale unfolds, Michael O'Sullivan, Sr. embarks on a violent quest for retribution against those responsible, navigating the criminal underworld and confronting figures like Chicago mobster Frank Nitti. Illustrated in stark black and white, the graphic novel employs a realistic art style that enhances its themes, emphasizing the psychological toll of violence on its characters. The story challenges readers to grapple with the complexities of morality, justice, and the nature of retribution, all while portraying its characters as both flawed and deeply human. The graphic novel gained further notoriety following a film adaptation in 2002, which helped solidify its place in the crime genre and inspired additional sequels exploring the characters' journeys.
Road to Perdition
AUTHOR: Collins, Max Allan
ARTIST: Richard Piers Rayner (illustrator); Bob Lappan (letterer)
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1998
Publication History
Road to Perdition by Max Allan Collins was published by the DC Comics imprint Paradox Press in 1998. From its inception in 1993, Paradox Press tried to break out of the traditional superhero format. Road to Perdition fit well in the Paradox Press line, as the company published adult graphic novels in black and white. While prior books from Paradox Press were nominally successful, Road to Perdition was perhaps the most well known and commercially viable, given the boost in sales it received after the release of the film adaptation in 2002. Both the film and the book spurred three smaller “sequels” that told of the interim travels of the characters from Rock Island, Illinois, to Perdition, Kansas. Ironically, the book sequels and the film adaptations of Road to Perdition came after the Paradox Press line was phased out in 2001. The books that were originally published by Paradox Press continued to be published by the DC imprint Vertigo or simply went out of publication.
Plot
Collins used the real history of the Quad Cities of eastern Iowa and western Illinois during the Prohibition era as the basis for his fictional work. The story is one of gang vengeance and honor during the early 1930’s.
The story is told from the viewpoint of a man recollecting his childhood. In the first chapter, entitled “Archangel of Death,” Michael O’Sullivan, Jr., recounts the reality and the myth of his father, Michael O’Sullivan, Sr., “the Archangel of Death.” His father was a triggerman for the Looney gang that controlled the Rock Island, Illinois, area.
Young Michael reveres his father, who seems to lead an exciting secret life that involves carrying a gun. Following a dare from his brother Peter, Michael stows away in a car and later witnesses his father and Connor Looney (the boss’s son) assassinate several rivals. When confronted by Connor about what the boy saw, O’Sullivan swears the child to secrecy. Connor does not like the thought of there being any witnesses to the crime and so eventually plots to kill O’Sullivan and his family. The wife and younger O’Sullivan son are killed when the intended target, Michael, is late coming home from a party. At the same time, O’Sullivan himself is endangered when a club owner who owes money to the Looney family is offered amnesty for killing him. O’Sullivan later discovers a note from Connor exposing the assassination attempt.
The remaining two chapters chronicle the damage O’Sullivan inflicts on those who shelter Connor. The second chapter, “Village of the Dead,” also details the hazards of the trip to Perdition, Kansas, where relatives take in Michael. O’Sullivan tries to bargain with the notorious Chicago Outfit, but mobster Frank Nitti states that, while the O’Sullivan murders were horrible, business must continue. In response, O’Sullivan begins to kill those who oppose his quest for retribution. He goes on a spree, taking money that the Chicago Outfit had deposited in banks around the Midwest as a way of forcing the mob to give up Connor. While his vengeance against those criminals is long and violent, O’Sullivan is tormented, taking no pleasure in such acts and often seeking absolution in Catholic churches.
The final chapter, entitled “Road without End,” tells how the principal characters deal with their isolation and punishment. Connor pays in the form of his own death, which is the result of violence against those he felt had betrayed him. Looney is arrested on his New Mexico property by federal authorities and later imprisoned; he also deals with the knowledge that he has lost both his son and his close confidant. O’Sullivan gains vengeance but dies. Michael is haunted by the knowledge that his father’s profession led directly to the demise of the family, and he is left to ponder what is gained from destruction. In the end, all the characters have to deal with psychological demons and their own personal “perdition.”
Characters
•Michael O’Sullivan, Jr., the narrator, recounts his childhood and the violence perpetuated by his father and him during the 1930’s. He often notes that his story had to be corroborated with questionable histories and that the facts often change from person to person, making any true tale difficult to decipher.
•Michael O’Sullivan, Sr., a.k.a. the Archangel of Death and the Angel, is a World War I veteran, hired gun, and loyal henchman to Rock Island crime boss John Looney. He is adept at killing, though not as a perverse joy but as a necessary act of survival.
•John Looney is the head of an organized crime gang in the Quad Cities area of eastern Iowa and western Illinois. He is a father figure to O’Sullivan and a shrewd businessman with interests in New Mexico and the Quad Cities. He also has ties to Al Capone’s Chicago Outfit.
•Connor Looney, a.k.a. Crazy Connor, is the son of crime boss John Looney. He has grown up amid privilege and violence. His violent temperament exposes both his sociopathic and psychopathic tendencies. He is hotheaded and willing to kill anyone who impedes his lifestyle. His distrust of both O’Sullivans is the catalyst for the primary action of the book.
