"He was a hero to some, a villain to others, and wherever he rode people spoke his name in whispers."
Joe R. Lansdale uses this quotation from Jonah Hex creator John Albano to both open and close this story. Albano wasn't exactly the best known comic book writer around, Johan Hex being his only well known creation. News of his death almost one year ago to the day was so sparse, I don't even think Newsarama reported it. Regardless, his work on Jonah Hex would inspire Lansdale (possibly best known to some of you as the writer who wrote the short story Bubba Ho-Tep is based on) to write 3 minis back in the 90's featuring Albano's creation. Fortunately a friend of mine who worked at a comic book store back then brought them to my attention when they were released. I say fortunately, because only Two Gun Mojo was ever collected in TPB, and even that's long out of print (like a good chunk of Lansdale's work sadly). It's the rare situation like this where I'd advocate torrenting or downloading, or whatever your chosen method of theft may be until a day comes when people demand these stories collected in some hardcover collection or something.
Yes, this stuff is so good it's worth stealing. Like much of Lansdale's writing, Jonah Hex: Two Gun Mojo is a mesh or Horror and Western with a lot of humor thrown in. What starts as a somewhat typical Western story staring former Confederate soldier turned Outlaw with a price on his head Jonah Hex, turns into a revenge story with Hex facing off against Doc "Cross" Williams and his zombified henchmen (including an undead Wild Bill Hickcock). The living dead isn't Hex's only problem though. Hex's biggest problems seem to be peoples' tendency to try to hang him, as well as his own typical bad luck. On the other hand, his luck at least tends to be better than the people who befriend him.
With all the shit Hex goes through in the five issues that make up this story, there are few more satisfying moments in comics than when Hex finally catches up with Williams at the end. Of course as great as the writing in this book is, it wouldn't be nearly as effective without the art team of Tim Truman (a favorite of mine), Sam Glanzman on inks, and Sam Parsons doing the color. The book could have no words to it and I'd recommend it on art alone. Never have characters and a setting so ugly, looked so beautiful. Terms like "Widescreen" and "Cinematic" comics have been thrown around for shit like the Authority and Ultimates, suggesting that the art style and panel layouts make the comics "feel" like movies. Usually all it does is full the comic up with splash pages making an issue a 2 minute read. Two Gun Mojo really does feel almost like reading a Western movie though, and it ain't padded with filler pages.
Fans of this will definitely want to check out the second mini, Riders of the Worm and Such. I kinda go back and forth as to which mini I like better. The final mini by Lansdale "Shadows West" is more optional reading. Only three issues long, and nowhere near as good as the first two, it might be a little disappointing if you read it last I suppose. For those who want to read some of the old Jonah Hex stuff, DC recently reprinted a lot of it in
this Showcase collection.
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