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ALL-TRUE OUTLAW is a collection of Western stories written by Jamil Scalese and drawn/lettered by various collaborators following the adventures of blackhat baddies, troubled souls, outright villains and the perpetually misunderstood.

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Project: 100 Westerns: Part Nine: The Deadly Companions; Joshua; Mannaja: A Man Called Blade; News of the World

Posted on August, 2025 by JS

How yah henches?

We’re at the one-third mark in Project: 100 Westerns! It feels like I’ve watched way more than 30-something old(ish) movies since the beginning of the year, but the numbers don’t lie.

Again, the methodology of these picks is basically “vibes” (and maybe a cursory googling). Although we’ve learned by now that Westerns are seedy, dour affairs, this was a particularly shadowy batch of films.

#32. The Deadly Companions (1961)

Sam Peckinpah is considered one of Western’s most influential directors, which is pretty much predicated on his helming of The Wild Bunch, a beloved movie in the genre’s vast catalogue. Peckinpah is known for his brutal depiction of frontier life, one of the flagbearers of the Revisionist age. The Deadly Companions is his first feature as director, and though he reportedly had very little say-so over the film’s script or staging (to the point that he was only allowed to direct the female lead via her brother-in-law), this has Sam’s fingerprints all over it.

Based on an A.S. Fleischman novel, the movie follows Yellowleg (Brian Keith), a scalped former-soldier-turned-criminal, as he enters a Texas(?) town along with his outlaw compatriots, Billy and Turk (Steve Cochran and Chill Wills). Tragedy strikes when Yellowleg accidently kills a young boy during a shootout, and in his subsequent guilt he offers to escort Kit (Maureen O’Hara), the boy’s mother, to an abandoned town to bury him next to his father.

That general plot creates immediate tautness in the movie, with the added danger that Billy is revving to assault Kit at the first available moment. The ugliness of a Peckinpah Western is woven in from the first thread, and initially you have a hard time feeling good about any of these characters, though you certainly sympathize with them.

The general quality of the movie’s print, as well as some glaring technical mistakes, mar the interesting premise. The visual and audio qualities are shoddy, to say the least, and demonstrate the learning curve of a first time director. Good luck seeing anything during the scenes shot at night or inside caves!

Keith and O’Hara save this from being a disaster though. Despite a sagging second act that basically wanders in the wilderness, the two offer very good performances as a couple of despondent souls in need of any glimmer of hope. Yellowleg and Kit trauma-bond a little too fast, but at the same time these two fuck-ups make a believable couple.

In the end, an enjoyable film about joylessness, I guess.

#33. Joshua (1976)

Ah, so the quality of this movie makes The Deadly Companions look like celluloid gold.

Alternately titled Black Rider, Joshua the Black Rider, or Revenge, this tale is super straightforward and without frills: Joshua is a soldier returning from war, but when arriving at the homestead in which his mother works, he finds she’s been murdered by a roving sect of assholes.

Blaxploitation movie stalwart Fred Williamson wrote and stars in Joshua, and does a fine enough job moving through the story like the hardened killer he’s supposed to be. Josh rarely speaks, and explains his actions even less. He’s driven by revenge and misses his momma, and that’s all we really know about him. This type of character can work, and even thrive, in the Western setting, but when the world around the silent mercenary type is devoid of richness and texture, it makes the shortcomings of the main character’s whole deal all the more glaring.

It doesn’t help that this is one visually fuzzy movie, and it’s brimming with some of the worst acting I’ve seen yet during Project: 100. The movie’s pack of villains are cartoonish, freakishly rotten and stupid, and just about anyone with a speaking line sounds like they’re in 5th grade reading a book report about something they barely skimmed. Additionally, the movie’s score is like this New Wave inspired twangy thing that just doesn’t know when to fade out.

I wouldn’t say this was an absolute struggle to get through, it’s got enough action and violence to offset the bland parts, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone outside of Williamson fans. The most interesting part may have come at the very end, when Joshua decides to kill the homesteader’s abducted wife (who is literally nameless) after the movie sorta indicated he was on a rescue mission. It reinforces the central conceit that this guy is hollowed out by wartime murdering, and has almost nothing left to live for.

#34. Mannaja: The Man Called Blade (1977)

 

“For twenty years, my only dream was to face you down and kill you for what you did to my father. And you know, you are not worth the brass of my seven petty cartridges.”

A crafty and properly violent Italian Western, this one follows the same verve as Joshua, but to better affect.

Maurizio Merli plays the mercenary Mannaja, a standard gunfighter type that we’ve seen in dozens of these films. He’s smooth, handsome, rugged and has little time for your bullshit. Using his preferred weapon of a tomahawk, he’ll slice through you to get what he wants.

Ultimately, Mannaja is driven by a mission of personal vengeance and the occasion for this story is that he finally finds McGowan (Philippe Leroy), the businessman who killed his father and stole his land. The plot turns when the now old man commissions the merc to rescue his daughter from a turncoat foreman, which then turns out very badly for Mannaja. This development helps evolve a fairly trope-heavy movie into something a little different in its final act.

There’s a nice balance of Spaghetti trappings and originality here. The action you would expect is all here — prolonged gunfights and powerful explosions and brutal fistfights — but also thoughtful dialogue and nonphysical obstacles for our protagonist to overcome. The rotation of villains is also engaging, as Mannaja deals with several different calibers of baddie. Right on the good/bad fulcrum is the soundtrack, which is anchored on an interesting ballad by Oliver Onions, but is then repeated like five different times during the course of the 90-min affair.

The flavor of Mannaja: A Man Called Blade is quite spicy. Merli does his job transitioning from one badass mannaja into periled antihero, and expected elements of a hearty Western are all there. The movie won’t blow you away, but fine enough for a lazy watch.

#35. News of the World (2020)

After all the rough edits, blurry visuals and ear affronts, I needed to cleanse the palette with a modern production and an A-lister star.

Set in Texas during Reconstruction, this movie about loss and reclamation is beautifully shot, and smartly paced, literally and figuratively. Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks) is a former Confederate turned newsreader, a job that makes him sort of a precursor to late night show hosts. The drama begins when he comes across a twice-orphaned girl in the woods, a child abducted from a German couple then raised by native for six years. The story follows Kidd as he shepherds her back to her only living relatives near his hometown of San Antonio.

