{"id":33969,"date":"2025-10-08T08:00:34","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T08:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=33969"},"modified":"2025-10-06T16:46:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T16:46:58","slug":"secret-of-san-saba-a-tale-of-phantoms-and-greed-in-the-spanish-southwest-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/10\/08\/secret-of-san-saba-a-tale-of-phantoms-and-greed-in-the-spanish-southwest-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Secret of San Saba: A Tale of Phantoms and Greed in the Spanish Southwest"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy\u00a0Jack Jackson<\/strong>\u00a0(Kitchen Sink Press)
\nISBN: 978-0-87816-080-8 (HB) 978-0-87816-081-5 (Album TPB)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times. This book also includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> included for dramatic effect. <\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m reading most of my graphic novels digitally these days, and it\u2019s clear how much superb classic material – especially genre works with war and western themes – still isn\u2019t much of a priority to content providers yet.<\/p>\n

You try tracking down Sam Glanzman\u2019s The Haunted Tank<\/strong> or Joe Kubert Sgt. Rock<\/strong> compilations, or even a relatively well-exposed screen property like Jonah Hex<\/strong> (other than the admittedly superb Justin Grey\/Jimmy Palmiotti books of recent vintage) and see what joy you get…<\/p>\n

One of the most cruelly digitally excluded omissions is this stunningly impressive western horror mash-up from the inimitable Jack Jackson, still tragically only available in the original oversized (277 x 201 mm) monochrome softcover and hardback album editions, as originally published by Kitchen Sink as part of their Death Rattle<\/strong> Series.
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\nKnown as \u2018Jaxon\u2019 since his Underground Commix heyday, Jackson\u2019s infectious fascination with the history of Texas is a signature of much of his work even from the earliest days. Here he expertly combines a love of historical documentary with the fabulous Lovecraftian horrors of the cosmic void, resulting in a breathtaking and wonderful period supernatural thriller, skillfully woven into the fabric and lore of the Southwest desert lands\u2026<\/p>\n

When a silvery entity crashes to Earth in a blazing fireball, it galvanises the fading dreams of Xotl<\/em>, a young Faraone warrior who has lost faith in his gods.<\/p>\n

As years pass, native worship of the fearsomely fulgent power exhibited by the star-fallen thing grows, and when the mighty Apaches conquer the Faraone, the twice-defeated tribe turn to the newly arrived Europeans for help. This is a tragic, fatal mistake, albeit revealed too late… after the tribe finds that Priests and Colonists might speak of God but only truly worship wealth…
\n\"\"
\nCrucially, when the newcomers learn of the Cosmic Slug that fell from the stars, all they can see is the overwhelming wealth its silver mantle represents…<\/p>\n

The decades-long battle between Apaches and Missionaries to control the slimy silver wellspring makes for a powerful – if cynical \u2013 tale; one full of the intoxicating artistry, spellbinding storytelling, and the mesmerising aura of authenticity that is Jackson\u2019s most telling narrative tool. It\u2019s all based on the ancient Texas stories and legends of \u2018Blanco\u2019<\/em> and \u2018Negro Bultos\u2019<\/em> (supernatural treasure mounds): a most fantastic story which should be, has<\/em> to be true, if only because Jackson has drawn it. Moreover, it has inexplicably dropped out of print and has never been picked up for a movie. That alone is something really strange and sinister…
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\nSuperbly compelling, this is a must-read item for any serious fan of both comics and horror fiction, so let\u2019s have it back and out in every format possible, pretty please?
\n\u00a9 1989 Jack Jackson. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1897 Enid Blyton\u2019s Noddy <\/strong>illustrator was born. Sadly we\u2019ve got nothing on Dutch master Harmsen van der Beek<\/strong> so you\u2019ll need to buy one of the books if you can. We can however recommend a bunch of stuff by Harvey Pekar<\/strong>, who was born today in 1939: gems like American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar<\/a><\/strong>. Contemporary graphic novelist James Sturm<\/strong> was born today in 1965; he authored The Golem\u2019s Mighty Swing<\/a><\/strong> and other stuff like The Revival<\/strong>, Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules<\/strong> and Hundreds of Feet Below Daylight<\/strong> which I\u2019ll get around to one day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Jack Jackson\u00a0(Kitchen Sink Press) ISBN: 978-0-87816-080-8 (HB) 978-0-87816-081-5 (Album TPB) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. This book also includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect. I\u2019m reading most of my graphic novels digitally these days, and it\u2019s clear how much superb classic material – especially genre works with war and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Secret of San Saba: A Tale of Phantoms and Greed in the Spanish Southwest”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[191,122,66,111,99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-historical","category-horror-stories","category-satirepolitics","category-westerns"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8PT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33969","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=33969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33975,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33969\/revisions\/33975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}