I’ve seen what he does to his victims. It’s unspeakable. It’s why I’ve vowed to stop him, no matter the cost.
That and the sizeable reward, of course.
Dark Horse Comics’ much-anticipated Weird West, paranormal-steampunk adventure has finally hit stores. Does it stand up to the hype? Click the jump for a review and preview pages for The Steam Man #1.
Written by Mark Alan Miller and Joe R. Lansdale, it’s a very fun read, throwing together a mix of the Wild West, Steampunk, aliens, and vampires. You’d think it’d end up a ridiculous mess, but it works very well. There’s just enough exposition to bring you up to speed, without slowing down the adventure.
(There’s also not so much exposition that you’d be able to poke holes in it: aliens attacked, and then died, and now there’s vampires and monsters running around. That’s all the characters know, so that’s all the reader knows. The rest we can all find out together.)
Into the catastrophe charges The Steam Man, a boiler-powered robot created and piloted by a band of adventurers. Some are in it for the money, but at least one person is in it for revenge. The dialog between them is full of quips and profanity, and very fun to read.
The art by Piotr Kowalski is wonderful. The colors are excellent, the lines are detailed without being confusing, and I loved the design of the aliens: very War of the Worlds, and they fit perfectly in a Weird West setting.
I’m looking forward to the second issue; the preview on Dark Horse promises killer albino apes and a vampire-induced apocalypse. I’m in.