Comic books and television go together, with many comics getting small screen adaptations. However, while most people think of superhero fare, like The CW’s Arrowverse or Prime Video’s The Boys, when it comes to comic book TV shows, it isn’t just the capes that get series. Sci-fi series like Resident Alien, detective stories like Stumptown, and even horror like The Beauty have all gone from page to small screen. Now, Image Comics’ fan-favorite neo-Western is headed to television as well.
According to Deadline, That Texas Blood is in development at FX. The series, which will be written and executive produced by Jim Mickle and E.L. Katz with Mickle set to direct, is based on the comic series from Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips. Mickle previously served as a showrunner on Netflix’s Sweet Tooth, which was also based on a comic and is currently working on the live-action Gundam movie as well. Michael Waldron and Adam Fasullo will also executive produce, along with Adam Fishbach, Jeremy Platt, Linda Moran, and Condon. Phillips will serve as co-executive producer.
That Texas Blood is a neo-Western series that follows Sheriff Joe Bob Coates as he deals with crime, violence, and dark secrets in fictional Ambrose County, Texas with the stories told in the series spanning over various time periods. The series has been described as being like True Detective-meets0 Cormac McCarthy in tone and even Image themselves compare it to No Country for Old Men. The first issue of That Texas Blood was published in 2020 and has been a best seller for the publisher, even getting a sister series, The Enfield Gang Massacre, set 150 years in the past. The series is also back in comic shops with a new story arc starting in June with That Texas Blood #21 hitting shelves on June 3rd.
What makes That Texas Blood a particularly interesting comic is that it also blends in a good bit of horror. While the True Detective-meets-Cormac McCarthy descriptor is true, there are also some spookier elements as well, just enough of a Stephen King-esque vibe to take a rural small-town crime book and make it something richer and more complex. The deeper we get into the mysteries of Ambrose County, the darker and more unsettling things become. There’s plenty of psychological elements to unpack, all as seen through the lens of Sheriff Joe Bob. It’s small town, big stories and the perfect sort of comic to be turned into a television series.
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