You can really tell the script is based off of a book (by Paulette Jiles), its choice of narrative flow and switching locales is novelistic. Kidd and Johanna (Helena Zengel) encounter many dangers, from abductors to militias to dust storms, and through those trials we discover their respective unhealed wounds. There’s a lot of The Deadly Companions in the spirit of this story, two damaged individuals on a journey, but executed better in nearly every way. Turns out, a huge budget helps!

Hanks is Hanks, just simply very good as the main beast pulling the wagon. Zengel shines as his primary scene partner, playing a complicated part of a child of two worlds entering a third. Also I just love how this movie looks, as well. The set pieces and costuming is top-notch.

Debuting during a pandemic year certainly hurt this movie’s distribution, as I rarely see it mentioned in discussions about quality contemporary Westerns, but it’s up there.

I think in the next installment, I’m going to at least try to pick something lighter…if that’s even possible in the Western world!

Check back on Sept 1st, 2025 for a new Satterwhite & Fosgrove comic!🔍🤠

 

Westward!

 

~Jamil

Comic Nine: Taking a Life

Posted on August, 2025 by JS

Greetings Westheads,

With Freakier Friday coming out this week past weekend, now’s a perfect time to talk “Taking a Life”.

In our newest comic, with art by Claudio Muñoz and letters by Marina Leon, the story opens with the protagonist, a drifter named Shout, procuring a US Marshals badge from a dead man. This idea of the “body snatcher” trope is nothing new, and it’s been done plenty of times through the cop/criminal prism. Think Blue Streak, or Face/Off, or Banshee. 

It’s a hella provocative trope, one that sees play across all types of stories and mediums. The life swap story instantly creates tension into a plot, going back to the Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper. The elements of the story lead’s new life are surprises both to the “hero” and the audience, and there’s a sort of ticking time bomb behind the idea that this change will come crashing down at any moment. Whether it’s an undercover cop in Donnie Brasco, or a guy evading a loan shark in Houseguest, the foreboding spectre of consequences is always lurking.

This type of story is not uncommon in world of Westerns, there’s a lot of tales where the stranger in town is not who he seems and this becomes a central conflict in the story. My mind goes to the utterly fantastic Revisionist Western McCabe and Mrs. Miller, where it’s strongly suggested the lead is an imposter and a coward.

So, that was a launching point for “Taking a Life”, but by the final page, one of the best I’ve written in my career, I tried to flip the whole thing on its head. Let me know if we were successful!

To bring this story to life, I needed someone who understands the look and feel of a classic Western setting, and that was obviously Claudio, who you may remember was the artist for our inaugural story, Horror on Hogger Hill. As soon as I saw the character sketches for that project, which was years ago now, I knew I wanted to work him again. Claudio just gets it. His art has an edge that marries with the genre very well. It’s a style that feels like a Spaghetti Western come to life, sort of dirty but precise and thoughtful. His approach to the page is to be commended.

On letters is Marina, who was a real pleasure to work with. Her professionalism and ability was apparent from the first batch of mockups. There were some tricky spots in this story, and she nailed it in terms of glyphs.

Welp, that’s another story in the bag. Nine total so far, which is a helluvah feat for the creative teams and I. Ecstatic to be doing it, and hopefully you’re picking up what we’re laying down.

If so, please, please, please follow us on Instagram and Bluesky and sign up for that gosh darn newsletter!

Westward!

 

~Jamil

Project: 100 Westerns: Part Eight: Last of the Wild Horses; Stars in My Crown; Shanghai Noon; China 9, Liberty 37

Posted on July, 2025 by JS

Salutations street-toughs,

Welcome back to Project: 100 Westerns!  We’re approaching the one-third mark in my endeavor to watch 100 Westerns, and I’m starting to get a little more adventurous in my picks. This quartet might be the most dissimilar group I’ve tackled yet.

Read on, loyal reader!

#28. Last of the Wild Horses – MST3K Version (1948/1994)

“Here’s where the sepia tone really pays off.”

Since we slid a bit in Sci-fi with this month’s release of Glistening Scar (by Dan Lauer, Amal Desai and myself) I thought it apt to rope in one of my all-time favorite TV shows: Mystery Science Theater 3000.

If you’re not in the know, MST3K stars the literal captive audience of a normal human dude and a pair of robots, documenting their mockery of a real-life bad movie. The features very often tilt toward science-fiction realms, but not always, as is the case of Last of the Wild Horses.

It’s a sloggy movie, gray as hell with terrible audio quality. It follows Duke (James Ellison), a bandit on the path to reform after his recruitment onto a horse farm. There’s a romance with the farmer’s daughter somewhere in there, and a smattering of frontier (in)justice, for good measure. This is a paint-by-numbers Western in just about every way. Except the palette is gray, light-gray, almost white, storm cloud and ash.

For fans of the show, this episode is famous for a Star Trek inspired switcheroo: in a multiversal accident, the series’ villains, Dr. Forrester and his sidekick TV’s Frank (aka The Mads) are the ones in the theater mocking the film through the first segment. It’s a treat for the aficionados, and a hidden gem in the deep catalogue of “experiments” constituting the show’s run.

In terms of the movie inside the TV show, I think one needs the MST3K enhancements to get through this piece of cinema. As Crow complains about halfway through: “The movie’s just starting to mosey now! The pace is rough sledding, and this viewer can only handle so many transition shots of people walking someplace before the scene even bothers to start.

#29. Stars in My Crown (1950)

This is labeled Western but is more of a “Southern”. It slants way more toward “historical piece” than “adventure story”.

For the creative conglomerates that produced a film like this, something like Stars in My Crown are the tales of their (great-)grandparents, the happenings still in the living memory of their elders. And indeed, it’s based off of a novel by Joe David Brown, inspired by the memory of his preacher grandfather.

The movie sort of starts out like a traditional Western: a parson named Josiah Gray (Joel McCrea) saunters into the town of Walesburg, Tennessee and immediately enters the local saloon to give a sermon. When the unruly patrons scoff at this attempt, Gray pulls out two handguns and continues to preach at gunpoint. This sets up the parson as a no-nonsense type with a bit of a jagged edge, but honestly, this aura of gruffness dissipates quickly through the first act. Guns and power play only a small part in this story.

Rather, the film revolves around the challenges of Gray to bring more morality and kindness to Walesburg. The slow building A-plot concerns freed slave Uncle “Famous” (Juano Hernandez) as he fends off a wealthy mine owner looking to obtain his land; the B-plot turns on an outbreak of “slow fever” that pits the parson and the town doctor (James Mitchell) against each other in an ideological spat.

