Scars

by Warren Ellis, Jacen Burrows

How much of a monster do you have to become to hunt monsters? Detective John Cain is a hard man. He's been working homicides long enough that he can withstand almost anything, even wrenching personal loss. But everyone has a limit, as he discovers when assigned to the investigation of a child killing. It's not enough to be a good cop, to follow the procedure and ensure that scum go to prison. To honor the chilling promise he gave to the dead child's parents -- to find the killer using any means necessary -- Cain will have to cross lines and do whatever it takes to bring bloody justice to the killer.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Crime, Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Graphic Novels Comics

160 pages, Paperback

First published February 17, 2004

About the author

Warren Ellis is the award-winning writer of graphic novels like TRANSMETROPOLITAN, FELL, MINISTRY OF SPACE and PLANETARY, and the author of the NYT-bestselling GUN MACHINE and the “underground classic” novel CROOKED LITTLE VEIN, as well as the digital short-story single DEAD PIG COLLECTOR. His newest book is the novella NORMAL, from FSG Originals, listed as one of Amazon’s Best 100 Books Of 2016.

The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He is currently developing his graphic novel sequence with Jason Howard, TREES, for television, in concert with HardySonBaker and NBCU, and continues to work as a screenwriter and producer in film and television, represented by Angela Cheng Caplan and Cheng Caplan Company. He is the creator, writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, recently renewed for its third season, and of the recently-announced Netflix series HEAVEN’S FOREST.

He’s written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters, and given keynote speeches and lectures at events like dConstruct, ThingsCon, Improving Reality, SxSW, How The Light Gets In, Haunted Machines and Cognitive Cities.

Warren Ellis has recently developed and curated the revival of the Wildstorm creative library for DC Entertainment with the series THE WILD STORM, and is currently working on the serialising of new graphic novel works TREES: THREE FATES and INJECTION at Image Comics, and the serialised graphic novel THE BATMAN’S GRAVE for DC Comics, while working as a Consulting Producer on another television series.

A documentary about his work, CAPTURED GHOSTS, was released in 2012.

Recognitions include the NUIG Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal for service to freedom of speech, the EAGLE AWARDS Roll Of Honour for lifetime achievement in the field of comics & graphic novels, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2010, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative. He is a Patron of Humanists UK. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.

Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warren Ellis takes a look at what happens to a 'good' police office who has had just has too much - too much sorrow, too much death, too much pain, when he is faced with a gruesome child murder case. A very interesting, yet simple look at the very complicated issue of the potential impact of the trauma experienced by criminal investigators. Artwork by the exceptional Jacen Burrows. 8 out of 12.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A broken cop chases a child killer.
While maybe not technically horror, this came in my Halloween gift basket, and it was definitely the story of every parent's worst nightmare. A child who dies is heartbreaking. A child who is raped and tortured before being killed is horrifying.
If there are levels of Hell, the dark things that commit those kinds of crimes would live there.



One of the themes in the book is the passing along of predators. Especially child predators. You see it happen in churches and schools, hell, you even see families turn a blind eye when trying to decide what to do with someone who has acted inappropriately with a child.
I've witnessed it myself on multiple occasions in multiple settings. It's almost as if it's so horrible that no one wants to get involved until it's too late.
Then everyone seems to have known something was off about the person.



Matt Fraction wrote in the foreword that this story would only end with monsters. And while it did not have what anyone would consider a happy ending, I wasn't disappointed.
I think it's worthwhile to read the introductions to each issue, as you do get a peek into the thought process behind this graphic novel.

Recommended for fans of the Punisher.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scars is an experimental comic in that Warren Ellis set out to write a horror story that would shock even him and the end result is, yeah, genuinely disturbing! Scars centres around John Cain, a Homicide Detective already near the end of his tether, as he investigates the case of a dead little girl who’d been kidnapped, tortured for three months and then cut up and delivered in some cardboard boxes. The further Cain looks for the child’s killer, the further he moves from his own humanity. This can only end badly.

I couldn’t put Scars down once I started reading. It was late at night, I meant to read only a chapter or two, I knew I had to sleep, but I couldn’t put it down - I had to know what happens next, bleary tomorrow be damned!

The horror aspect works so well because Ellis makes his monsters everyday humans, knowing that human beings are the most terrifying creatures on the planet. Our propensity for darkness is limitless - just look at our bloody history. Believe me when I say that this is a sincerely grim read - everything about Scars is intentionally messed-up, unpleasant and supremely dark, both psychologically and viscerally. This one’s not for the faint of heart and maybe even a complete no-no for some readers who are parents - don’t say I didn’t warn you!

