DeadEye: Begun In Blood
Writing: Adrian F Wassel
Art: Nathan Gooden
Release Date: March 2016
Publisher: CME Comics (Creative Mind Energy)
Description: A land of undiscovered riches, beauty… and violence. A land born of myth. The American frontier. As the bounty hunter, Deadeye, tracks the gang responsible for his nightmarish past, he discovers a far worse set of villains lurking in the uncharted territory. Criminals from a distant planet, imprisoned on Earth. Scripted by ADRIAN F. WASSEL with breathtaking watercolors by NATHAN C. GOODEN-creators of THE GIFTED, a 2014 Indie Fab Award Finalist for Best Graphic Novel-comes the opening chapter of DEADEYE, a series about the cruel price of redemption.
If you haven’t had a chance, you should check out the stellar review that Paul did on this book in November.
When he said, “hey, check this out, not your average alien-western,” I thought of other alien westerns I knew. Lots of lines and tech along with western hats, alarmed horses, dresses with bustles, the works. I opened to a blood red page. Next page, blood spatter on white. Next page, titles with olde-tyme print. More blood spatter. Author’s note in classic typeface. So far, just what I expected. Then this.
The narrator’s voice is otherworldly in this very natural place. Each page is another work of art – something to be framed and enjoyed in a gallery. The bright sunshine of the desert southwest is vividly and gorgeously apparent in all of Nathan Gooden’s pages. The story morphs from a recognizable danger to the evil that men do to each other. There’s a classic old west campfire scene. Even though it’s a collection of men complaining about being on the trail, the artist’s touch is still on each page. We’re introduced to a bounty hunter and his willing but unwanted sidekick, and a town run by a single man, but that isn’t all there is to this story.
The story moves glacially, but it does move. By the end of this book, you realized that you’ve just read something akin to Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. This is only the first part of a longer story, and the metaphorical hobbits are still on the trail, but you don’t care. You’re in an otherworldly haze that you never want to clear.
