Random Back Issues #159 - Lead City #4

Hey, I may be stupid, and stupid, but, uh what was that third thing you said? 

We looked at the first issue about 10 months ago, when the stage was being set for this free-for-all battle to the death. As the final issue starts, we're down to just 4 of the 8 competitors left. Two of which, Ravinder Singh and soldier-turned-failed-farmer Colman Cooper, are having a knife fight in a bar.

Singh's been shot twice, but has the upper hand, twice catching Cooper with a left hook, all the while rattling on about how Americans are too slow and weak. Cooper responds that U.S. not being under the Union Jack, while India is, has to count for something. Then he smashes a bottle across Singh's face.

Which doesn't do much beyond adding another scar and getting Cooper chucked headfirst through a window. But he bumps into one of the city's hidden weapons, a loaded shotgun, and then there were 3. Back in Duganville, the bettors are not impressed, Cooper's survival dismissed as luck. Which has his son worried, but his wife is confident enough to tell the town doc - a price-gouging shitheel - he can discuss any bills for room and board with Colman when he returns.

The other fighters left are the Huntsville Hammer and a young Mexican woman apparently dubbed "Lady Lullaby." The Hammer's been taking a breather, after he decided to hang two of the other fighters' corpses from the rafters, seemingly to throw anyone who finds them off their game for a minute. Kind of late in the proceedings to bother with haunted house games, but break time's over, 'cause he's in the lady's sights. 

Which suits him fine. Hammer's been making threats and come-ons towards her from the start, but she's got him outclassed on all counts. She sticks to the shadows, taunting him with terms like 'ten cent man,' and shooting him in the arm before moving again. The Hammer chases her out of the building, around the corner - and right into her sights. Determined to go out classy as he came in, he asks her to grant his dying request, and flash him (not the way he phrased it, for the record.)

Meanwhile, Cooper's holed up in the mock-jail tending his wounds and realizing all the other contestants have bounties, the biggest bounty belonging to the lady, who has caught up to him. But wait, she's got an offer. If Cooper kills himself, she promises to make sure his wife and son are looked after. Cooper agrees, but it's a sin to commit suicide, so he asks if she'll do it, promising to give her his back if she gives him a moment to prepare.

He uses that moment to ready the TNT that left in the jail as a potential weapons and sneak out the back door. When she walks in, kaboom. He did have his back turned to her when he pushed the plunger, so he kept his word. Technically. Well, she's dead, so there's no one to know he lied but him. I suspect it won't bother him much, especially as he's now 10 grand richer and going back to Missouri with his family. 

{6th longbox, 112th comic. Lead City #4, by Eric Borden (writer), Kyle Brummond (artist)} 

Random Back Issues #139 - Lead City #1

Colman Cooper, his wife Pearl and their son, are heading west in a wagon train. As you can see, that didn't go well, and they fell behind enough they went ahead and tried a different route. Which results in their being caught in a blizzard and Pearl taking sick.

Things are looking bleak, but the storm passes and lo, there's a town ahead! Two towns, actually. One on a hill overlooking the other. Recognizing it's better to scout the high ground first (reduces the chance of something dropping a boulder on your head), Colman enters the town on the hill and finds. . .the remnants of some sort of battle. Spent cartridges, bloodstains, a real mess.

He does find one live person, who advises him to seek the doctor in the town, Duganville, below. he also advises Colman not to enter Lead City unarmed in the future. Well, sure, a town built on mining lead, you need tools for that.

The doctor diagnoses Pearl with diptheria, and with some annual event about to take place, price gouging is all the rage. Colman tries holding back enough money for supper for him and his son. No dice. OK, save enough for supper for his kid. Sorry, no. But maybe if he sells his oxen. . .

Medicine acquired, with enough left over for dinner - and cake for Isaiah! - the quiet evening's disrupted by some loudmouth proclaiming himself the "Huntsville Hammer", who almost immediately locks horns with a doughy Irishman named Neil Kelly. But any fight will have to wait, because the board is open!

