Mercy: In Prison is a comic written by Steven Prince with art by Mick Beyers and colors by Alex Zief. Mercy adjusts to life in a Thailand prison after being set up. This is a prison drama comic with strong supernatural elements, heavy gruesome violence, and the depravity and cruelty frequently found in this kind of environment. The leading lady here is Mercy, she is an aggressive and easily irritated American 18 year-old from the Midwest who was set up and convicted of a crime. This story begins with Mercy on the bus headed towards the prison thinking about how this current situation isn’t her fault and how her mom’s advice would’ve helped her avoid this. After getting to the camp the Warden gives the classic speech and she heads to bunk house and meets Mamma Mia, the head prisoner who more or less runs things. This takes place in Thailand in 1975. The violence here is very gruesome with a large amount of blood and heavy gore. There is some sexual harassment/assault that one might expect from a setting like this. This moves at slightly slower than average pace as there can be a lot to take in. This has the tone of 1970’s women-in-prison films with that same unpleasant and desperate vibe. There is high dramatic and violent intensity with significant tension. The dialogue here is almost equal parts thought narration from Mercy and aggressive back-and-forth conversations. There aren’t any word-heavy pages though a couple do get close. This is a riveting debut issue that digs into the grime, unpleasantries, desperation one might have experienced in the 1970’s penal system with the addition of a significant supernatural element.

            The art here is detailed and very lightly cartoonish with well done lighting and shading. This has a realistic color palette with a lot of tan, brown, and faded tones as this takes place at a rural outdoor prison. For scenery we have surrounding forests and grassless dirt ground. This prison camp has a few specific areas that we’ll see: the main yard, bunkhouses, the kitchen, and the shower. Backgrounds here usually show the actual surroundings which adds to the dreary and despondent atmosphere. The expression level here is very high as these characters react multiples times per page. Emotions can go from defiant and aggressive to the sad and somber as well as some happiness with plenty sinister and evil variants of these. Faces here have an average to above-average level of detail and a cartoonish element which leads to just about every look coming across strongly. Most of the violence is delivered physically though knives and swords do come into play. This has many gruesome attacks that result in heavy gore with body parts strewn about and a substantial amount of blood. There are a couple short action scenes and one lengthier one that has a good flow and a variety of panels. Some of these women wear revealing outfits and most of them have model-like bodies.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like prison dramas starring women and taking place in Thailand that features supernatural elements heavy gory violence, prison politics, and cruel depravity then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, blood, gore, gruesomeness, nudity, sexual harassment/assault.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“And when I get my hands on him…”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/monstermatador/mercy-in-prison/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 24

Violent Pages: 13, for 54% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 1, for 4% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 4

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 5

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 4

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 3

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”