The story overall is a bit Pollyanna, but pleasant and put together well. Gray continuously inspires the town through his good nature and the adherence to his values and teachings, and the final scene or two are quite charming and earned. It also gets a few bonus points for one of the best character names I’ve ever seen – Chloroform Wiggins.

#30. Shanghai Noon (2000)

 

There’s a large bracket of folks who were raised during the Age of (Cable) TV, which I would loosely define from the 1960s until about a decade ago. For these watchers, certain movies or programs seem to be stalwarts of the medium. The reruns were constant, and the stuff that played repeatedly become ingrained into the cultural zeitgeist.

Shanghai Noon certainly fits into that category, for me, at least. This movie appeared in the scrollable channel guide a whole lot in my teen years, but to be honest, I’m not entirely sure I ever really watched it front-to-back. It was definitely one of those movies you sort of flip on and play in the background until you find something better to do.

Honestly, I forgot the reason a station would put a movie like this into heavy rotation is because it’s actually pretty good.

In the current age of Western, where the current offerings slant generally into either “low-budget” or “arthouse” we need more movies like Shanghai Noon. The movie follows the buddy flick formula, teaming two oddballs on a mission full of action and humor. We have Owen Wilson’s Roy O’Bannon – who we discover in the last minute is also somehow Wyatt Earp – a womanizing thief recently expelled from his own gang, and Jackie Chan’s Chon Wang – a play on “John Wayne” – a Chinese Imperial Guard on a mission to save an abducted princess (Lucy Liu). This plot and casting is pretty obviously trying to catch and harness the magic of Chan’s mega hit Rush Hour, and it comes very close to achieving that vibe.

The movie plays off of a lot of the Western tropes for comedic effect, but stops short of satire or parody. It’s an absurd movie, and the tonal quality is just right, for the most part. There are amazing comedic sequences (of note is the scene where Roy and Chon get blitzed in bathtubs) and Chan’s action choreography injects a super fun element into a fairly average series of plot churns.

This is a good popcorn flick, and it almost makes me want to take back what I’ve said previously about the Comedy Western’s effectiveness. There’s a lesson here about what tenor and inspiration this subgenre should take on, and generally the Western needs more high concept ideas and a more high-flying atmosphere if it wants to attract mainstream audiences again.

#31. China 9, Liberty 37 (1978)

“I need you tonight, and I hate you for it.”

No, you’re not reading the score of an odd football matchup. This methodical Western (with a heavy tint of love story) is led by Fabio Testi and directed by Monte Hellman. It was released in 1978 under the title Amore piombo e furore (“Love, Lead, and Fury”) but didn’t reach the US until 1984.

Basic plot rundown: Mere minutes before his scheduled hanging, gunfighter Clay Drumm is tasked by a railroad company to kill a man whose property they covet. After spending a few days with Matt (Warren Oates) and his wife Catherine (Jenny Agutter), Clay decides against murder…but does engage in an affair with the wife, which leads to the pair fleeing a scorned Matt and his clan. Bullets fly, the damsel changes hands a couple times and the guy on the horse tries to save the day.

The movie leans heavily on extended takes, cheesecake/beefcake and a lively soundtrack. The flavor of the Italian-Spanish Western is as thick as Testi’s accent. It takes a long, long while for the audience to feel the friction of the plot. Maybe a third of the movie is spent introducing us to the characters and their surroundings, and in formulaic fashion, the last third pops with gunfire and sex. What normally keeps a movie like that afloat is either compelling camera work or inspired repartee, neither which isn’t exactly crackling in this. The dubbing and audio is a speck slipshod, as well. I try not to watch with captions but this time I just had to.

The romance at the heart works via the effort of Testi and Agutter. The atmosphere of syrupy lust is sometimes too thick, the attraction between Clayton and Catherine is prominent and immediate. It’s not until much later in the film, after danger has entwined them even further, that you feel their genuine connection and a fear for their romantic future.

I liked China 9, Liberty 37 more than the other Hellman (Ride in a Whirlwind) and Testi (Dead Men Ride) films I’ve previously reviewed for this column. It has a jumbled morality and a bare plot but the steady quality provides enough juice to get you to the ending credits.

Good movie! Though, I would still like to see The People’s Republic of China and Liberty University play football.

This was maybe my smoothest group so far. Nothing felt like a chore.

We have a new comic release on Aug 4th, 2025! A revenge story gone wrong!

And remember to follow on the social accounts: Instagram, Bluesky, X and Facebook! Every like, comment and share helps us exponentially.

Westward!

 

~Jamil

Comic Eight: Glistening Scar

Posted on July, 2025 by JS

Ciao cowpokes,

To those in the Western Hemisphere: staying cool?

It’s been a swampy last few weeks here in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Lots of heat punctuated by thick droplets of rain. But that does not dissolve our resolve!

Last week we premiered “Glistening Scar” by me, Dan Lauer and Amal Desai. The story follows K.P. Roc, a small town sheriff in Montana Territory, as he deals with the aftermath of strange outsiders who visited the town years earlier.

I love Westerns (duh), but I love Sci-fi even more. A genre that’s even broader than the Western, Science Fiction is a never-ending horizon of wonder and wit. Aliens, technology, time-travel, war and weaponry, society and politics – these are topics that storytelling with a futuristic slant tackle so well. Authors like Wells, Bradbury, Ellison, Applegate, Coville and a billion comic book writers shaped my youth in untold ways. That’s not even jumping into the vast worlds of TV and film, where sci-fi has expands and thrives exponentially.

Chief among those stories is the venerable Star Trek franchise, a mainstay of the genre for 60 years (and still going!). I love Trek, and recently I’ve engaged in (re-)watching the bulk of the series and movies. As is known, creator Gene Roddenberry promoted the The Original Series as a sort of a Western set in space, and the franchise has a special relationship with the Old West, with at a handful episodes ( namely, “Spectre of the Gun”, ” A Fistful of Datas”, “The Magnificent Ferengi” and “Horizon”) that homage those aesthetics.

In many sci-fi worlds where time travel is a possibility, there are certain periods where it feels almost obligatory for the protagonists to wade around in. 70s hippy culture, the medieval era, prehistoric cave-man time…but maybe above all, time-hopping stories love a Western setting. There’s an allure to cowboy hats and saloon fights and horses that keeps the temporal journeymen coming back.

That idea launched “Glistening Scar”. What happens after the strange, new visitors muck things up on the thoroughfare and go back to their adventures elsewhen? What kind of impact would have have on a community?