What that means isn't immediately clear, but the Hammer and Kelly both throw their names in the ring, with money to back it up. Four more follow in succession, although Jiao Long Ru Ren draws Kelly's attention (and mockery). Meanwhile, Colman figures out what's going on, and sends Isaiah to retrieve a gift for Pearl the boy was hiding for his dad. By the time he returns, the man Colman met on the hill explains this is for a free-for-all gunfight, with big-time killers all after a 10 grand prize, and Colman don't want no part of this!

But Colman disagrees and, even after a very large black man in a Union uniform, carrying a tiny Native American girl doll and the title, "Reb Stalker Walker" enters the competition, pays into the mix with a silver locket or watch, something like that. That makes 8 contestants, so the field is set, and the fun begins the next morning.

{6th longbox, 81st comic. Lead City #1, by Eric Borden (writer), Kyle Brummond (artist)}

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.

What I Bought 9/3/2022 - Part 1

Nothing like getting Labor Day off. Short work week this week! Whoooooo! So let's start off another round of reviews with a couple of books that are wrapping up storylines. Did either of them manage a satisfying conclusion?

West of Sundown #5, by Tim Seeley and Aaron Campbell (writers), Jim Terry (artist), Triona Farrell (colorist), Crank! (letterer) - Ma'am, I understand you're busy trying to claw into that metal vault, but I'd recommend adjusting your dress before there's a wardrobe malfunction.

Dooley, Griffin, the sheriff and the Monster decide they are going to let this Herzog guy get his way. Which is to use the blood of Rosa's father to create a doorway to a place where he can become a godlike being. I'm not at all clear on why that would work, but apparently it will. While the Monster kills the weird little critters in large numbers, the others sneak into the barn.

Rosa wants nothing to do with any of it, but her father convinces her that she does care about Dooley, as the sole being to form a connection with her. She's still about die, but Dooley kills Herzog with a crooked rifle, then Rosa lets the Monster, sorry Mr. Dirck, throw her father into that shadow realm.

In the aftermath, everyone tries to return to their lives. Dirck becomes a reverend in town, Rosa offers the land of her birth to Mr. Manor and his wife, as a sort of apology for buying his bar/hotel. Griffin hangs around to run an apothecary, and experiment on those little creatures. The lizard lady made it back to her creator, Dr. Moreau, who is now interested in Sangre del Moro.

Seeley and Campbell make it very clear that Rosa harbors no affection for her father, given she encourages Mr. Dirck to dispatch him. She doesn't even look at him until he's being chucked in. Which explains why they kind of brush over that reunion. It felt like the sort of thing that might get more page time, but if Rosa doesn't care, I suppose we shouldn't either.

Makes it all the odder she listens when he tells her Dooley is important to her. Really? She seemed entirely content to leave with her native earth whether Dooley came with or not. She's shown walking by herself, singing beforehand. There's not the slightest hint of her reconsidering until her dad reaches out with his mind. One could argue she looked after him when he was injured, but could also argue that was when she was still without the native soil she needed to heal. She still needed someone to watch her back. Considering she got stabbed in it this issue, maybe she still does.

Lead City #4, by Eric Borden (writer), Kyle Brummond (artist) - It's like they got wild with the size-changing tea and cake from Alice in Wonderland.

Colman squares off with Kavinder Singh, who takes a bottle across the face with little concern and throws Coman headfirst through a window. Which doesn't tear up his face, interestingly. Colman almost literally falls into a shotgun (which I feel like Brummond draws as looking too new of a model, but oh well), and then there were three. The farmer, the lady, and the crazy redneck with the hammer. But the lady takes care of the idiot, mostly by goading him into being stupid and chasing her blindly into getting his head blown open. Which Brummond illustrates with eyeball and scalp and hair being flung backwards and apart.

Down to two, and Colman's bleeding and hiding out in a jail. She tracks him, makes him an offer. Kill yourself, I'll look after your wife and kids. Colman agrees to 'give her his back,', but suicides go to Hell. Will she kill him quick? There's praying, but I'm not clear if he's praying aloud and she's just listening, or if she's praying aloud for him. Either way, Colman found a lot of TNT in that jail, which he used to blow it, and her, up.

