Violent Messiahs

"Violent Messiahs" is an American comic book series created by Joshua Dysart and William O'Neill and published by Image Comics. The comic takes place in a fictional city known as Rankor Island, and focused on the Rankor PD's attempts to bring in Rankor's vigilantes. The most prominent characters are Cheri and Houston, the two cops leading the investigation, Family Man, a serial killer who attacks bad parents, and Citizen Pain, a giant, dark figure who was the most prominent vigilante in Rankor (and became the face of VM).

The original comic was drawn by O'Neill, written by Dysart and published by Hurricane Press. Only one issue hit the shelves, and the second issue was scrapped. Years later, Image Comics picked up the rights to the series, and the original issue was remade, this time with art by Tone Rodriguez and a script by Joshua Dysart.

BOOK OF JOB, a collection of the first mini-series, was published in 2002. LAMENTING PAIN, the follow up featured the characters living in the aftermath of the original series and was only 4 issues long. The story focuses on Lt. Cheri Major as she tracks down a new masked vigilante, named Scalpel, while battling her own inner demons. The fetish scene is featured prominently throughout the work just as poetry was in the first. It has not been collected.