Deadlands One-Shot – Advanced Review

Main Story by: David Gallaher (writer), Steve Ellis (artist), Troy Peteri (letterer)
Backup Story by: C. Edward Sellner (writer and colorist), Oscar Capristo (artist)

The Stories: An inventor has made a deal to build a gun that can kill the devil, and he’s been given a ghostly stone to help him do it. In the second feature, a new patron at a saloon means trouble.

The Reviews: This book identifies itself on the cover as a weird western and delivers on that promise on page one. Not only that, the story itself is a coming of age story in the Hero’s Journey mold, mixed with a deal with the devil. The opening about the young inventor who loved his family and turned to building guns pulled me in right away. Lots of grist for the mill, so to speak. And the arrival of Tygian, with his strange offer, is the hero’s call. He reluctantly accepts and is thrust into a strange world. He’s given the hero’s talisman (in this case, the ghost stone) and the challenge to “build me a gun that will kill the devil.” That’s a pretty strong challenge and it grips the ambitions of adulthood, leaving our hero to attack his task with enthusiasm. The story was fun and while I didn’t guess the ending in its detail, the arc of the story was pretty clear from the beginning. I wasn’t surprised that a deal with the devil would go sour. The second story was a bit more of an O. Henry piece, with a smaller scope, but a sharp snap of surprise at the end.

High Moon – Review

David Gallaher (writer), Steve Ellis (artist)

We here at the WCBR have been enjoying DC’s online imprint Zuda Comics and being a fan of free comics I dutifully strolled on over to the cyber comic rack to peruse the offerings. This one, High Moon, jumped out at me. Had to be werewolves, right? Right. Werewolves in the old west, no less – I liked it already.

The story opens with a child abduction in the Texas town of Blest. A mysterious bounty hunter with a secret (Matthew Macgregor), rolls into town looking for a wanted man and is offered a deal by the townspeople: find the missing child and they’ll help him find his man. A quick, simple intro and we’re on our way.

Macgregor is aided by the town’s deputy who believes wolves are responsible for the abduction, but of course nobody believes him and Macgregor obviously knows more than he’s letting on. The story is well paced, grabbed my interest very quickly, and kept me turning the page. The protagonist is intriguing as is the nature of the man, Conroy, whom he is pursuing. The artwork by Steve Ellis is solid as well. The style of his art really suits the tale and is evocative of the hot and dusty setting where the story dwells. The highest compliment I can pay this comic is that by the end I found myself needing and wanting more. I don’t yet how often the site gets updated and when the next issue gets posted but I will keep my eye out for it because I want to see what happens in the mines!

I think a few words are in order about the reading interface. I found it very user friendly and easy to navigate. One comic page fills the viewer and controls for zooming and turning pages are located on the bottom. Use of the full screen mode, my preferred method of reading, renders the pages much easier to read. In full screen mode, the controls disappear from view but when the mouse is rolled over the bottom of the screen they return. Also in full screen mode you can still zoom in on the page to the point to where it fills the screen. When this is done an icon appears that allows the reader to use the mouse to pan around the different parts of the page. I like to do this when there’s a certain panel or piece or art gets my attention. I found the Zuda viewer a pleasure to use and fun to play around with, and High Moon is a story worth looking into. It’s free – what do you have to lose? (Grade: A)

– Arthur Cooke