Don't worry, his back was to the jail when he depressed the plunger, so he did technically give her his back. She just wasn't in any position to shoot it. I guess the argument would be, she didn't hesitate to shoot that one guy that had the drop on her but didn't want to backshoot her. So if she's foolish enough to offer mercy now, then she deserves to get hoist on the same as that guy. A lesson in not underestimating one's opponent?

Having won the prize, Colman and his family decide to go back to Missouri. Look man, I live here and I wouldn't recommend coming back. I'm not really sure how I feel about the ending. I'm not disappointed Colman survived, but I'm not ecstatic about it, either. Borden adds in that all the other contestants have bounties, something Colman discovers in the jail, but without knowing the particulars, that doesn't tell me much. You kill the wrong rich, connected asshole and you can get a bounty. It doesn't necessarily sell me on the notion Colman was the only righteous or worthy contestant.

Overall, the pacing just feels a little off. Like the book needed more time to flesh out the characters, because even Colman doesn't seem like he progressed much beyond a cardboard outline. Former solider, trying to be good husband/father. Not much else beyond that, and less for the others. So there wasn't much emotional impact to any of the deaths or the battles, because we don't know them enough to care who wins.

What I Bought 5/28/2022 - Part 2

Welcome to June, where the weather is actually cooler than it was the last few days of May. I can never decide if I'd rather have the more worse weather on the weekends, when I don't necessarily have to do anything, or during the work week, when I wouldn't be out having fun anyway, but I have to at least get up and go to work.

Lead City #3, by Eric Borden (writer), Kyle Brummond (artist) - The cover is an assortment of panels from the interior of the comic, so I don't see the need to say anything else about it.

It's an issue of fighting and killing. Colman had a bead on Dolores from the high ground, but goes after Kavinder Singh instead. He doesn't kill him, either, which seems like a deliberate choice. Borden has him note he's down to his last shot, and then Colman shoots Kavinder in the foot. Doesn't seem to slow the guy down much, as he catches up to Colman while he's talking with Leslie Sharp (already dying from getting gutshot by Dolores last issue) and Kavinder cuts Sharp open like a hog he's slaughtering.

I still think Colman's making it out of this somehow, but it's getting harder to see how. He doesn't seem on board with the killing. When Sharp dies, Brummond draws a reaction panel for Colman where he has these wide eyes that made me laugh. Like he didn't think this tournament of death was going to involve people actually dying.

The rest of the issue is given to a fight between Jiao Long and Major "Reb Stalker" Walker, the latter of whom speaks to a doll he carries around. It's the classic, "skilled little man vs. incredibly strong big man," fight. Borden and Brummond manage to keep it interesting, with the advantage swinging from one to the other. Jiao tries strangling Walker at one point, and seems to have it cinched, but his foot slips, he loses his leverage and things shift. But then Walker can't seem to actually hit him. Back-and-forth. 

Walker also tells Jiao someone tried lynching him already and Brummond draws his neck as being this impossibly thick mass with veins (or tendons?) bulging out of it. Kind of an odd choice, rather than going with the classic rope scar signifier. Unless the point was they couldn't lynch him because his neck is so powerful.

With one issue to go, there's still four contestants standing.

Moon Knight #11, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alessandro Cappuccio (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Trapped him in an Hourglass of Death. Very Silver Age.

Zodiac gave Jigsaw the opportunity to guard Dr. Sterman, but this confrontation with Moon Knight didn't go any better for him than the last one did. Might be irrelevant because Zodiac is outside the Midnight Mission with a bunch of mercs. He's down three, but Hunter's Moon is out of commission, and unless Reese comes out to be killed, he'll kill all the other people in the neighborhood.

