Outlaw Territory, Image’s anthology of short western
comics, is back for its third and reportedly final installment. If this is the last, well, I think that’s
okay. Volume 1 has some genius storytelling
and artwork. Volume 2, never quite
rising to the heights of the first, none the less was a solid collection of
action packed, sexy westerns. In Volume
3 the good ideas started running dry.
The stories is Outlaw Territory
Vol 3 have more rape than sex, more violence than gore. O Henry’s legacy as a western writer was
evident in the first two volumes, where ironic twists were the order of the
day. Here, the key message is that the
west was not so romantic, with bloody bodies and traumatized survivors to drive
the point home.
One exception to this was Peter
Brandvold’s Rogue Lawman comic- short, fun, sexy, with an ironic twist
at the end. Even the weirdly stylized
art, which I hated at first, ended up working well. I liked this comic better than his first Rogue
Lawman novel.
I still respect the folks at Image for
making this series, which took some guts to pull off. I just wished the last hurrah was better.
 |
| Crazy artwork, great story, two thumbs up for Mean Pete! |