I enlisted Dan to execute this story, and I’m extremely satisfied with the result. I love his style, sort of edgy and fierce, but with a supple tone that lets him operate in a gritty/friendly mash-up that evokes the marriage of a Sci-fi Western. Dan hit the landing on so many aspects of this story, from the character designs, to the landscapes and nature, and of course some of the weirder elements, like terrifying animal/machine hybrids.

Amal (who also designed the All-True logo!) was just the guy I needed to letter this story. We did some tricky narration things here, and all that is laid out on the page in a concise and satisfying way, thanks to him. Amal’s professionalism, speed and openness to collaboration are all traits to be admired.

This story, a lot like “The Splendid Fleeing”, is one where I could have written sooo much more — like issues upon issues — but I think we did a really great job of laying down the roots of the world and rattling off a cool plot and interesting characters in ten awesome-looking pages.

I hope you enjoy this one, and as always:

 

Westward!

~Jamil

Project: 100 Westerns: Part Seven: Black Patch; Hombre; Noose for a Gunman; Quantum Cowboys

Posted on June, 2025 by JS

Hi homesteaders,

This is another post for Project: 100 Westerns, where I watch anything under the genre umbrella and tell if you rocked or sucked. I’m fixin’ to watch 100 Westerns, no matter how long it takes me.

In this group of four, I took in a trio of movies from the heyday of Western filmmaking, and one that is very modern, both in production date, subject matter and technique.

#24. Black Patch (1957)

In a different era of Hollywood, there was no blueprint. Nowadays, the blueprint is coda.

What I’m cleverly trying to say is: things are way, way too formulaic now. Studios are taking few chances on anything “new”, while still trying to catch and retain “flashy”. This doesn’t just manifest in the bevy of franchises that hit the screens each year, but in the way these stories are told, as well.

Black Patch isn’t a great movie, but at least it’s interesting in structure and pace. There’s an element of it that feels novelistic, with its squishy characters wrestling with real consequences. We’re quickly introduced to “Black Patch” (George Montgomery) nicknamed so for the garb he wears over his eye lost in war, but in a previous life he was known as Clay Morgan. That past saunters into his present when his old Army pal, Hank (Leo Gordon — also the script writer!), enters the town with Clay’s former flame, Helen (Diana Brewster), as his wife. There’s another hitch – both men have new careers. Clay is a town marshal, and Hank a thief.

This stirs the drink well, and leads to some interesting plot dynamics that had me guessing until the very end. Side character Carl (also known as Flytrap), whom I previously known as Marv from High School Big Shot (a classic Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode) ascends from goofy side character to interesting menace, which helps kick the story along, even as other elements sputter by the end.

I liked this one, it’s got a different speed and plenty of pathos, even if it could have been a deal better in the third act.

#25. Hombre (1967)

Dr. Favor:
“That’s something you’ll learn about white people. They stick together.”

Hombre:
“They’d better.”

This is very likely the best film I’ve seen yet in Project: 100.

“Methodical” is the one word descriptor, applying to both pace and lead character. “Hombre” (née John Russell) is a smooth bro, calm in words and gait, and really doesn’t have time for any of your bullshit.

To dub this one of Paul Newman’s best performances would be a spicy take, his legendary filmography stands tall, but considering I’ve never heard of this film I’m going to say it’s an underrated entry in his catalogue of roles. Hombre is not a man pleased with the general nature of the “white world”, having been raised by Apache Indians from a young age, however when his adoptive (Caucasian) father dies and leaves him a piece of land, he ventures back into civilization.

Hombre surprisingly sells the boarding house property, catching the mild ire of acting landlord Jessie (Diane Cilento). They both catch the next stagecoach out of town and a bulk of the story is then told on the desert road. We get an interesting mix of characters in the horse-drawn vehicle, a host of personalities that clash and sway together extremely well from the jump. Also on board are a young couple unsatisfied with their time in the West, an affable Mexican driver, a doctor and his young(er) wife and a gruff, obliquely dangerous feller played by the always fabulous Richard Boone.

When this group of strangers find themselves in sudden danger, Hombre is compelled, reluctantly, to step up and lead them out of the desert. The most capable of the clan is hardly the most affable, and it leads to a lot of snappy dialogue with plenty of snips. The movie’s script is fantastic, and I’m curious how much dialogue is pulled straight from the 1961 Elmore Leonard book it was adapted from.

It’s got the blood and brawn of a standard Western flick, with some heart and guts to go along with it. A really good movie that boasts a blend of styles from the dying Tradition age and the forthcoming Revisionist era.

#26. Noose for a Gunman (1960)

The Steve Fisher short story “The Fastest Gun” was adapted into film three times over nine years. This is the second such attempt.

It’s fascinating that this movie was made within a decade of Hombre, the two films are so stylistically different it was jarring watching them so close together. That’s one of the neat things about this Western watching venture – witnessing the evolution of Hollywood and the medium of film. Whereas Paul Newman’s movie was “methodical”, Noose for a Gunman is plainly “stiff”. The actors spit out their lines like regimen, the action is tight, the personalities are narrow and direct. Early Westerns had this idyllic vibe that later iterations seemed to have shunned completely. Purposely so.

Jim Davis plays Case Britton, a hired gun who returns to his hometown of Rock Valley five years after murdering the sons of its biggest rancher and benefactor. Rock Valley balks at his sudden appearance, some even call for his immediate arrest and hanging, but Case still has friends in town, and is determined to meet his future bride, Della (Lyn Thomas), when she arrives via stagecoach.

Case deals with antagonism on many sides, from the rancher, Avery (Barton McLane),  to his hired muscle Link Roy (Leo Gordon, again) and gang leader Cantrell (Ted de Corsia), this keeps the movie churning and interesting enough to grab this watcher, but right around the time Case becomes the town’s new marshal, I sort of checked out a bit. I do give credit to the climax however, which provides a bit of fun gunplay and the impressive choice to allow Della to play the hero in a tense moment.

I’m curious as to how the other two films adapted “The Fastest Gun”, it’s got the bones of a decent, though super formulaic story, but I didn’t see much to brag about in Noose for a Gunman.

#27. Quantum Cowboys (2022)

One of those “what the hell did I just watch?” movies.

A metafictional Western that uses several animation styles as well as live-action, Quantum Cowboys challenges the viewer to keep up, even as it scuttles ahead at warp speed. It’s the brainchild of Geoff Marslett, and commendable in its subject matter and technique, but at times I found it a little too wonky and unfocused to be a winner in the genre.

