Ciao Westerinos,
The fifth chapter of Satterwhite & Fosgrove just pulled into the station!
(You can find the first four: here, here, here, and here.)
Given the Old West time setting and detective subgenre, placing our Pinkertons in the morass of a train murder mystery felt like an obligation.
In this story, Kip and Foz travel with a cartel of Pinkertons toward Denver, Colorado to combat a workers’ strike. On the way, they find themselves thrust in the middle of a murder of one of their fellow operatives, which throws their treasure hunt plans into mild chaos.
This story follows in the footsteps of stories like Strangers on a Train, Murder on the Orient Express, Five Red Herrings, Bullet Train and hell, even Snowpiercer. There’s a certain magic to these tales, a confined space rife with danger that also has pressure element of characters continuously moving across landscape. We tried to capture that sense of urgency and unknown in this story, all while dropping in juicy bits of exposition and background and interplay between our two leads.
To say this is one of Mr. Bueno’s best works would be an insult to his other efforts on the Sat/Foz Chapters 1-4, but man, did dude bring the heat on this story. Whether it be powerful locomotives, somber moments of reflection, brutal uppercuts to the midsection or illustrated scenes from the Aeneid, Mauro brings it at every turn. He takes every aspect of the script and enhances it, all while making sure the story beats properly conveyed.
The usual flowers are given to letterer Nikki Powers and editor Claire Napier. This story wasn’t as difficult to letter as previous installments in this series (I learned some lessons) — I think there was only one sequence that needed some paring, and overall the choices Nikki made serve the story very, very well. Claire challenged the script in prudent ways, making sure the characters and their motives had clear intent, even in the short term. There is a tension building in this story that will pay off in future chapters, and she made sure the stepping stones toward these big moments were apparent and well placed.
We’re quickly approaching the midpoint of this Western Noir, and I’m eager to show you the rest!
Westward!
~Jamil