Customer Reviews

A Treasury of Victorian Murder

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

"The Bloody Benders" were a small German immigrant family who settled in late 19th century Kansas, opened a grocery store/inn and began murdering rich lodgers and stashing the bodies across the prarie and in a ditch beneath the house.

The ringleader appeared to be the young woman who pretended to speak to spirits and who would find out about the visitors who showed up at their inn. If they had money she would position them in the seat where their backs would be to a screen where one of the other 3 family members would bludgeon the visitor, rob him, then take him down to the ditch/basement and cut his throat.

They murdered over a dozen innocent people and then fled when they realised they had been found out. They were never caught and people around the country thought they saw various family members at one time or another. It wasn't even determined if they really were family or not.

Geary draws and tells the story brilliantly. The pictures of a late 19th century Kansas conjures up a wistful portrait of frontier life with all it's romance and harshness. The Bender's Inn is drawn in detail and shows how cramped conditions were in those days where you bought the land but had to build the house yourself. The artwork reminded me of Crumb but was different enough to say Geary has his own style. The story clips along at a quick pace and is easily read at an enjoyable sitting.

Overall, an interesting little history lesson about an obscure but fascinating case brought vividly back to life with Geary's illustrations and brisk storytelling. I've already ordered other books in Geary's series of Victorian murders so that's how much I enjoyed it. Can't wait for more forgotten cases of murderers from the past!

I almost didn't order this book for the teen section of the library where I work, and I was honestly surprised at how fantastic it was when it came in. The pen and ink illustrations are beautiful and detailed, and Geary tells the story with interest. All of our staff members are hooked on this series now, I'm currently reading "The Case of Madeline Smith" and love it! Great series for fans of true crime..

Geary has opened a chapter in history in a very accessible way with this graphic novel series.

And "The Bloody Benders" is a fine addition to the series, recounting th history of a family of robber/murderers in the West that kill by stealth, & could easily appear in today's headlines. Their disappearance as mysterious as their lives.

Geary's art & writing improve steadily as time goes by, & while the first volumes in the series are very, very good, this one has a fine polish to it.

If you like it, try these--
The Big Book of the Weird Wild West: How the West was Really Won! (Factoid Books)

Daisy Kutter: The Last Train (Daisy Kutter: The Last Train (Turtleback))

Rick Geary's graphic novel series A TREASURY OF VICTORIAN MURDER returns with volume 9 of the series especially recommended for prior fans of his graphic novel mysteries. Black and white drawings illustrate the story of four strange people who use seduction to attract wealthy victims, whom they then kill. Excellent action and high drama mystery lends to a fast-paced graphic novel story hard to put down, and recommended for any general-interest holding strong in graphic novels.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I know that I said the Axeman of New Orleans was the best in the series, but I lied! Bloody Benders is by far the best. The illustrations are far more complex and intriguing. The story kept me hooked and strapped to my seat. In all due honesty, I had never heard of the Bloody Benders so some of my excitement could have come from being introduced to the legend. Still, this adaptation of the legend is very intriguing and perfectly fits the mysterious story.

In case you're like me and don't know the story, I'll rely it here. In 1870, John Bender Jr. and John Bender Sr. staked their claim in Kansas along the Osage Trail. Within a year, they have built a house, a grocery store and have sent for their family. The parents speak very little english and count on their beautiful daughter, Kate, to help them survive. The family dabbles in spiritualism and holds seances that have the potential to become violent. Yet, it isn't until dead bodies start appearing in nearby towns that the Benders become #1 on the suspect list. That is if only the authorities can find them.

I absolutely love the graphics in this book; they're stark and eerie. Though they're in black and white, Geary is able to solicit great emotion and depth. The illustrations are simple, but they're far from being dull or drab. The clean lines and use of black and white (even without any gray) work well with the subject matter and atmosphere of the empty and vulnerable prairie.

This one is a bit different because from the rest of the series because the murders are clearly known. Instead, the mystery is where the Bender's fled to and if they will ever be found. Still, like the other issues in the series, it is like watching an episode of unsolved mysteries with a little bit of a history lesson.

