Alternation Ink
"PARALLELS"
Reviewing The Wicked West, story by Todd Livingston and Robert Tinnell, illustration by Neil Vokes, from Image Comics.
Copyright © 2005, Glenn Walker
Parallels. That's what this tale of the West, the Old West, the Wicked West, is all about. It is a tale of Rashomon, of perspectives and perception, and it is magnificently done.
When I read a comic I know I'm going to review I will stop from time to time and jot down notes for later. This is for your usual twenty-odd page comic, mind you. The story in The Wicked West is over eighty pages long and I stopped not once. I was so engrossed I read straight through. I couldn't wait to see what happened next.
Like The Black Forest before it, The Wicked West is beautiful in its simplicity. Storytelling is a lost art in the world of comic books these days - Livingston, Tinnell and Vokes have returned that magic to the form. Hell, I think with these two books this team may have turned horror and western into viable genres for comic books again. It's something the industry needs - for the general public to know that comics aren't just superheroes.
The promotion for this book suggests the reader imagine the Outlaw Josey Wales riding into 'Salem's Lot. Yes, it sounds cool, but unlike most PR, The Wicked West delivers. We follow Cotton Coleridge, a stranger turned teacher in the town of Javer's Tanks, a town suddenly overrun with the undying evil of vampires.
The tale is told in parallel, first in the movie "Terror Over Texas" viewed by an old man and a kid - and the old man's memory of the events that inspired the movie. The movie is told in light, bright, happy tints while the memory is brutal horrific reality with vibrant color (!). They don't match, as you can imagine.
The movie vs. memory equation is something we as comics readers know all too well. Has there ever been a movie based on a comic book that has stayed true to the source material? Hell, even bestsellers in the mainstream media don't survive this transition. So we suffer and feel the pain along with the elderly theatre-goer. Even so, both versions of the tale are enjoyable but, told together add an entirely new dimension.
While the comparison to The Outlaw Josey Wales is a coin toss in my opinion, I think the 'Salem's Lot part is dead on. We are presented with chilling recreation of one of Lot's most frightening scenes when young Roy is visited by his undead playmate in the middle of the night. This is a scary book, folks. As frightening as the boy vampire and the seductively deadly Temperance Jones are, they don't hold a candle to the original undead evil.
All too often in what passes for horror in comics (and for that matter other media as well) today is just gore and gross-out. Who can out-blood-and-gut the last one? The Wicked West is so real, three-dimensional - in both word and image - that it scared the crap out of me. This project was originally envisioned as a screenplay. I would see it in that form in a second, but will cherish the hardcopy form I have here until then.
And oh, the extras. The text piece, in the style of the penny dreadful pulps, "Massacre at Javer's Tanks," written by Andrew Sands with woodcut-like illustrations by Brian Quinn is reputedly the instory inspiration for the film "Terror Over Texas." Beautiful work here as well. Of the pin-ups, the work of Adrian Salmon and the odd out-of-continuity piece by David Michael Beck stand out. The pin-ups, interpretations by other artists and especially the text piece, all reminded me of DC Comics' old 100 Page Super Spectaculars. Those babies always had cool stuff like this. The team that brought us this and The Black Forest seem dead set on making comics fun again.
Marketing is something that must be mentioned as well. With The Black Forest, we received the added bonus of a mini-radio program that tied into that story. The Wicked West offered an online trailer. See it here. With moody music by Andy Kubiszewski that would make Ennio Morricone jealous, the trailer is the perfect preview to this book. Props all around to those responsible. And check out the Christmas card while you're there as well. Shades of "Clutch Cargo"! Great stuff!
Nothing makes me happier than to learn of the coming The Black Forest 2: Castle of Shadows. I can't wait. Maybe a sequel to The Wicked West after that? Or better yet, something? Either way, keep it coming, guys!