The complications of dark deeds continue to grow.
Creative Staff:
Story: Tim Seeley, Aaron Campbell
Art: Jim Terry
Colors: Triona Farrell
Letterer: Crank!
What They Say:
Dr. Moreau and his mysterious investors offer temptations too dark and delicious to resist, as the party is split, and old wounds are reopened with a scalpel. Dirck and Dooley find truth in the desert, as the Not-Men hunt for new flesh.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
One of the things I’ve come to love with Vault Comics’ works is that you get books that continue on when you wouldn’t expect them to get more. I really enjoyed the first storyline in the series and was surprised that it did well enough to get more since it feels like it’s, well, not a niche book but close to that. Tim Seeley’s still a name I definitely trust but I’m always wary because I know I’m going to get something good here yet I’m also going to get something that will be disturbing. With this property, he’s partnered with Aaron Campbell for the story here and they got things underway with a familiar story but one with enough hooks and teases as to how it’ll separate itself from the pack as it moves on. The artwork from Jim Terry continues to do great stuff in creating a particular mood and capturing the period well to make it feel like it’s of the time. It has a kind of earthiness that adds to that realism, especially with Triona Farrell’s color design. The character designs are great and the overall look and style of the book make it worth digging into for just that alone.
As this storyline moves forward we start to get to know more of the new players in things but also other elements making themselves more well-known. With our leading lady in Rosa entertaining the men that are promising her a lot, we see quickly how they know exactly what she is and the entertainment they derive from watching her. The manipulations are simple since she’s blood starved at this point but they’re willing to offer so much over the long run for her if she bends to their will in certain areas. And she’s bad enough off at this point where thinking straight isn’t in the cards. And that’s mostly going to impact Betty, as they want to watch Rosa dine on her. The problem is that the sheriff has tossed Betty in jail for stealing a lawman’s badge and she’s calling him out for his own thievery. Which is amusing since she was basically protecting him from going into the closed-off saloon where Rosa was entertaining these dastardly dudes.
The book is also continuing to expand on the larger mythology. Some of it is spent with Dirck and Dooley as they deal with at first escaping from Anne, which is just sheer luck really, before holing up with some of the locals that hide in small clusters out in the desert. Being the cast-offs from other tribes over the years, it’s a different kind of group but one where its dark history doesn’t surprise them too much considering what they’ve seen. And it comes in how some from there have been taken by Dr. Moreau for his experiments, which gives us time with the “good” Doctor explaining things to Griffin more as he shows him about the train cars. He’s basically lobotomized a lot of people in order to understand how to control them in his effort to create an ultimate man that can fight. It’s getting clearer where some of these storylines are going and you can see how it’s all going to turn into a brutal conflagration again, but one where our leading lady is going to possibly be a twisted mess in the middle of it.
In Summary:
West of Sundown continues to explore the strangeness going on in this area and it delivers the right kind of southwestern creepy vibes it needs to. The script handles it well enough but Jim Terry’s artwork with Farrell’s color design very much pushes it into something stronger and more distinctive to its advantage. I love the look of this book and the way it handles so many nighttime sequences. Seeley and Campbell are serving up a very fun book overall and I’m quite curious to see how far they’ll go with these new arrivals. The series doesn’t feel like one that wants to hold back much and is able to deliver the horror appropriate for the story and that continues to have me excited to see what’s next.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Vault Comics
Release Date: January 18th, 2023
MSRP: $3.99