The movie oscillates between several viewpoints, from the co-lead cowboy types, to a narrator akin to Utau the Watcher, and a voyeuristic film crew seemingly manipulating some events. As you may glean from the title, there is an element of time travel in the plot (and themes!) and heady ideas about memory and reality are poured onto the audience within the first few minutes.

The basic gist: Frank (Kiowa Gordon) and Bruno (John Way) are a pair of friends who get wrapped up in temporal hijinks, and bump into a host of weirdos, including a lady drifter-type played by Lily Gladstone. It takes a long while for the plot to adjoin the puzzle pieces, but the psychedelic, cartoony cinematography kept me into it as I waited for the story to cohere.

The third act delivers some payoff, but also falls victim to the tropes of time travel stories, and then sort of just ends without a direct resolution. There’s a notation that this is the first part of a larger story, though given how off-the-wall the themes and editing are, I almost feel like the abrupt final moments were an intentional troll.

Lots of points for ambition here, and I could even be convinced to watch it again.

An interesting bunch, to say the least. I’m realizing now I maybe should have group some of these thematically. It certainly would have been easier to write!

Please return July 7th, 2025 for a brand new All-True Outlaw comic! That’s eight in eight months, if you’re countin’!

Westward!

 

~Jamil

Comic Seven: Death, 2 Ways

Posted on June, 2025 by JS

‘Ello road agents,

Today we debut the third chapter of the Satterwhite & Fosgrove saga. As you may remember, the first story introduced the characters and their mission: two Pinkerton Detective Agency operatives, tasked with hunting down and killing the notorious outlaw Jesse James are accused of stealing a treasure map from a wealthy Confederate family.

At the conclusion of that story the detective duo split up, which is why we find Fosgrove chasing a man through the forest in Chapter 2. This story shows us what Satterwhite has been up during the same timeframe: attempting to find the truth behind an apparent pair of suicides in Kansas City!

What you may notice upon reading the first page of “Death, 2 Ways” is that Satterwhite is in completely different attire from the last time we’ve seen them. They’re dressed in typical feminine garb, and are referred to as a female by other characters. We laid some of the breadcrumbs of this in the first comic but didn’t want to hit the reader over the head with it while setting up other story elements – Satterwhite is trans masculine.

Satterwhite & Fosgrove concept art

Of course, the term “trans masc” or the more in-depth idea of queerness didn’t really exist in 1879, so you will not see the character referred to as such within the work itself. Still, it’s undoubtedly true that LGBTQ+ folks have existed all throughout history, in every culture and every land, even if they’re contributions to society-at-large are not reflected in history books, or works of historical fiction. In the case of the Old West, an open frontier with room to roam was an extremely enticing place for cultural outcasts to live. Only a few such people, like Harry Allen and Joseph Lobdell are recorded in history, but it does not take much to assume many more were woven into the fabric of the American West.

Writing a queer lead is admittedly a heavy task, but frankly it’s no different than writing someone dissimilar to me in age, mentality, disposition, culture and so on. Research takes me part of the way, and empathy bridges the gap. Satterwhite is a character close to my heart, and it has little to do with their gender identity. Still, I want to do right by him, and intend to expound on the issue of “identity” in future stories.

I also need to use this space to once again shout out my collaborator Mauro Bueno. His skill in character and costume design, as well as portraying the many modes of human emotion has enabled and enhanced all aspects of the character. Mauro’s approach and ability has added a sublime simplicity to every nuance of the script. It’s been a dream.

All that and I didn’t even get into the story at hand – a neat, snappy murder mystery which begins to unfurl some of the spookier subplots of the overall S&F narrative. I’m confident you readers will like what we’re serving on this project, and we hope you can spread the word on your favorite cowboy detective story.

Until next time,

 

Westward!

 

~Jamil

Project: 100 Westerns: Part Six: Organ Trail; Dead Men Ride; The Fighting Westerner; The Magnificent Seven

Posted on May, 2025 by JS

Ciao cowpokes,

We’re six deep into Project: 100 Westerns! If you’re just joining us, I’m gonna watch 100 Westerns and provide a mini review on each.

This edition features a couple of newer entries, as well a super old one, and a fourth that’s slotted right betwixt those two eras.

#20. Organ Trail (2023)

Playing off of Xillennial nostalgia, The Organ Trail harkens back to the age when schools had computer labs with rows of bulky monitors and noisy printers. Many of us in a certain age bracket remember the popularity and fun of the classic PC game, The Oregon Trail, where the player would take on the task of navigating the famous passage in a digital world, including shooting pixelated game, forging rivers, buying digital goods and avoiding dysentery. This movie lures in a certain age bracket on title alone. 

Set in 1870s Montana, Organ Trail is presented as a “horror” but probably slots better into “thriller”, despite the promotional vibe of the poster, tagline and trailer. There is sufficient violence, and does have some slasher movie vibes, especially toward the end, but frankly, the plot swerves and vibrates so much that its more defined by its unsteady nature than the antagonistic elements. 

The movie relies heavily on sudden developments and shocking turns, so I am hesitant to get too much into the specific details. I will give kudos for the ambition in the writing, it certainly honors the brutal nature depicted in many Westerns and punches it up to 11. This volatility helps define the tone, but also is detriment when it comes to a cohesive story arc. The shifting concentration and drastic plot maneuvers are like a sugar high – they entertain for a moment and then you crash as you reorient to the new situation/characters/danger. 

I’ve said before: We’re in a bit of a hidden renaissance of Westerns, with a trove of D-list actors starring in low-budget affairs that are relegated to streaming services like Tubi and Plex. Many are not good, about the quality of a Lifetime movie, and Organ Trail sort of slots into that feel, but overall it’s got a fairly good production quality and actor pool. 

What mars the effort are some absolutely unbelievable sequences that break immersion. Despite the inherent historical elements of Westerns, I do not expect them to adhere to reality at all times, but some of the things that happen in the movie will take you out of it. In one scene, a villain fires his gun straight into the air as a warning, only for the bullets (all of ‘em) to zoom down and strike his body with extreme force. There is some debate about the fatal velocity of bullets shot into the sky, but the depiction of this scene is insane. In the next segment, the protagonist jumps into a frozen river and comes out mostly unscathed several minutes later. In a moment during the final act, one antagonist draws his guns within a foot of another baddie, only for them to be wrestled away and used against him. These little moments of poor choreography and wonky physics salt away most of the good will the movie generates.

All in all, it’s a fine snowy Western, has a few good performances and does just enough to keep the audience engaged until the very end. I’m not sure I liked it, but you could do a lot worse in the age of the Streaming Western. 

