Jonah Hex #35 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Jonah Hex #35, about which I write the following sentences: "This issue is a step above the average (if always dependably good) Jonah Hex stories. Darwyn Cooke's art received the spotlight a few issues ago in what I thought was a gorgeous, if overwritten, single issue, and here we get the sumptuous art of J. H. Williams III (as colored by Dave Stewart -- the best in the biz). Williams doesn't rely on as much heavy black in 'Jonah Hex' as he has in other recent work. Instead, his feathering and crosshatching recalls the work of Moebius on the 'Lt. Blueberry' comic -- a series sadly out of print these days, but a clear milestone in the western genre. Williams has a reputation for being a kind of artistic chameleon, adopting the styles of other artists for last year's 'Batman' arc or 'Seven Soldiers' #1, both done in collaboration with Grant Morrison. In 'Jonah Hex,' he's not doing his Moebius impression so much as evoking Moebius in the linework and inking. The layouts and storytelling is all his, though, and of all the mainstream artists working today, Williams is the most fearless when composing a page. It's beautiful stuff."

Read the entire review HERE.

Jonah Hex #29: A Digression

Have you ever seen Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch? I hope so, because it's one of the greatest American films ever, and I fell in love with it during the opening credits as I watched the pan-and-scan version on the 19-inch tv at my parent's house when I was 17 years old.

If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about, but if you haven't seen it, the movie opens with credits that combine black-and-white illustration-style freeze frames with the "heroes" riding into town. You don't know they aren't heroes at first--they're dressed in military uniforms (which are disguises, as we later learn)--and William Holden certainly embodies that type of rugged hero so popular in classic Westerns. (Of course, he is a hero by the end, in Peckinpah's own nihilistic way.) But one of the greatest, and most memorable, parts of the credits sequence is that the children they ride past are playing with something on the dusty ground. And as the camera cuts from character to character back to the children at play (all as the sharp drum report plays in the background), we see that the characters are watching a scorpion being devoured by fire ants. A horrifically symbolic image surely, but Peckinpah doesn't stop there--he then shows the children lighting the scorpion and the ants on fire.

That's what Jonah Hex #29 feels like. It feels like watching a scorpion being devoured by fire ants as they all burn in the flames of torment. And Rafa Garres, the artist on this issue (who has a Bisley-meets-Fabry grotesque-ery to his artwork, but somehow manages to make it all look beautiful--that's his work on the cover image too) is a perfect fit.

These Palmiotti and Gray Jonah Hex stories often resolve in simplistic ways, and this issue is no exception, but leading up to the climax, this is some good comics. Peckinpah, DC style.