The tension builds throughout as we see Cain become more affected by the case, more reckless, more consumed in finding justice for the little girl, all of which made this an absolutely riveting read. Crime thrillers are hit and miss for me but Scars is most definitely a hit.

Jacen Burrows’ art takes the horror to the next level. The stark lines of his pages make the visuals all the more powerful when you turn the page and see stuff like… that… staring back at you. There’s also a lot of wide shots filled with empty space as if underlining the cold emptiness of this world while the colourlessness adds to the morbidity of the story. He’s the perfect collaborator for Ellis on this, his art is really top-notch.

The only flaw is how much Scars reminded me of the David Fincher movie Se7en. The girl’s head in the box, the two cop main characters, one old, one young, the ordinariness of the villain, talking about bringing kids into this fucked up world, the overwhelmingly gloomy atmosphere, the evilness of the crimes and, most of all, how the heartbreaking cases warp some cops beyond all hope. All of it is fascinating stuff but the similarities made it seem a tad derivative.

Scars is very dark reading but completely gripping. I highly recommend it but only to adult readers and only to those who don’t mind their stories served with a hefty dollop of nihilism with a side order of despair!

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow this was dark. I compare every dark and violent comic I read to Crossed now, since that's the most violent comic I've ever seen. However, Crossed was basically a zombie tale, and as such it's easier to discount the gore. This story felt firmly set in the real world, and while not nearly as gory, it was much more unsettling. The themes of this book are dark and not at all entertaining in the sense it deals with child murder. The opening of the book is ridiculously dark. Honestly, it feels strange giving this book five stars since I just read and I don't have that "I just finished a great book" feeling. If anything, I feel a little depressed. But since the best books cause you to feel, whether good or bad, this one definitely met the criteria. This also shows the versatility of graphic novels, as they really can be used to tell stories much deeper than the average superhero fare.

If you like crime drama and don't mind a really dark story, this is for you. One of the most visceral and gripping graphic novels I've ever read.

[Zedsdead · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detective with a dark past and anger issues (you can tell he has issues because he spends a lot of time punching people) tracks a horrific child murderer.

This is Warren Ellis doing his damnedest to be utterly disturbing. He succeeds.

Scars got off to a good start. Detectives arriving at a graphic, gruesome crime scene let the reader know what they're in for. There are hints that something happened to the hero and that he hasn't recovered yet from something. The gorgeous grayscale art looks grim and washed out, echoing our protagonist's empty, colorless existence. At the beginning of each issue is a somber two-page intro in which Ellis discusses the nature of horror, recounts depressing real-life events, and details how those events led to Scars .

Then it shifts from police procedural to vendetta story, rushing through the final act and ending abruptly with a what-the-hell-just-happened cliffhanger. It reminds me of the series end of The Sopranos. Ellis accomplished his stated goals--horrify the reader, take a good cop and see what happens when he gets pushed beyond his limits--but it was an unsatisfying finish. Scars could easily have been a 4 or 5 star book.
------------------------------------
SECOND READ
Ye gods is this a black, hopeless book. According to the author, to get into the headspace for Scars he imagined the kidnapping, rape, and murder of his own young daughter. He puts it right there on paper. I like to think I am devoid of superstition, but I know for a fact I could not print what Ellis printed. No way in hell.

Hm, I actually appreciated the ambiguous ending this time around.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for the IRCB Reccomended Reading Challenge 2018.

Scars is an interesting book - the story held my attention and I wanted to know what happens next, but the main character was such an unlikeable edgelord that I couldn't dealIt was like every bad "gritty" cop movie, where the guy with the troubled past gets away with whatever he wants (punching morgue workers, chokeholding fellow officers, etc.) and "does whatever needs to be done". I also hated the art style.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oof, this one is dark. Terrible crime that a normally good detective has to deal with something that hits close to home. It's all about how far a good cop can go when he breaks. The story is broken up with some writing by Ellis on his process and some history of how he came to write this, and I appreciated those parts. I didn't care as much when it was someone else, though. Ambiguous ending to let the reader decide which path the good (or bad?) detective goes.

[Reyel2107 · Rating 5 out of 5]

this cuts must do big scars !!!!

[Tiffany Zhao · Rating 5 out of 5]

I almost couldn't believe this graphic novel was nestled in between Superman and Batman at the library. Shit will really hit the fan when a parent finds out his or her young child has been reading such gore. But then, graphic novels aren't comic books. They are meant for an adult reader who has the maturity (I hope) and moral awareness to read this with the right mind.

