This past weekend, David Lowery‘s searing and gorgeous “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” opened in limited release, hitting a few theaters in New York City. And while you wait patiently for the movie to roll into a theater near you—it expands next weekend, while also hitting VOD (though this is one we urge you to see on the big screen)—a little extra treat has arrived to hold you over until it arrives.
A graphic novel prologue entitled “New Tattoo” has arrived, telling a story of the doomed lovers and criminal outlaws, Ruth (Rooney Mara) and Bob (Casey Affleck), before their exploits catch up with them. The film opens with the pair on the getting busted after a recent job, and getting split up with Bob carted off to prison, but it’s more than amply suggested that the duo have rich, detailed history. It’s the kind of stuff Mara says she wishes the film had more of. “We talked a lot about that and it actually makes me upset because none of it’s in the film,” she told ScreenRant. “There’s this whole Ruth that I want to talk about in these interviews, but no one would really get what I’m talking about because that’s not who she is in the film… I feel like the prequel to the movie would be such a good movie.”
While the prequel probably won’t happen, this is the next best thing. Read “New Tattoo” in full below, created by Criterion Collection artist Eric Skillman and comic book artist Matthew Southworth.
