In more upbeat Dark Horse news, a preview of this weekend’s Emerald City Con includes news of an intriguing nonfiction graphic novel: an account of the horrific Green River Killer by the son of the detective who arrested him.

Gary L. Ridgway was convicted in 2003 of murdering 48 women over a 20 year period — he’s suspected of having killed even more. The graphic book will be written by Jeff Jensen (EW’s resident Lost expert, with art by Ramón K. Pérez. Jensen’s father, Green River Task Force Detective Tom Jensen, arrested the killer and got the confession, but the story is a strange one:

The graphic novel promises a behind-the-scenes look at the case, with aspects that have been little explored, from the perspective of the now-retired investigator who’s avoided the limelight.

Illustrated by Ramon K. Perez, the story’s framing device is five days in June 2003 when Ridgway was secretly removed from jail to be interrogated in a nondescript building at Boeing Field. The horrific, five-day emotional roller coaster culminated with Tom Jensen extracting the information that led to Ridgway’s conviction.

Jeff Jensen listened to tapes of the interviews as part of his research. “You can hear it in my dad’s voice. He’s losing it. There is emotion, and my dad is a very reserved man, and it’s creeping into his voice and he’s struggling very hard to not break down.”

The book will be out in 2010.

1 COMMENT

  1. “…he’s suspected of having killed eve.”

    Who is Eve? Is that a metaphor for something, like the Biblical Eve?

  2. Jeff Jensen wrote the X-Factor mini from the Jemas years. It had nothing to do with the X Factor superteam, but focused on an FBI unit tasked with anti-mutant hate crimes. really good stuff.

  3. Wow! A graphic novel based on a real murder case where the detective’s son is the writer. That part alone can catch any reader’s attention. Also with Ramón K. Pérez’s style it will be very interesting to see what type of imagery he comes up with.