Anyway John Cain is a homicide detective who gets a case of a brutal murder of a little girl. She'd been systematically tortured over weeks and then dismembered even as she was alive. Just happens that John Cain is still suffering from the shooting of his pregnant wife and little girl who died along with his wife, so he takes the case very personally, especially when he knows who the murderer is, and the smug dude taunts him.

Even as an adult, this graphic novel is unsettling to say the least. I'd even go as far as to say it made me wriggle in discomfort at the depravity and go "Who in the right mind can think of sick shit like this? Oh my god Is it an unfulfilled lust for violence translated into fiction?". But then the author himself has a young daughter, so you've got to try to see the message he's conveying by reaching into the dark depths of his mind. (Still sick.)

I think the worst thing is what a fellow human being can do to another human being. And if someone doesn't feel revulsion and disgust after being bombarded with the violence in this book, he/she might not be normal, in the sense they're lacking in empathy or morality.

Not just child abuse, I'm thinking of the increasingly common spates of maid abuse. It starts with insults, before escalating into episodes of violence. To be able to hit someone else, even in anger, shows alot about a person's self control & anger management issues. To actually torture someone and find joy in inflicting pain, I totally agree with harsh jail terms.

Seriously, I can see the danger of "glorifying" serial killers or depraved murderers if the authorities allow exclusive interviews of convicted criminals. But we do need to understand their psyche and learn why this person grew up to commit the crimes they did. Then we can identify traits to look out for, eg torturing small animals, flippant disregard for life, etc. I think if I were better at studying I'd have gone into criminal psychology or something.

[Pavel Pravda · Rating 3 out of 5]

V půlce druhé kapitoly jsem si říkal, že tohle je nechtěný dárek… V knihách a komiksech hledám únik. Hledám svět fantazie, dobrodružství anebo poznání. Ale některé věci poznávat nechci. Jediná kniha od Mighty Boys, kterou jsem si nekoupil, byly Ozvěny. Přečetl jsem si anotaci, prohlédl ukázky a řekl jsem si, že tohle číst nebudu. A právě v druhé kapitole jsem si říkal, že Jizvy bych si nejspíš také nekoupil. Brutalita vražd na začátku knihy je enormní.

Tahle kniha je hodně syrová. Člověk tyhle masakry občas vidí v televizi, zejména ve filmech a seriálech, do zpráv už tyhle explicitní věci nepouštějí. V televizi jsem už na to zvyklý. Tady mě to ale zaskočilo. A ač ten masakr ze začátku už dále nepokračuje, tak musím konstatovat, že předmluva měla pravdu. V téhle knize není vůbec nic veselého a hned na začátku jsem uvěřil, že na konci této knihy se skrývá příšera. Ne nějaká slizká příšera z vesmíru, nebo skřet z jeskyně, ale zkurvené zvrácené monstrum, které může bydlet v bytě vedle vás.

Příběh je docela dobře napsaný a má pěkně hutnou atmosféru. Warren Ellis se do něj pokusil vepsat své zkušenosti se smrtí, a jako otec dcery také své největší obavy. Napsal detektivku o policajtovi, ve kterém se všechen hnus z vyšetřovaných vražd dětí hromadil příliš dlouho. Poslední vražda byla tak brutální, až se v něm něco zlomilo. A přesně o tomhle Jizvy vypráví.
Po dočtení jsem svůj názor na knihu přehodnotil. Je to fajnový dárek, ale asi se k tomu nebudu vracet moc často. Nejlepší na této knize je její psychologická rovina.

Kresba Jacena Burrowse je docela specifická. Není prvoplánově pěkná, zejména v této černobílé podobě. Ale dá se na ni rychle zvyknout a s příběhem parádně funguje. Za zmínku stojí i desky knihy, na kterých dělá zajímavý efekt parciální lak.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is like the injection for those who love Law and Order:SVU.

I like Warren. He's a good guy, but he can hit a nerve with a lot of people. He's very "Something Awful".

This is about becoming a monster to catch a monster. About ignoring the sanitized version of serial killers in pop culture. In the intro, Ellis says something along the lines of "If you knew what serial killers really did, you wouldn't be fascinated with them. They shit in the wounds of their victims. They fuck them in the whole where their spleen used to be. They revive their victims to just torture them again".

This is not a fun story. But it's a story that rings more true than most.

