{"id":25697,"date":"2022-04-21T08:00:49","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T08:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=25697"},"modified":"2022-04-20T15:54:08","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T15:54:08","slug":"jonah-hex-volume-3-origins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2022\/04\/21\/jonah-hex-volume-3-origins\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonah Hex volume 3: Origins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy <\/span>Jimmy Palmiotti<\/span><\/b>, <\/span>Justin Gray<\/span><\/b>, <\/span>Jordi Bernet<\/span><\/b>, and others (DC Comics)<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

ISBN: 978-1-84576-629-0 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Western is an odd genre that can be sub-divided into two discrete halves: the sparkly, shiny version that dominated kids’ books, comics and television for decades, <\/span>exempli<\/span>fied by Zane Grey stories and heroes <\/span>like<\/span> Roy Rogers and Gene Autry<\/span>.<\/span> Then there’s<\/span> the other <\/span>half<\/span>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That <\/span>kind <\/span>of cowboy<\/span> –<\/span> grimy, gritty, excessively dark and nihilistic<\/span> –<\/span>was done best for <\/span>decades<\/span> by Europeans in such strips as Jean-Michel Charlier’s <\/span>Lieutenant Blueberry<\/span><\/b> or Bonelli <\/span>&<\/span> Galleppini’s<\/span> Tex Willer<\/span><\/b> and<\/span> made their way into US culture through the films of Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jonah Hex<\/span><\/b> is very best of this latter sort.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

DC opened a stable of clean-cut gun-slingers <\/span>as<\/span> the super-hero genre <\/span>imploded <\/span>in 1949, with dashing and highly readable luminaries<\/span> like<\/span> Johnny Thunder<\/span><\/b>, <\/span>Nighthawk<\/span><\/b>, <\/span>The Trigger Twins<\/span><\/b>, <\/span>Matt<\/span><\/b> Savage<\/span><\/b> and dozens of others in a marketplace that seemed limitless in its voracious hunger for chaps in chaps.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However<\/span>,<\/span> all things end and by the early sixties th<\/span>e<\/span> sagebrush brigade had dwindled to a few venerable properties.<\/span> A<\/span> flurry of superheroes hogged the newsstands during the Silver Age from 1956, <\/span>but as<\/span> the 1960s <\/span>closed, <\/span>they were waning again and thematic changes in the cinematic Cowboy filtered through to a comics industry suffering its second super-hero retreat in twenty years.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All-Star Western<\/span><\/b> #1 was released with an August\/September 1970 cover date, filled with <\/span>Pow-Wow Smith<\/span><\/i> reprints, <\/span>and became <\/span>an all-new anthology with its second issue. <\/span>It<\/span> featured <\/span>numerous<\/span> creative all-stars, including Robert Kanigher, Neal Adams, Gray Morrow, Al Williamson, Gil Kane, Angelo Torres, <\/span>&<\/span> Dick Giordano, working on <\/span>Outlaw!<\/span><\/b>,<\/span> Billy the Kid<\/span><\/b> and cult sleeper-hit <\/span>El Diablo<\/span><\/b>:<\/span> combin<\/span>ing <\/span>shoot-<\/span>em<\/span>-up shenanigans with supernatural chills, in deference to the real hit genre-type that saved comics in those dark days<\/span> – horror stories.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I<\/span>ssue #10 introduc<\/span>ed<\/span> a disfigured, irascible<\/span>,<\/span> shockingly lethal bounty hunter created by writer John Albano & Tony <\/span>DeZu\u00c3\u00b1iga<\/span> and DC<\/span> finally<\/span> found its greatest and most enduring Western Warrior\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hex is the very model of <\/span>a<\/span> modern anti-hero<\/span>.<\/span> C<\/span>oarse, callous<\/span>,<\/span> proudly uneducated<\/span>,<\/span> the relentless <\/span>manhunter <\/span>is <\/span>clad in battered Confederate Grey, half his face lost to <\/span>a<\/span> hideous past injury<\/span>. He offers the aspect of<\/span> a brutal thug little better than the scum he hunt<\/span>s<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0 and <\/span>is <\/span>a man to avoid – or so you’d think on first appearances\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hex<\/span> is arguably the most memorable western comic character ever created. He’s certainly the darkest and most grippingly realised, as is the brutal and uncompromising world he inhabits. His 21<\/span>st<\/span> century revival portrayed him as a ruthless demon with gun or knife, hunting men for the price on their heads in the years following the American civil war.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This collection (reprinting issues #13-18 of the 2006 monthly series) revisits his origin and offers fascinating insights not only in gripping lead tale<\/span> ‘Retribution’<\/span><\/i> – illustrated by the utterly superb Jordi Bernet – but also in haunting, nihilistically evocative cautionary tale <\/span>‘The Ballad of Tallulah Black’<\/span><\/i> (beguiling painted by Phil Noto), and blackly comedic <\/span>‘I Walk Alone’<\/span><\/i>, drawn with unsuspected subtlety by Val Semeiks.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jonah Hex<\/span><\/b> was always the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Western for people who didn’t like Westerns\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and clich\u00c3\u00a9 aside, it’s still true. This is a perfect book for any adult beginning or returning to comics.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>
\n\u00c2\u00a9 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, Jordi Bernet, and others (DC Comics)\u00c2\u00a0 ISBN: 978-1-84576-629-0 (TPB\/Digital edition)\u00c2\u00a0 The Western is an odd genre that can be sub-divided into two discrete halves: the sparkly, shiny version that dominated kids’ books, comics and television for decades, exemplified by Zane Grey stories and heroes like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Jonah Hex volume 3: Origins”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[122,125,220],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical","category-humour","category-jonah-hex"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-6Gt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25699,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25697\/revisions\/25699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}