By: Cullen Bunn (writer), Brian Hurtt (art), Bill Crabtree (colors), Douglas E. Sherwood (letters)
The Story: Becky and Drake are trapped in mystically frozen Fort.
Review: Well….that figures. A couple of weeks ago, Comixology had a sale where all back-issues of The Sixth Gun were 99 cents. I bought them all because a few of my comic friends loved the series and it sounded up my alley. They were right! It’s a great series that I should have been reading all along–“Deserving of the hype” and all that. But just when I add The Sixth Gun to the list of titles I regularly review, it tosses a ho-hum issue at me.
The biggest problem this issue faces is that not much happens. Last issue showed us Becky and Drake getting trapped at this snowbound Fort that has kinda slipped through a dimensional vortex into a mystical realm; our heroes are stuck, can’t get out and may need help from outside. This issue doesn’t show much happening beyond them considering eating their horses for food and a wolf-attack. It’s hard for me to assess if this series has always been paced this way because I just inhaled the first 24 issues in a week. It is natural for things to seem slower when you catch-up and then switch to single issues, but I’ve followed that same reading pattern with other series like The Walking Dead and Scalped and never thought they seemed slow.
I’m tempted to say that this was just an awkward issue and hope for more next time.
In more entertaining news, we do see the beginnings of a search party forming up. Good old Gord Cantrell has flitted in and out of the company of Becky and Drake since the beginning of the series, but it looks like he’s coming back “in” now, and he’s bringing some odd partners along for the ride. Let’s just say that the reunion will be, um, “uncomfortable”.
As always, the art is very strong. Hurtt’s linework never tries to show off; he’s just relentlessly telling the story panel-after-panel. Everything is so crisp and clear! Great artwork is such an asset for a series like The Sixth Gun. Any ongoing series will have lulls and given that TSG isn’t from a major publisher, it’s easy to see how it could shed readers during a lull, but not with this art. As long as Hurtt is doing his thing, this series is basically immune from ever having a worse grade than a B-.
Conclusion: Not the most happening issue of TSG, but the art is wonderful and I’m sure it’s just a matter of an issue or so until the action picks back up.
Grade: B
– Dean Stell