Victorian era crimes have an oddly enduring appeal for folks of every literary taste and political predilection. For liberals, the dark underbelly
of that prim and proper age seems to demonstrate the notion that moral repression breeds violence and hypocrisy; for conservatives, the fact that
evil and sin lurked even beneath such a blessedly restrained surface, confirms a view of the world as old as the story of the Garden of Eden.
Fans of the great detectives take comfort in the idea that the mysteries of human behavior must yield to reason, science, and rigorous
procedure. Fans of the criminals revel in the impenetrability of the darkest recesses of the human heart and mind. But regardless of your own
personal views, there's no gainsaying the hold that Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes and company continue to exert on our imaginations.

Illustrator Rick Geary has been tapping into this lurid fascination for over a decade now, and NBM Publishing is reissuing some of the earlier
works in his acclaimed "Victorian Murders" series, beginning with the first, A Treasury of Victorian Murders. Mr. Geary accompanies three
brief tales of deliciously bloody (or poisonous) mayhem and murder with an introductory section that sets the Victorian stage and provides some
background on the times and the more famous personages of the day. His black-and-white drawings--which might owe something to Edward
Gorey but are nonetheless distinctive and original--provide a winsome, tongue-in-cheek contrast to the horrid events that he relates. As he
mentions in a 1987 introduction, one of the things that makes the cases so much fun is that even though the society maintained a veneer of
respectability, it coincided with the rise of mass daily papers, all intent on out-sensationalizing each other. So when such ghoulish crimes did
occur, they gave free reign to the newspapers to engage in the most outrageous speculations about peoples backgrounds and behaviors. He
takes evident delight in casually dropping such rumors into the midst of the ornate and fusty little sitting rooms and the forbidding courtrooms
in which his stories occur. It all makes for a delightfully droll good time.

GRADE : B+

The Saga of the Bloody Benders by Rick Geary is part of A Treasury of Victorian Murder put out by NBM Comics Lit. Geary has done another bang-up job merging history, murder, and detailed drawings to pull the reader into a time that is often difficult to understand. Without the historic underpinnings the Benders killing spree would seem a bit comical to the jaded readers of today -- as we lock up our cars, our houses, keep aware of our surroundings. Could the Benders do what they did if they existed today? But that would be a different tale -- and you'll want to enjoy the chill horror of this one.

The story of the Benders and their place in the history of Labette County, Kansas, along the Osage Trail is one that highlights the dangers faced by the settlers as they began moving west to find a better life for themselves and their families. Without the historic overview of Kansas becoming a state, the demographics of the settlers, and the geographical overview of the Osage Trail -- it would be difficult to understand how the Benders could do what they did for so long before anyone began to even suspect that something wasn't right at the Bender Inn and Grocery.

It was 1871 and inquiries were coming to the local officials from relatives, friends, or business associates trying to locate a person known to have traveled along the trail but who had not been heard from after passing through Labette County. Later it was found that the disappearances began shortly after the Bender men, Pa and John Bender Jr., bought land, built a Inn and Grocery at a high point along the trail and sent for the women, Ma and Kate Bender. The Benders kept to themselves -- dour and silent. Kate however was a beauty and fairly outgoing -- setting up a side business telling fortunes. Most thought them eccentric but harmless.

What happened to the Benders? How did they manage to kill so many people undetected? Why did it take so many years before anyone even looked closely at the Bender Inn and Grocery? Geary gives you a sense of place and people leading you step by step through the setup and discovery and aftermath of the crimes. The illustrations are such an intrinsic part of the narrative that often you forget that his is a graphically told tale because the flow is so smooth you're drawn into the pages and the story.

I expected more detailed, better drawn images than what the book contained. Coarse grained paper is used for the pages & the overall quality of the project is poor. Several short episodes of Victorian murder are presented in black & white line drawings with little detail. Nothing unusual or particularly interesting in the telling or presentation.