Deadskins! Part 1 & 2. Clay Adams and Alexandre O. Philippe (Writers), Leila del Duca (Pencils), Brett Nienburg (Colours), Charles Pritchett (Letters). Fried Comics (2020)

A very engaging and enjoyable horror comedy western. Shane, a fastidious young man takes a train west and awakes to find himself in the middle of a massacre. At the town he was going to he finds Jack, a blind man, is the sole inhabitant. Jack tells him everyone else has left including the woman Shane had come out to see. Shane, and Jack leave town to find the fort where Annie was headed for. It does not go well. The reveals are very well set up and the story moves at a sharp pace and the end is a great hook for the following parts.

Clay Adams and Alexandre O. Philippe have taken staples of the western genre and mixed them with bloody black comedy to great effect. Shane and Jack are a superb odd couple pairing, they play against each other with great effect. Shane has enough vigour and determination to not be annoying while also capable of being horrified and frightened. Jack is every old prospector town drunk that has ever limbed into a saddle and here is no trace of a cliché about him. The elements of the story are structured with great care, none overshadow or undermine the other, they fit together in a coherent, hugely enjoyable whole.

Leila del Duca’s art is a joy to read, it is expressive, lively and suitably exaggerated to catch the mix of the story. Shane and Jack spring off the page and establish themselves as rounded and credible. The West of westerns is delivered in each panel and full page, it is exactly the context that is needed to bring out all the elements of the story.

The colours by Brett Nienburg are astonishing, the way that red is used over the line art is stunning, it is not just blood it is a statement.

The letters by Charles Pritchett are easy to read, they do not distract the reader, they support the flow of the story with understated craft and skill.

Deadskins! Is a great fun comic and an excellent western.