[Romano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una historia policiaca con todos los clichés propios del género pero con un final lo suficientemente efectivo como para sostener toda la historia. Scars de Warren Ellis no es ninguna deconstrucción en sí misma del relato policiaco, todo lo contrario, e incluso puede haber lectores que señalen con justicia las connotaciones de fascismo en la violencia policiaca y el espíritu de "el fin justifica los medios". El estilo de ilustración de Jacen Burrows me resulta de lo más adecuado para este tipo de relatos crudos y edificados en el mundo interior de los personajes. Es una novela gráfica sólida a secas.

[Vittorio Rainone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Storia semplice semplice, cattiva, veloce, raccontata con taglio cinematografico e disegni pulitissimi in scale di grigio. C'è un assassinio efferato, un detective che non riesce a riprendersi da una tragedia personale, un colpevole scovato immediatamente e l'unica conclusione possibile. Warren Ellis ci ha fatto capire una cosa, nel tempo: a lui piacciono le trame che si risolvono in maniera rapida. Cicatrici ne è la dimostrazione. Carino, davvero ben raccontato, ma magari avremmo preferito un minimo di lavoro investigativo in più e un po' meno intuizioni e colpi di fortuna.

[Dominika · Rating 2 out of 5]

The most enjoyable part of this were the written segments in the beginning of each chapter. While I understand why this was an important work for Ellis and have a lot of sympathy, that doesn't counteract the fact that this is a horribly generic crime story. There are no characters, just slices of Wonder bread with different hair styles. The art style is basically a slightly more polished version the pictures you find in Wikihow articles. It's just not very good, and I think the written blurbs in the beginning just make it worse.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

First two issues were effective, but fizzled by the end. If you're going to go dark, go dark. Maybe I've read and watched too many brutal horror movies and become desensitized. The true MVP here is Jacen Burrows, a titan and I was so happy to see him again after my reading of Providence (which may be my favorite comic of all time now).

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good story.
The turn and the ending are a bit abrupt. I would have liked it to drag out for another issue or two. It seemed too easy to figure out "who dun it." And then, the ending comes really quick, as well.

But, those are minor critiques. It's a satisfying story to read.

[Fiendjuice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard boiled detective with traumatic past acts violent and outside the law to catch the child killing sicko. This was foreseeable as fuck. It is not bad but when you open the first page you just know what is going on. You seen everything somewhere else... many many times.

[Luca Trovati · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un sacco di buoni propositi e saggi interessanti (contenuti all'interno) rovinati da tavole piuttosto piatte.
Peccato.

[Mahatma · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a hard story. They even had to put in anekdotes by the writers to ease the horror down.
Beautifully built up.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting experiment, and a horrible crime story, but good, but horrible, but good.

[Krishnakumar Mohanasundaram · Rating 2 out of 5]

It began interestingly but loses focus and ends very very bad..

[Sankalp Singh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dark, gloomy and sad. Makes you feel bad. Keeps you interested but the story seems a tad too simple.

[Yacou Dupin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pour l'édition française de Komic Initiative : je déconseille de lire la préface avant, il y a tellement d'éloges qu'on finit déçus par l'histoire

[Chris Stephens · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the mood to get yer depression on?
This is probably perfect,
Inless yer a kiddy perv,
Of which, if u are,
Die.

[K.Q. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last night I went on a bit of a Warren Ellis adventure. I watched his documentary Captured Ghosts which delved into his childhood, skirted into his teen years in which he was barely conscious, then talks about his career as a writer and patron saint of the Internet. It would make a good double feature with the Harlan Ellison doc, Dreams With Sharp Teeth.

I'm more generous about calling myself a fan of a writer versus a fan of an actor or director, artist or musician because I can gobble up an album in 20-30 minutes, I can watch a movie in 90, I can watch two in about three hours. It's quicker for me to judge multiple portions of works of art or film of music than it is for comics or novels. If I like one book out of 12 written by someone, I call myself a fan until proven otherwise.

All I've ever read of Warren Ellis' work was Transmetropolitan and I adore it, so I call myself a fan. I've never read The Authority or StormWatch or anything else, but I do follow his Twitter and blog and I have several of his works on my To Read list.

Then, the documentary brought up Scars and I hunted it down.

Scars is a well constructed, tightly contained story about a cop hunting down a child murderer. It's a case of true horror, gruesome and terrible but unlike the shock-for-shock's-sake mess that is Garth Ennis' CROSSED or The Walking Dead, it's the realism that makes it terrifying. Sick bastards like this exist, will always exist and we never know who or where until it's far, far too late.



The rest of this will contain spoilers. You've been warned!




