'Sons of Anarchy' rolls into the world of comic books

Brian Truitt | USA TODAY

The tough, antihero bikers of SAMCRO ride just as well in comic books as they do on cable TV.

The California motorcycle gang central to Sons of Anarchy returns to FX for its sixth season Tuesday night (10 ET/PT) and makes its comic debut on Wednesday with a six-issue Boom! Studios miniseries written by novelist Christopher Golden with art by Damian Couceiro.

Those devotees to all things SAMCRO (short for Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original) and characters such as club president Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam), his mother Gemma (Katey Sagal) and his morally questionable stepdad Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman) don't have to worry about how true the comic will be to the show.

Sons creator Kurt Sutter has the final say on all scripts and been supportive of the project since Day 1, according to Golden.

"Kurt's a genius," the writer says. "He established that with his work on The Shield and then took it to the next level with Sons of Anarchy. Both shows have been, while on the air, the best show on television. The nuance of his examination of the dark parts of human nature is unparalleled on TV."

Instead of Jax or Clay, Golden focuses "The Whistle Blower" on one of his favorite characters, the volatile Tig Trager (played on TV by Kim Coates), and the story takes place between the fifth and sixth episodes of last season, he says. "It's vital to me to understand where all of the characters are in their tangled relationships at any given time."

After escaping the Los Angeles crime scene and an underworld kingpin named Griggs who wants her dead, Kendra, the daughter of the late Sons member Kozik, arrives in Charming and seeking the help of SAMCRO. And Tig, who's still raw from watching his own daughter burned alive at the hands of Damon Pope, takes special interest in her because of his former friendship with her dad.

Tig is "a total psychopath," Golden says, yet like the other members of SAMCRO, "he sees himself as a man of honor. I find him fascinating because I think there's a lot of complexity in the character but because he's so much lower on the totem pole, the show doesn't focus as much on him."

The two things the writer most wanted to explore with Tig was his friendship with Kozik — the TV show alluded to a long, complicated association between the two men — and the madness he descends into witnessing his daughter's murder.

"That madness is buried inside the character now," Golden says, "and it seems to me that every decision he makes is going to be haunted by that memory and the guilt involved."

Griggs and the mysterious Ghost Brothers he hires to go after Kendra have connections to the Sons, though the protagonists don't know it yet. And like other villains in this world, "they're usually not any 'badder' than the show's so-called 'heroes,' " Golden says.

While he loves the Shakespearean tragedy of it all, he feels the rich, complex and violently complicated world of Sons and its players is what makes it so appealing to work in as a writer.

"In trying to pull himself and his family out of this life, Jax is becoming everything he despised," Golden says. Clay is willing to betray everyone in his life and yet is able to persuade himself at every turn that he is doing it for the good of the club. Gemma, Tara, Bobby, Tig — just like people in real life, they are each the main character in their own story."