#21 Dead Men Ride (1971)

“We are all at fault, we old ones even more.”

This Italian-Spanish Western wastes no time setting up its main character and central premise: escaped prisoner Roy (Fabio Testi) stumbles across a small mining community and decides to ride into town to confront their exploiter, a wealthy man by the name of Redfield (Eduardo Fajardo). As the plot unwinds, we gain context on what drives Roy to take up this hero’s task, and there are some surprising layers to this at-times brutal film. 

All in all, this is a straightforward and competent movie. t’s not super ambitious, but possesses enough action and swerve to propel the viewer through the hour-and-a-half minute runtime. A lot of the tension in the movie relies on the actors’ long stares and a solid soundtrack, but that works in the realm of spaghetti. In typical European fashion, the drama of the whole thing is enhanced through intense standoffs and baroque masculinity – Roy is the typical gunslinger type, short on words but extremely capable with a gun or blade, and his bent toward justice frames the rest of the character’s motivations. The ridiculously good looking Testi helps shift the film along, and the side actors do their job as well. 

If you’re looking for something that apes the Sergio Leone style, this is it. 

#22. The Fighting Westerner (1935)

When this movie, based on an unfinished Zane Grey book, originally released in 1935 it was titled Rocky Mountain Mystery, which is more appropriate for the atmosphere it evokes. The 1930s were the heyday of the hardboiled detective story, and The Fighting Westerner (retitled upon rerelease in the ‘50s) is a murder mystery set in the rural mountainland. Randolph Scott, who would go on to be one of the stalwarts of the Western genre, plays Larry Sutton, a mining engineer tasked to replace his disgraced brother-in-law at a radium mine. Upon arrival, he meets a host of furtive characters, from the mine-owner’s children, to the housekeeper and a Chinese servant, and all become suspects in the string of murders at the estate.

The movie straddles the Western genre line in interesting ways. Larry has a Southern drawl, and looks the part, but doesn’t immediately come across as an avenger of justice. The actual law, Deputy Tex Murdock (Chic Sale) is the hillbilly side character type, almost played for laughs but not quite. The setting is obliquely modern, there are cars and telephones, but apparently rustic as well. There’s a cloaked killer roaming the household, and a big reveal in the final act, just like some of the more spooky PI tales of the era. It’s a fascinating mashup of genres before that was really even a thing, and I’m here for it.

Given the movie was produced 90 years ago, it doesn’t completely hold up to the modern eye. Some of the acting is rough, and there’s naturally some dated stances toward certain groups and concepts. Still, it builds the tension well, including through the pounding of mining equipment that portends an ominous ending for anyone on the wrong side of it.

#23. The Magnificent Seven (2016)

A remake of a remake, that’s what this is, and it ain’t too bad.

Westerns are tricky endeavors nowadays. Ask Kevin Costner. While there’s an appetite for the genre, its popularity is a whisper of what it once was. You need serious star power to get asses in seats for these movies, which is why all those stream darlings titled “Guns and Whiskey” and starring a niche country music star and a bunch of dayplayers are so low budget.

The Magnificent Seven 2.0 boasts a very strong cast, headlined by Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt and further supported by Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio and Peter Sarsgaard, among others. The original, and it’s inspiration, Seven Samurai, basically popularized the “dream team” format, where a hyper capable guy recruits other super skilled individuals for a seemingly insurmountable task. The 2016 version hits those beats very well, giving us a diverse and fun group that make the movie worth watching. Aside from a few key differences, the plot of “badass dudes protect a small town from a megalomaniac” is intact and executed well. There’s nothing really mind-blowing about this script, its steeped in homage and convention. When you consider that the Nic Pizzolatto, creator of True Detective, co-wrote it, that’s sort of amazing.

Where the movie sings is in visual quality. It’s just well-made, from shot quality to stunts, set detail and editing. Director Antoine Fuqua delivers a strong product, balancing the talented cast against a wagon-full of action. There’s an interesting swirl of Golden Age heroism, the sensationalization of the Euro Western and modern day action movie methodology, and he mixes it well.

I doubt this movie would blow the hat off of any standard Western fan, and it’s not better than the original, but 2016’s The Magnificent Seven is easily one of the better genre offerings of the last decade.

I’m going to be honest, watching (old) movies for the purposes of review is tougher than it looks. I spent nearly a decade as a critic for comic, TV and movies, but most of the films I wrote about were things I saw in a theater, so I was forced to sit and watch. Having the power of pause is dangerous thing!

Please return June 2nd, 2025 for the newest All-True Outlaw comic drop. I’m proud of all my babies, but this next one is particularly special.

Westward!

 

~Jamil

Comic Six: The Splendid Fleeing of Joe Iowa From the Elm County Authorities

Posted on May, 2025 by JS

Salutations scoundrels, 

“Western” is the word we apply to a wide genre of film and literature. For some, it’s cowboys and vistas, for others it’s shootouts and big hats. Some view it as a historical drama set in a specific time and place, others view it as adventure fiction across a swath of media. 

I’ve operated within the Old West genre for a handful of years now and my opinion on it shifts seemingly monthly. It’s an odd mix of reality and fantasy, something that brushes against magical realism at times. The places and people often strive for authenticity, but the actions around them strain common belief. I’ve written before in my Project 100 reviews: while I see Westerns as a huge umbrella of story-types, there’s a hazy – though apparent – distinction between the stories taking place under the sun at high noon and those that simulate the themes, locales and people of a particular place and time. 

“The Splendid Fleeing of Joe Iowa From the Elm County Authorities” is something cooked up with the latter in mind. As the title indicates, our hero is Joe, a common criminal and deviant, and the concern is getting away from the five-oh scot-free. This is a quick, snappy comic that’s bullish on the drama and intensity. Set in the recent era, the goal was to keep the focus on the “outlaw” but to update the context and setting. I’m very happy with how this story came out, it really scratched an itch. 

My collaborator on the project is the talented Matías De Vincenzo. I absolutely love his approach to the page, a fierce style that’s not afraid to push the limits of stature and anatomy while still executing a script with cinematic clarity. There’s a tension to his line work that’s kinetic and heckin’ interesting, an animated grit that blends extremely well. Matias was a pleasure to work with, and fast too! (Always a welcomed skill in the world of comicking.)

Frankly, I could have penned another twenty pages of this story. As I was scripting, It felt like a feature film at times, a criminal and his speedy horse dramatically evading capture, but alas, here at All-True Outlaw we try our best to adhere to satisfying bursts of quality fiction. 

