Review by Frank Plowright

John Henry Holliday is known to history as Doc Holliday, and his involvement in a feud between the Clantons and the Earps in Tombstone in 1881 was a defining moment in Western legend. Despite being known as Doc, he was actually a dentist by trade, and an inveterate gambler who suffered from tuberculosis throughout his life.

So much for the legend. Nate Bowden follows Holliday’s story, but in Tombstone of the present day. Holliday is essentially the same personality, while Wyatt and Morgan Earp are recast as police officers and the Clantons as gangsters. By switching between the assorted cast members Bowden creates a complicated set of relationships, and unless a name is mentioned it’s often difficult to figure out who someone is and who they’re aligned with. That’s down to the way Doug Dabbs draws people and his generally fussy style, using unconventional viewpoints, too many lines and too much shadow and smudging. This settles down, as if Dabbs is learning on the job, and the deeper into Holliday we go, the more impressive the art becomes, especially the cinematic layouts on pivotal action scenes toward the end. However, the damage is done before then.

Holliday is well developed as a sardonic loner standing above ongoing conflicts, but a dangerous and deliberately provocative man who’ll cause trouble if it doesn’t come calling, and lacking a moral compass. His less social traits are exacerbated by his drinking, and Dabbs uses the possibilities of moving events a century forward to incorporate new ills contracted via a dissolute lifestyle.

The idea behind Holliday is good, but being unable to distinguish between so many characters over the first half set-up sabotages everything.