Next Town Over- More Weird Western Webcomic Goodness

Erin Mehlos, an astute reader, commented recently on my enjoyment of weird western webcomics and asked politely if I had read one called Next Town Over, a comic of which she happened to be the creator.  I had never heard of it (clearly I need to spend more time cruising the web for something besides nekkid cowgirls).  Oh, am I glad she wrote me.  Next Town Over is great.

A nice mix of western, steampunk, and sorcery, Next Town Over uses sparse dialog and fantastic artwork to tell the story of a young woman out for revenge again a demonic villain of gentlemanly comportment.  Or something like that.  All this prose I keep churning out at night writing my own novel is making me overly flowery at times.

  A demonic villain of gentlemanly comportment

Did I mention that art?  Some comic book artists are great artists, but great comic book artists understand their medium and transcend drawing and move into storytelling.  Jack Kirby, for example, was in my mind an absolutely terrible artist (what is with those haircuts?) but knew how to string together frames of action like no one else.  Mehlos really owns this in Next Town Over.  The layouts of the pages are great, particularly where she takes a colorful page in the present and rends it to show a scene from the past in black and white bleeding through.  It is new and creative in a way that is a joy to read. 

New pages appear weekly, and the series is available in print as well.  Please go check it out.  And if there are any other cool western web comics out there (or even bad ones) please drop me a line and let me know.