“The Big Country is a story I’ve had in mind for years,” Peeples tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I grew up in a very tough small-town environment in West Texas and wanted to write about that world and those people. The theme of violence and the damage it does, both at the personal level and in communities, is something I return to again and again. So, I took that theme, gave it a cowboy hat and a gun and here we are.”
The 128-page graphic novel is, the writer continues, “a meditation on violence that has echoes of our current cultural discussions around toxic masculinity. I’ve taken noir tropes like crime, outsiders and loners and simply dragged them into the blazing sun instead of rain-drenched backstreets. The fedoras have been replaced by Stetsons. But the soul of these characters, their complicated inner lives, is what keeps it in the family of Thompson, Ellroy and the name that looms large over everything: Cormac McCarthy.”
The Big Country is set to be released Tuesday. Before then, read on for an exclusive preview.