I think what I liked the most is that the story is so very contained and nothing is over-explained. We're left to assume that the drive by that left Cain a broken man was due to him being a detective, but it's never spelled out for us. We're not sure if Cain was the intended target, or if the person caught in the path of the bullet was.

The ending is left up to interpretation, though in my opinion it's quite obvious that Cain's partner shot him, otherwise we would have gone through the fallout.

I wish it was longer than six issues, I feel some things happened too fast and Cain could and should have fallen even farther. But over-all, a very good story that I recommend, if you have the stomach for it.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

A disturbing book. Ellis has a tendency to write stories that are weird or push the reader out of their comfort zone. That might be part of his popularity. Anyway, this book focuses on a detective that is investigating the murder of a little girl. In some ways it is a very typical cop drama type of story, but Ellis varies up those tropes enough to make it interesting.

The protagonist is not a very likable guy. He's stressed out and takes the murder personally, which adds to his negative image. Ellis is good at writing characters though. So what if the good guy is a jerk? He has depth and still manages to garner some sympathy as he breaks down. The line between the professional upholder of the law and the damaged father figure seeking justice at all cost blurs. It may not be Ellis' best work, but man is it engaging.

I'm not usually one to read this type of story, so I doubt I will ever return to it in the future. I did find it worthwhile to join Ellis for this little thought experiment though. Oh, and the short pieces that Ellis writes for the end of each issue explaining his process and inspiration for this story just adds to the overall creepiness of it.

[47Time · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best stories I've ever read. The black humor made me laugh more than once, but this story is hardcore enough that it moved me and I rarely get moved by fiction. Detectives John Cain is as cynical as they come. In Ellis' own words, he 'is a man testing the limits of his job, his mind, and the essential core of him.' He has lost everything already and the story will 'smash him with hammers' to 'see if he can still be a cop.'

John is haunted by the voice of his dead girl and easily reacts violently, suggesting he is high-strung to say the least. The latest case involves an 11-year-old girl that was cut into pieces and left in front of a children's charity place. Even the pathologist who examined the body is left shaken when she finds evidence that the victim was tortured for three months before being cut up while still alive. John is determined to find the one responsible for this atrocious murder, even if the restrictive police procedure gets in his way.

His first suspect is the girl's teacher, but evidence is hard to come by. He feels he is running out of time before the killer strikes again. His violent tendency gets him suspended, but also lands him an unmarked gun from a felon.

By the end John snaps, ignores the lack of evidence in favor of his gut feeling and goes all out for the teacher who eventually admits to being the killer. I love how the story ends. You can't really be sure if John kills the guy. I expect that by this moment anyone who has read the book wishes his aim was true.

[Jukka Kuva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scars is a six-issue miniseries by Warren Ellis about a cop who's trying to catch a childkiller and has to deal with a loss of his own on the side. Basically it deals with the question how much of a monster do you have to become to catch a monster? And when you do, what will you do with it?

Ellis' writing is as good as ever and Scars perfectly delivers the creepy mood it's supposed to. The reader is disgusted by things he sees and that's almost enough to justify what detective Cain is doing, but then again nothing can completely justify it. His inner struggle and search for the killer are both very well written and Burrows' art delivers the story in such a manner that it wasn't possible for me to stop until I had finished the whole story. This thing hit me like a 100-pound sledgehammer.

I'm not sure if it's objectively that brilliant but I happened to like it very much. Check it out, it's not even that long.

[Sarah]

So usually Warren Ellis writes these hot mess semi pretentious superhero stories with plotholes you can drive a truck through and an appalling lack of female characters. This was a little different and was probably my favorite of his works - though it was still plenty pretentious, with his long diatribic essays about fear, horror, and society in between each chapter. The plot of the cop that just won't quit is pretty cliched and played out but he manages to write a story that plays to all these cliches and yet still is engaging to read. He hasn't invented anything new, but still this story was engaging to read. Reccomended for adult graphic novel readers who like Ellis's style or are just bored and looking for a quick read.

[uniquechicgeek · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cop with emotional problems is working on a horrific case of child torture and murder, and promises to do whatever is takes to bring the killer to justice. The artwork is fantastic and the story is well-written as far as it goes. The murder is gristly and references to real life crimes make it more harrowing. However, I have only given this 3 out of 5 because I didn't find that extra something in it. I expected something more graphic or with more twists or more something. I can't put my finger on what was missing, perhaps it was just a little too straightforward and the ending was somewhat of an anticlimax. Worth a read but doesn't stand up to the hype in the introduction.