Synopsis: Set against the quiet and unassuming city of Huntsville, Texas, Jack "Meadowlark" Johnson, and his teenage son, Cooper embark on a journey of epic proportions. Told over the course a single day, this electrifying graphic novel recounts Cooper's struggle to survive the consequences of his father's mistakes and the dangers they have brought home to his estranged family. As Cooper and his father desperately navigate cascading threats of violence, they must also grapple with their own combative, dysfunctional, but loving relationship.

Review: We finally got around to watching The Lowdown on Hulu starring Ethan Hawke. The shaggy detective cousin to Terriers, The Lowdown is very much my shit. It reminded me that Ethan Hawke, the star of The Lowdown, co-wrote a crime graphic novel a couple years ago called Meadowlark.

The synopsis as quoted above is about as broad strokes as you can get. I think it would be helpful to talk about the story in more detail. So I’ll cover the first act or so which sets the stage for the rest of the book nicely.

Cooper is a knucklehead who does stuff like take the tires off of his step dad’s car to frustrate the piss out of the guy. A little bit of acting out mixed with attention seeking behavior. Harmless stuff really. But also with some humor mixed in since he knows his step dad isn’t the brightest guy he hides the tires in the one place he knows he won’t look, the trunk of the car. Cooper idolizes his dad, who gets called over by mom to deal with this nonsense. Because of all of the shenanigans of the day and Cooper being expelled from school, he gets to tag along with Dad for the day at work, as a corrections officer. On this day of all days the inmates implement a coordinated and planned riot that provides cover for three prisoners to escape in the chaos. All hell breaks loose.

Meadowlark has a clean set-up and high stakes confrontations that feel dangerous. The story is always rooted in the relationship between Cooper and his father. Right there on the cover it says “A Coming of Age Crime Story” and that’s exactly what happens. Cooper is going to confront some hard truths that will affect him for the rest of his days. Maybe things he thought were great aren’t so much and other things that he thought were terrible weren’t so bad.

Cooper didn’t know this day would be a crucible when he woke up. In classic noir fashion (though this isn’t strictly a noir) he actually played a part in the demise of his childhood. The prank that starts the story kicks him out of the routines of his normal life and sets him on an alternate path that he wouldn’t normally have been on. He’ll end the day a very different person.

Ethan Hawke’s likeness shows up occasionally in panels as Cooper’s dad but this never becomes about Hawke. Sure it’s easy to see him in the role as Cooper’s dad in a filmed adaptation, especially after seeing him play Elora’s dad in Reservation Dogs. It would be easy to imagine a project like this as an illustrated unproduced screenplay or a series of story boards hoping to be filmed, something like that. But this isn’t some vanity project. It’s proud to be a graphic novel. It’s tenderly written and there are some great panels where the art takes a very cinematic approach or is rooted in a specific POV or shot angle.

This is good crime fiction. Sweet and sentimental when it needs to be and swift and violent when it wants to be.

Pair with: Up top I mentioned The Lowdown. There are moments in Meadowlark that gesture towards moments in The Lowdown. Another character in The Lowdown is played by Kyle MacLachlan. In Against the Wall (1994), MacLachlan plays a young prison guard at Attica in 1971. You see where this is going yet? Yep, that’s right the Attica Prison riot. So definitely check out The Lowdown and Against the Wall plus Ethan Hawke’s episode of Reservation Dogs. The scene where He and Elora are walking down the street to the bus stop is some of the finest acting in a series.

Rating: positive/highly recommended

Availability: I grabbed this in print from the library. It’s also available through Amazon and for the Kindle