Sunday Splash Page #300

 

"Safe as Jailhouses," in Lead City #4, by Eric Borden (writer), Kyle Brummond (artist)

4-issue mini-series about a farmer trying to move his family to California, and entering a peculiar town's death tournament to get the money to treat his wife's sudden illness.

Unlike The Quick and the Dead, this tournament isn't any sort of a bracket, but a free-for-all, held in a second town constructed solely for that purpose. I guess it might also be used to fool the forces of the nefarious Hedley Lamarr if he tries to run the railroad through their town. Either way, it means this farmer (and former Union soldier) is up against 7 wanted criminals.

There's a brief scene in issue 2 before the killing starts where everyone involved enters the fake town together, so the reader can at least get a sense of who's who. Even so, the characters are drawn in broad strokes. A crazy redneck who likes bludgeoning people with a hammer. A black former Union soldier who survived a lynching and speaks to a doll he carries. A lady, who seems the kindest of the bunch, which never means anything good. But one's dead by the end of the issue, and another's on his way, so why waste too much time fleshing them out?

The only one who gets much development is Colman, the farmer, since the entire first issue focuses on him. What we know largely boils down to what I summarized in the first paragraph.

Brummond has an angular line, sharply defined jaws and chins, stark shadows. Alternates between keeping the worst of the violence off-panel - the first to die has his throat slit but we only see the swing of the weapon not the contact - and in your face graphic. The penultimate death is a full-on view of a guy's head being blown apart by a bullet. Dislodged eye, brain matter, hair all mixed together. I guess that could have been because they figured the audience would be glad to see that particular character get it. But while he's maybe a bit more sadistic than some of the others, it's a matter of degrees. 

Brummond also sometimes draws body parts like they're woven together. The farmer's palm in one issue, a different character's brains in this issue. I don't understand the reasoning, it's a weird affect and he's not consistent with it.