Per usual, I’ll remind you that you can find us over on Instagram, Bluesky and Facebook. Thanks, always, for the follows, likes and comments.

 

Westward!

~Jamil

Project: 100 Westerns: Part Five: Chino; The Westerner; Wagons East!; The King and Four Queens

Posted on April, 2025 by JS

Ayy All-Truers,

Welcome to the fifth go-around of Project: 100 Westerns, in which I will watch 100 Westerns and provide thoughts on them. By now, if you’re doing any type of quick math, you can see I’m woefully short of hitting the one year goal. Whoopsie, that’s life! 😎

On to the next four movies:

#16. Chino (1973)

“What a man says and what a man does doesn’t always end up being the same thing.”

In this Charles Bronson-led film, a horse tamer living in solitude has his life upended when a young man named Jamie (Vincent Van Patten), and later, a woman named Catherine (Jill Ireland), intrude on his daily dealings, eventually forcing him into situations that rattle his uncomplicated existence. 

Aside from a couple of awesome fights with above-average choreography (Bronson could move, man), and the obligatory shootout at the end, this is one sleepy, listless movie. Based on the novel The Valdez Horses (also the title presented at the start of the English version of this film) by Lee Hoffman, the events that take place center on the everyday happenings of a man and his lonely horse breeding operation. The plot opens with Jamie wandering in and squeaking his way into a job as ranch hand, and the viewer (this one, at least) understands the story to be that of an uneasy alliance between a hardened man and bright-eyed boy. The two acclimate with each other quickly, Chino delivering the hard lessons and Jamie teaching the elder man how to enjoy life again. 

This dynamic carries the movie part of the way, but is mostly forgotten once Catherine enters the picture. The sister of the nefarious town boss, Maral, she adheres to Chino despite his gruff demeanor and seemingly apathetic posture. It’s pretty typical Western stuff from there, but there’s a certain chemistry that doesn’t quite manifest despite the script, actors and soundtrack trying to make it work. It seems that the romance element may have been punched up a little because of Bronson and Ireland’s real life vows. 

The one-two punch of Jamie and Catherine feel like they were thrown by different people at different times of the day. Their presence in the story represent similar themes to the title character but since the two don’t really interact, nor have similar plot concerns, they work against each other, ultimately. 

Eventually, Maral’s ire reaches an action point and he threatens Chino to stay away from his sister, then to eventually leave town, or else. Being a man of hard principles and honor, Chino initially balks at this idea, his ardent independence not allowing him to be bullied, but once he sees the violence on the horizon, and his inability to deter it, he, surprisingly, decides to free his horses, shoo Jamie away and burn his cabin to ash. It’s a bit of a reversal of what we’d expect from the genre, but slots right into the “revisionist” era. The West is not a place of justice and hard virtue, but rather chaos and compromise. Chino flees while still drawing breath and preserves the lives of the two people who matter most to him. It’s a bold ending, but sad and more than a little muddled. 

All in all, the movie is OK. No idea how it’s rated PG with the flashes of horse cock, and a rape-y sort of first hook-up between Chino and Catherine, but it’s got an appeal in the somber, relaxed mood it gives off. I just wish the focus was a little tighter, there’s something the film is trying to say but voices it in a hoarse (hah) whisper.

#17. The Westerner (1940)

“By Gobs!”

Within the first ten minutes of this movie, Walter Brennan will have you clenching your jaw and shaking your head.

Playing the infamous “Judge” Roy Bean, the self-appointed “law” of small-town Texas, Brennan presents the audience with an immediately unlikable, yet inexplicably endearing, antagonist. Bean is a nasty guy, causing damage under the guise of righteousness and shared values, yet he hits the notes of common man charisma you’d expect from the endearing hick-ish sidekick. Before we even meet the main character, Bean is already sentencing a man to hang for mere acts of survival and self-preservation. His power and sway are apparent, and it makes for an insurmountable problem from the jump.

When Cole Harden (possibly the most Western name ever?) is dragged into Vinegaroon for alleged horse theft, Bean is quick with his gun-gavel and sentences the stranger to death under the guise of peacekeeping and moral tenacity. He cares not for evidence or doubt, but rather works to maintain a contrived status quo. Most notably, he’s cheered every step of the way by a village of cronies and goons. 

He of the Type Strong and Silent, Gary Cooper, plays Cole with a directness that bounces off of Brennan really well. He’s the standard drifter type – nothing holding him down to any place or purpose, but his sense of justice peeks out every once in a while. Understanding that he’s down to his last verbal bullets, Cole coerces Bean into a friendship over the shared admiration of (real-life) starlet Lillie Langtry, which unfolds a whole other set of plot dramatics. 

One thing I find interesting about films of yesteryear is the sort of disjointed talent and production levels in any given picture. Like, you can feel Hollywood learning and evolving as it goes along. Specific to this film, Walter Brennan is so good that the acting abilities of others, or lack thereof, become glaring. Cooper is fine, he always sort of plays it straight, retreating into an everyman style that obviously worked for him over a long career, but some of the day player types are perpetrators of over or underacting. It doesn’t detract from the film too much, however. 

A few other things work against the movie, as a whole. The depiction of Roy Bean is fun but does not align too ardently to the real life man. I certainly think a pastiche would have been an adequate replacement. While the plot has some good turns (i.e. the push/pull of the relationship between the two leads) the central conflict of homesteaders vs cattlemen is a big whatever. The final scene too, which sort of lionizes the villain in a way that’s unearned, feels off kilter and driven by a misplaced nostalgia of the West and its imperfect ways. 

Still, I’m sort of surprised this movie isn’t talked about a little more with other classics of the era. In my view, Brennan’s Oscar-winning performance makes it an essential part of the early-Western catalogue.

#18. Wagons East! (1994)

 

Last month, I watched Almost Heroes, the Chris Farley-driven explorer comedy set during the 1800s. When I browsing Prime for that movie, Wagons East! was suggested right along with it, and I softly marveled at the similarities between the two. Beyond the similar setting, both starred comedic giants in their final acting role, featured foppish co-leads, and are generally considered failures, both financially and critically. 

That said, this movie has a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. I know that review aggregators isn’t gospel, but jeez, its a deal better than Almost Heroes. 

Richard Lewis stars as Phil, a former war doc who, with others, are flat exhausted by the West and the turmoil it brings. He, along with other characters played by (the Doctor) Robert Picardo and (Dr. Cox) John C. McGinley, decide to take the unconventional route of going against the flow of traffic and returning to civilization. The move is presented as ironic, which it is in the context of Western films, but you have to think that sort of thing happened all the time.

