Comic Quickies: Westerns and Witch Doctors

The Sixth Gun #12: The first arc of The Sixth Gun was awesome, and it seemed like if they stopped there, that would be a fine end to an awesome story.  Yet, creators Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt carried on and delivered a second arc that wasn't as awesome as the first, but still quite good.  With this 12th issue, they kick off the third story arc, so without any delay, let's jump in.

Drake Sinclair and Becky Montcrief, who, between the two of them hold 5 of the 6 guns of power, are on a train heading west.  Along for the ride are  The Swords of Abraham, a religious order who are preparing for some sort of supernatural war.  Missy Hume, holder of the final gun of power and one of the many fine villains from the first arc, discovers that the train is transporting the chained body of her husband, General Hume, a man who cannot truly die.  With the help of a sinister looking fellah named Eli Barlow, she sets up an ambush that turns deadly.

If the opening pages are anything to go by, this arc shows a lot of promise. The train ambush was completely amazing, full of action, drama, and plenty of shit getting blown up.  It looks like some of the principle baddies from the first arc will be back in this one, along with some new foul villains too.  I'm interested to see what this Eli Barlow character turns out like.  This was an awesome issue, and I'm very excited to see where things go.

For those who haven't had the joy of reading The Sixth Gun yet, but want to, this issue would serve as a great jumping on point.

 Jonah Hex #69:  I've never read a Jonah Hex comic before, and I don't know anything about the character, but this was a must-have issue for the fact that Jeff Lemire handles the art on this one.

When a gold prospector strikes it rich, some local thieves plan to waylay him once he's mined all the gold.  Jonah Hex catches wind of the situation, and follows the thieves to stop the theft but is seemingly too late to save the miner who is gut-shot.  It soon comes to light that the miner, and Jonah share a past, and Jonah Hex is all too happy to watch the man die.

Overall, this was a pretty great story, and Lemire's art is definitely awesome.  His sparse and rough style works really good in a western-style setting and each page is awesome to look at.  Lemire is one of my favorite comic artists in the business, so this was a nice treat for me.

I guess each issue of Jonah Hex is a stand-alone story, and they get different artists to work each issue.  Next month's artist is Ryan Sook, so I'll probably check that one out too.  In September, due to the DC Relaunch, Jonah Hex becomes All Star Western with art by Moritat, who is another fine artist, so I wouldn't be surprised to see more of this character popping up around these parts.  

Witch Doctor #1:  I've been eagerly anticipating Witch Doctor ever since I read an article about the comic at SFF World.  Since then, the comic has gone through some changes and altercations, but though the road to print has been a long one, Image is finally putting a four issue mini-series of Witch Doctor out.

The first issue hit shelves a week ago, and it was worth the wait.


The first issue is a stand-alone story that pretty much sets up the who's who and the what's what of the comic.  While investigating/diagnosing a possessed child we meet Doctor Vincent Morrow, his assistant Eric Gast, and his anesthesiologist Penny Dreadeful.  We also get a mini tour of his clinic/lab, and a run down of his job - He's a specialist in supernatural medicine...I want that job.

For my money there was a bit too much information being dropped right off the bat, but really I cant complain too much because it was all about demonic possession, which is well, awesome.  Not the greatest first issue, but a solid introduction to the story, and I'm interested enough to check out the second issue which'll begin a 3-issue story arc.