•Frank Nitti was the real-life assistant to infamous Chicago mobster Al Capone and is a critical player in the story. His willingness to continue business with the Looney family, even while expressing regret for what Connor has done, triggers O’Sullivan’s quest to kill Connor.
Artistic Style
The artwork is central in The Road to Perdition. Illustrator Richard Piers Rayner often tells the story in small panels—no more than four per page, often with minimal writing—and effectively displays the black-and-white imagery. Since the illustrations are done exclusively in black ink, shading is particularly critical to the artwork.
Realism is integral to the novel’s overall artistic style. The inclusion of actual figures and places from the 1930’s—such as mobsters Nitti and Capone, federal agent Eliot Ness, and the Lexington Hotel in Chicago—serves to ground the story in reality. The violence, necessary for the story line, is not necessarily gory in representation, but the characters are drawn realistically and historical figures are drawn according to actual photographs. As the story develops, Rayner depicts the characters in a manner that emphasizes the stress of their lives. For example, O’Sullivan often appears unshaven and slightly disheveled to reflect the chaos around him while Connor’s features convey instability without being unduly caricatured.
Rayner also took great pains to render buildings in an authentic manner. Minor details such as certain styles of cars, the use of specific weapons, and the depictions of the Wrigley and Lexington Hotel buildings in Chicago all give the story added depth. In fact, Rayner’s attention to detail made the progress of Road to Perdition quite lengthy, with a total of four years invested in the story artwork.
Themes
As with the series Lone Wolf and Cub (1970-1976), a major influence on Road to Perdition, the story revolves around a violent or evil person seeking retribution against other violent or evil persons. The story borrows from the film noir style, in which all characters have some sort of repulsive or reprehensible aspect of their nature. As the story progresses, however, readers begin to feel empathy for Michael O’Sullivan, Sr., and understand the motivation behind his acts of aggression. While one cannot condone his violent lifestyle, the reader can empathize with his desire to seek some sort of retribution for the death of loved ones. His experience begs the question of what lengths one would go to for justice. While O’Sullivan is almost heroic in his vengeance and is juxtaposed against others who seem even more vicious and corrupt, the fact remains that O’Sullivan himself is a killer, which makes him, and in turn all the characters, antiheroic. Through O’Sullivan, Collins indicates that no matter how one is portrayed in history, a person’s character and actions can always be viewed from several vantage points.
Impact
The relative success of Road to Perdition, as well as John Wagner’s A History of Violence (1997), helped renew interest in the crime comic book, which had died off as a result of the Comics Code in 1954. The story was also successful enough that Collins wrote three smaller “interlude” books that told the details of the six-month odyssey of the O’Sullivans. Drawn by José Luis Garcia-Lopez, Steve Lieber, and Josef Rubinstein, these three books came out in 2003 and 2004, just after the release of the film adaptation. The minicomics also introduced other aspects of gang life that are not as widely known, such as the reign of gangster Thomas Joseph Pendergast in Kansas City during the 1930’s. In 2011, Vertigo published a sequel entitled Return to Perdition, which follows Michael’s son as he too becomes involved in organized crime.
Films
Road to Perdition. Directed by Sam Mendes. Dreamworks/Twentieth Century Fox/The Zanuck Company, 2002. This live-action film adaptation by screenwriter David Self starred Tom Hanks as Michael Sullivan, Sr., Paul Newman as John Rooney, and Daniel Craig as Connor. Graphic novelist Max Allan Collins later stated that while he regretted not writing the adaptation, the film remained true to the story’s intent. The film differs from the book in several regards, including the principal characters’ surnames. A new character was added: crime-scene photographer Harlen Maguire (Jude Law), who moonlights as a mob assassin and plays a key role in the plot. The film ends with Michael (Tyler Hoechlin) living on a farm, rather than becoming a priest after a life in a Catholic orphanage. The film won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography.
Further Reading
Koike, Kazuo, and Goseki Kojima. Lone Wolf and Cub (2000-2002).
Kubert, Joe. Jew Gangster (2005).
Vance, James, and Dan Burr. Kings in Disguise (2006).
Wagner, John, Vince Locke, and Bob Lappan. A History of Violence (1997).
Bibliography
Arnold, Andrew D. “The Original Road to Perdition.” Review of Road to Perdition, by Max Allan Collins. Time, July 16, 2002. http://www.time.com/time/columnist/arnold/article/0,9565,321312,00.html.
Collins, Max Allan. “Just the Facts Ma’am: Max Collins Talks Road to Perdition.” Interview by Arune Singh. Comic Book Resources, June 16, 2002. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&old=1&id=1240.
Singh, Arune. “Collins’ ‘Road’ to the Future.” Review of Road to Perdition, by Max Allan Collins. Comic Book Resources, August 7, 2002. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=1373.