The group hires the drunken and disheveled James Harlow (John Candy) to lead them back to Saint Louis. That’s sort of contrived impetus for the plot, I’m not saying the roads are clearly marked but you’d think going back to civilization wouldn’t require a whole ass guide. Predictably, Harlow, much like Bartholomew Hunt from Almost Heroes, is far from a competent leader and hijinks ensue. 

The movie suffers from a lot of the same ills of it’s cousin-movie. The jokes are often too stupid to solicit more than a chuckle and it deals too heavily in tropes and typecasts to be considered daring. Still, it works way better than its counterpart, actually attempting to deliver on character arcs and even giving us a capable antagonist or two to impede the protagonists from time to time. 

I didn’t hate Wagons East!, it’s got a good cast and is earnest in it’s attempt to entertain, but given that Candy died in the throes of production there’s a wisp of melancholy in the cinematic ether. Fire this one up if you’re bored and looking for some that mid-90s vibe, but be warned of the tinge of sadness is may produce between the quips and arrows.

#19. The King and Four Queens (1956)

 

I love the way “thirst” manifests itself in older movies.

This film could be alternately titled “Down Bad Ranch” with its plotline of a charming older man sauntering into a remote homestead with four man-deprived widows all vying for his attention. Clark Gable is Dan Kehoe, a wandering con man who discovers via town gossip that a huge sum of gold is buried somewhere on the McDade property. Apparently, the four McDade brothers secured the treasure from a robbery, but rumor and conjecture claims three were killed in the resulting skirmish with the law, with one escaping and now MIA. 

As an unknown McDade sibling is possibly still alive, the four wives of the brothers (played by Eleanor Parker, Jean Willes, Barbara Nichols & Sara Shane) are sort of in a Schrödinger’s Widow situation — any of them could still be married and thus are obligated to wait around until the missing brother returns. Thus, the harsh and protective Ma McDade (Jo Van Fleet) is immediately skeptical of Kehoe when he wanders onto the estate, and keeps a steady eye on his movements throughout the film. 

The King and Four Queens does that typical Golden Age Western thing where the roguish lead is presented as a dashing black knight, rather than the antihero-with-a-redemption-sidecar type. Even though we’re told Kehoe is a bit of a thief and swindler, nothing negative comes about from that lifestyle, and Gable plays him like an imperfectly perfect gentleman. This lack of consequence prevents actual drama from happening in the film, and the thin plot reflects that. A huge portion of this movie is cute banter and some physicality between Kehoe and each of the sisters, but ultimately a lot of that positioning and intrigue goes nowhere.

There’s a sense something is missing from this film, and according to IMDb, scenes with the missing McDade brother were cut from the final version. The viewer feels that omission, the script alludes to that dangling mystery more than a few times yet decides to resolve it with an alternate turn during the final moments. An additional antagonist would have pushed the tension greatly but instead this venture sort of meanders and ends abruptly. 

What we get is in the end is a lighthearted movie that feels like a minor missed opportunity. The performances are adequate and it’s shot well enough, however the lesson I take from this one is that it’s pretty hard to make a great movie, even if many of the components work on their own.

Four more movies down! I’m enjoying myself and learning a good bit about the Western genre and the movie-making machine.

Check back on May 5th, 2025 as we premiere another All-True comic, a must-see for fans of the steed.

Westward!

 

~Jamil

Comic Five: Trees to Gold

Posted on April, 2025 by JS

My dear dastardlies,

When I started to build the idea of All-True Outlaw a prime goal was to adhere to the short form.

As a writer, especially one looking to breakthrough in the comics game, it is crucially important to finish the project one starts. To give the reader something digestible and complete. Anyone familiar with the medium of comics, or even the trade of storytelling, knows a novice can get mired in the allure of the epic tale. Worldbuilding is a fascinating and cathartic experience, and nearly every writer wants to create a place that a reader can get lost inside of. However, the likelihood of completing a grandiose, lengthy epic in comics is pretty unlikely. So, it’s vital to make sure what you’re doing, and what you’re trying to say, is coherently digestible. In so many ways, short comics are the way to go.

So naturally, upon completing the script for “Satterwhite & Fosgrove”, I pretty much immediately plotted the next handful of stories about these characters and where they would go next. I’m smart!

As you may remember from the first story, two Pinkerton agents were discovered by another bounty hunter in the uncultivated lands of rural Missouri. After some exposition drops detailing the duos’ chase for the notorious outlaw Jesse James, the three private detectives engage in a violent altercation, resulting in the death of the bounty hunter, which allows Kip Satterwhite and Robert Fosgrove to escape with a “map” stolen from a wealthy Confederate family.

This next comic, “Trees to Gold” follows Fosgrove as he chases a suspected criminal into the Kansan forest. It’s based, partly, on “Billy and the Bear”, a story my grandmother Josephine used to tell me as a child. Mauro Bueno once again draws this comic, and damn, he absolutely kills it at every turn. This is a dark story, from look to mood to actions, and Mauro executes the detective noir elements with adept skill and brains. Whether it be hushed stalking, or loud battles with beasts, every page is a brilliant example of the capabilities of comics and the collaboration process.

We also welcome back Nikki Powers on this story, and I can’t say enough about her efforts in lettering this piece. I have a tendency to go easy on dialogue in some portions of a story, and then backlog those precious words and sentences in another place. While that’s effective for the tension of plot and pacing, it can be burdensome on a letterer to make the talky parts work as they should. Nikki takes care of it, though, ensuring the ideas get across when I get too verbose in the word balloon area.

Editor Claire Napier continues to help mold the overarching Satterwhite & Fosgrove story, as well. From script clarity to the punching up of themes, her contributions are hidden but true. Risks are taken in “Trees to Gold” — something sinister is revealed at the end of this tale, and Claire has helped guide my vision and make sure Mauro and Nikki know exactly what should go on the page and where. I appreciate her astute eye and ear.

I am very eager for you all to read this story, which I consider one of the best things I’ve ever written. While we crafted it to be consumable and poignant in its current form, the plotlines, character moments and themes presented here will extend into more Satterwhite & Fosgrove stories, hopefully culminating in a satisfying longform piece.

If you enjoy what we’re doing here please be sure to follow us on the socials (Instagram, Bluesky and Facebook) and please forward the comics to anyone you think may be interested. Every share, like, comment and emoji extends reach and will spurn more art and more story.

Nice talking at you again! Be well.

Westward!

~Jamil