So with no way to get back in time, Marc asks for Khonshu's help, a decision I'm sure will have no consequences later. He and Tigra are on their way, but time's up and Soldier is going to try and pull a fast one on Zodiac. Eh, good luck with that. I think Cappuccio actually tries to draw the "Mr. Knight" suit as not fitting as well on Soldier as it does on Marc. It usually looks immaculate when Marc wears it, even if he's moving through a dirty alley, but it's wrinkled and actually bunching in places. Of course, Marc and Solider probably aren't exactly the same dimensions, but it could be because it means something different when Marc wears that outfit versus someone else. For Soldier, it's just a set of clothes. For Marc, it's a ceremonial garb.

There's not a lot else to discuss. MacKay doesn't exactly overstuff this series with plot; it's more a a mood thing. Marc losing himself in beating Jigsaw, or having to ask Khonshu for help, knowing it's going to cost. The page where he admits he knew Tigra's been reporting to T'Challa on him, but it was OK, because he understood why the Avengers would want to keep tabs on him, and he needed a friend. He's in a mess of his own making, the result of bad decisions he's made going back years. Probably going back to when he became a mercenary, and he can't ever quite get clear of them. Can't be done with the violence, can't be done with Khonshu, can't be done with not being trusted or even trusting himself.

What I Bought 4/30/2022 - Part 2

Like I said, the four books split up neatly. These two are the first two issues of a 4-issue mini-series. Did they convince me to buy the remaining two issues when they come out? Read on and find out.

Lead City #1 and 2, by Eric Borden (writer), Kyle Brummond (artist) - Someone brought a gun to a snowball fight. Everything always escalates these days.

The first issue is set-up. The general notion of who Colman Cooper is and why he ended up in this tournament of death. He's a husband and father, they're going West, but their version of Oregon Trail has been particularly rough, and it took all they had to treat the diphtheria his wife came down with. If they're going any further, they need money, so why not enter an 8-person, winner-take-all battle to the death for 10 grand? This is in 1873, mind, which an online inflation calculator I just checked says in equal to almost a quarter-million dollars now.

The second issue is. . . also set-up. For the first half, at least. We learn a little more about Colman from his son talking to another competitor, and a little about some of the others, even if it's just where they're from. We get a sense of the rules of the game, such as they are, and then the fighting starts. One contestant has died already, and I'm not sure whether another bit the dust as well. Probably not since we don't see the body, and it was a gut shot, but I'm not positive the guy in the background of the last panel with the rifle is the same one who got shot.

Borden and Brummond are going to have pack a lot of fighting and killing into the remaining two issues. Which I guess is why it's a free-for-all battle. Plenty of chances for someone to swoop in and kill two people who are in the middle of killing each other. The bodies can start stacking up quickly. I'm curious if there's going to be any more attempts at fleshing out the other fighters, or if we're past that portion of the story and it's just killing time. Although they could always do both. You can reveal stuff about a character from how they fight, if you know how.

Brummond mostly uses 4-6 panels per page, but switched to a 9-panel grid for the brief fight between Neil Kelly and Jiao Long Ru Ren. For that page, the panels are a basic action-reaction thing, showing the progress of the fight (such as it is) in the brief moments. I'd expect a lot of panels to make it seem slow, but each one is so closely focused my eye kept zipping on the next one. It helps give the sense all this really happened in just a few seconds.

Brummond switches between drawing Colman with his hat brim shadowing his eyes, which makes him look the park of the grim gunslinger, and looking up at him or from some other angle where his entire face is plainly visible. Which makes look like some poor dope of a homesteader, in over his head. I would think the extreme upwards angle panels were meant to be from his son's perspective, how he sees his dad. Except one, the kid seems pretty confident his dad is a tough fighter, which doesn't match the "homesteader" look, and two, Brummond draws a lot of characters from that perspective at one point or the other. It really messes with my perception of how large everyone's nose is.

As to the question of whether I plan to buy the remaining two issues, the answer is yes. It's intriguing enough I want to see how it plays out. It feels like Colman's going to win, but maybe he doesn't and the winner gives his kid the money. I imagine that'll only work if the lady wins, though. Not sure she cares about the money.