As alluded to in an earlier post, we made a family trip over to the VA comicon this weekend. It was Colleen’s first trip, and I guess she enjoyed herself. She at least satisfied her curiousity; you’d have to ask her for her impressions.

It’s always fun pointing the kids at the fifty-cent boxes with a fresh fiver to see what they come up with; and I ended up snagging the usual couple of oddball books, including an old issue of Career Girl Romance from 1970, the gleefully odd Marvel Team-Up #137, Marvel Two-in-One #99, featuring Rom: Spaceknight (which due to licensing issue will probably never get reprinted), Dazzler #1, and the complete four issue Rocket Raccoon limited series.

I also was greeted warmly by indie creator Dan Nokes from 21st Century Sandshark Studios, who’d seen the brief but favorable comments I made in this space about the preview edition of one of his books (and the cool comission sketch he did for Mary) at a previous con. I picked up some more of his books, including his latest, The Pistoleers #1, which I liked a hell of a lot, so much, that I’m going to review it below:

Pistoleers #1 (of 3) is a solid Wild West yarn, setting up what looks like a classic tale of revenge, crooked land grabs, and cliffhangers. It plays within the confines of the classic western genre, while making creative use of the oft-overlooked real-life diversity of the old west; including characters like a well-educated former slave, his adopted brother the freshly-graduated West Point officer, a sassy Irish lass who’s a crack shot with a revolver, and a wily Chinese street performer, whose recollections frame the story in flashback.

The art is striking, with heavy inks in stark black and white. Individual panels are often exaggerated and sometimes a little rough, though more often than not, this serves the story. Slightly skewed perspective and anatomy take a back seat to well-portrayed emotion on character’s faces (which is a real strength here). I was very impressed with the overall panel layout and page composition; it serves the story well, and is pleasing to the eye.

If I have any quibble, it’s that the font used for the lettering is sometimes difficult to read, and the text could have used another pass through a proofreader to catch a couple of spelling and typographical errors, but it’s nothing that pulled me out of the story (which is engrossing), and at least partly forgivable given that this is the product of a one-man shop. Please don’t let this stop you from seeking it out; the story Pistoleers is telling is worth reading.

Overall, it’s a good, fun read in the pulp western tradition; Call it definitely recommended. I’m looking forward to picking up the next issue when Dan puts it out later this year.