Review by Roy Boyd
Texas Jack Book 1 is another in Cinebook’s Expresso line – titles of just one or two volumes – so you know your commitment before you start. Although there were apparently real people called Texas Jack in the Wild West, this isn’t about any of them, but a work of fiction about a sharpshooting showman and his troupe of performers.
Pierre Dubois’ opening section switches between scenes of happy settlers enjoying a christening in the glorious sunshine, and a party of greedy businessmen meeting to discuss how to control everything and everyone in the state, and eventually the country. There are few shades of grey, with our villains nailing their colours to the mast from the get-go, one even amusingly channelling Judge Dredd’s “I am the law!” And not in a good way.
Back at the settlement, a storm blows in, both figuratively and literally, and the settlers are brutally murdered. The final scene, of infanticide, leaves us in little doubt about the calibre of the people we’re dealing with. Then, it’s straight into another scene where almost everyone is killed. Goodness, it’s like a cowboy Game of Thrones! The creators don’t hold back with bloody violence, and the book deserves its 15+ rating. And all of the above has occurred before we’ve even laid eyes on our eponymous hero.
We are eventually introduced to Texas Jack and his team, as they put on a circus show. After a demonstration of their abilities, Jack is enlisted by a government agent to track and apprehend Ironsmoke, the murderous villain of the piece. This strikes Jack as absurd. He’s a superb shot, but has never killed anyone. Shooting plates tossed into the air is one thing, living humans is something else entirely. The government man convinces Jack he’ll be kept safe and ably supported by a cavalry unit, and it’s being handled this way purely for the PR value.
Jack and some of his co-workers set out on their mission and – as if to prove how unsuited they are to the task – they’re soon ambushed, lose their guide and have their fat pulled out of the fire by a bunch of Marshals who are also tracking Ironsmoke. The two groups combine forces and continue their journey.
Dimitri Armand’s artwork is faultless throughout. It’s always easy to see what’s happening, and to whom, and he’s just as good at action as he is at conveying emotions. Colouring, composition and layouts are all handled skilfully. The same is true of Dubois’ script. It’s wordy, but rather than a poor translation, it appears to be a stylistic choice. Characters speak as if they’re in the superb Deadwood, which went for Shakespearean verbosity (sprinkled with a great deal of swearing). The book contains some types that it absolutely couldn’t do without, like the noble Indian savage, though it confounds expectations somewhat, with added wrinkles to make the characters more rounded and contemporary.
Like many better Westerns, this implicitly or overtly implies supernatural ¬ or almost biblical, elements ¬ especially when it comes to our villain. Either that, or he really needs to visit an optician, as glowing red eyes are rarely a good sign. Tales about such characters pre-dated the pulps, and no doubt passed on many tropes to those magazines and books, and then to comics later. In many ways, cowboys were superheroes before the term was even coined. This promising first book should leave readers keen to find out what happens in Book 2.
