Tag: comics

Comic Eleven: First Angry

Posted on October, 2025 by JS

Giddy up gang,

Stories are life experiences filtered though characters and plot and setting. An author’s job is to make shit up in order to relate some truth or idea. While a lot of All-True Outlaw stories are quick shot comics on a specific theme or high-concept flicker, “First Angry” is a gestalt of funky brain-thoughts. Here’s some of what’s smooshed into this 7-page short:

Back in 2023 during a trip to Arizona, all my senses took an adventure as I traveled for the first time from the leafy Appalachian biome to the land of cacti and aridity. It was awesome experience of seeing mountains and vistas and feeling warmth of the winter sun karmically balanced again vicious nosebleeds and acute sinus pressure.

Naturally, I took in the food and art scene as best I could – nature as well! (Saguaro National Park was flat incredible!). I saw a lot of neat stuff at the botanical gardens. One animal I took particular note of was a coyote in the wildlife preserve. I was intrigued by its wary behavior, keeping its distance from humans, pacing the fence line, watching with a sort of relaxed attentiveness. I’d always been intrigued by the animal’s relationship with America’s Native peoples, which led me down the path of researching trickster gods, mythology and creation lore.

I’ve covered the subgenre of Acid Westerns a bit in Project 100, which are pretty niche and are part of a sparse catalogue that shares hazy similarities. Acid Westerns are firmly in the Revisionist category: claustrophobic, dire and occasionally odd. We tried to style “First Angry” in this way, it should give you a sense of dread and worry, with a tinge of Wild West to keep it thematically appropriate. Throw in a lacquer of 1990s counterculture attire and a scofflaw protagonist and you got yourself a stew going.

This meaty mess is emulsified with art by Jordan Kroeger and a lettering confection by Marina Leon. Jordan’s art serves as the perfect medium to channel the vibe of the script. His line work walks a path between realism and fantasy, which is the path walked by Hamish, the main character. His eye toward page design and panel composition hums the story along, keeping things together until it all begins to rumble apart.

You may remember Marina’s work on “Taking a Life” from a few months back. She fulfilled the requirements of the story very, very well – including a tight turnaround. Marina captured the retro vibe in the font choices and made sure things slouched into the psychedelic, when appropriate.

So that’s a bit how a story is assembled over at All-True Outlaw, forcing big ideas into a misshapen vessel and making sure it’s drawn well!

Appreciate your patronage.

Westward!

 

~Jamil

Comic Four: The Good of Bad

Posted on March, 2025 by JS

Welcome back blacklegs, 

It feels like we just launched All-True Outlaw, and yet somehow, we’re already at Comic Four in the catalogue. I’m smacked with anticipation and dread and joy and regret and pride and nervousness every month, on rotation. Regardless of the wax and wane of various human emotions, I am entirely grateful to anyone reading these words right now. Thank you for your patronage, the best is yet to come. 

This month’s comic is titled “The Good of Bad” and concerns itself with a pair of brothers who enter a California railroad town after a big score. The plot of this story is loosely inspired by the 1870s Oregon land scandal, which involved the state’s congressional politicians using drunken saloon-goers to buy cheap railway-adjacent land parcels to then transfer to lumber companies for big profit. Good thing the age of the robber baron is over, yeah?

Every story has an antagonist, but what I think is interesting about the Western genre is the celebration of bad guys. The rise of revisionist/Spaghetti Western in the 1970s flipped conventions and subverted expectations, often the villains in these works are more engaging than the heroes. Molded by the harshness of frontier justice and the inherent violence of a landscape light on enforceable law, the guy who shot first and asked questions later became something of a paragon for behavior in the badlands. 

Some of these ideas were at the forefront of my mind when scripting “The Good of Bad”. How undesirable attributes in a civilized society might be welcomed in a place beset with cumbersome dispositions. The way uneasy alliances are made under duress. The struggle between the people looking to work and nurture the fecund land and those looking to exploit it. These are weighty ideas, so our four-page comic doesn’t delve deeply into them, but instead skitters across the surface like a flat rock over pond water. 

“The Good of Bad” sketch art

For this comic, I had the pleasure to work with Marcelino Rodriguez again. Mark is the first artist I ever conversated with online. Nearly fifteen years ago (holy shit), shortly after graduating from Pitt, I realized that there was nothing really stopping me from diving straight into my lifelong ambition of creating comics. Back then, there weren’t a lot of great forums for meeting other creators, so posting on DigitalWebbing or Zwol (a long defunct webcomic’s message board) was truly the only way to solicit or collaborate. 

Mark and I have danced around a few projects over the years, and in 2020 collaborated on a contest entry for Platform Comics’ 10k Challenge, which presented creators with a random-ish prompt and gave them about a week to plot and draw a short comic. We were granted the prompt “AI love story” and made it into a cute little sinister rom-com titled “Servercrossed” (which you can read and/or download here!). When I started revving the idea engine for All-True, I knew I had to finally fulfill the prophecies and work with Mark on a full script project. I’ve always admired Mark’s eye for page design and sturdy figure drawing. He nails every page and panel of the script. 

Jahch provided us letters on this new story as well as “Servercrossed”. He completes the circle on transforming this collection of art and words into a story. The font styles are straightforward while being fun – I truly enjoy the choices he made in both comics. 

All in all, these comics represents what the medium is all about: experimentation in genre, working with talented people and putting it in front of an eager audience.

The social accounts Instagram, Bluesky and Facebook are hungry for your follows! And please sign up for the once-monthly newsletter as well, it’s the very best way to ensure you know about new comic releases.

Westward!

 

~Jamil

 

 

 

 

Instagram, Bluesky and Facebook for updates. 

Comic Two: Mother Hen

Posted on January, 2025 by JS

Happy 2025, All-Truers!

We hope the next 12 months treat you well.

Last Monday, a new story was published to the site. “Mother Hen”, drawn by Samir Simão and with letters by Cristian Docolomansky Cerda. 

Realism in genre can be a hard master to obey. I’m not married to the idea that Westerns need to adhere strictly to firm accuracy. I do, however, like a certain authenticity in the stories of All-True Outlaw, an air of feasibility that brushes against the make-believe yet still remains palatable to fans of the genre. 

Frankly, most women who left the relative safety of the east coast did so out of some sort of desperation, typically economic, sometimes cultural, normally a combo of both. The West’s promise of a new start and new opportunity extended to everyone, and many women took advantage.  While the women in the West occupied many roles, from spouses to mothers, outcasts and adventurers, many of the women on the frontier were working girls drawn there because of the needs of men. Specifically, fucking and companionship. 

That was sort of the jumping-off point for “Mother Hen”, which concerns itself with a Texas brothel during a moment of dire choice and action. In my reading of both fiction and non-fiction set in this time period, I came across many women who were simply remarkable humans. Headstrong, smart, brave and sometimes hilariously crass, recorded history mostly brushes aside their accomplishments, but often they were the backbone of society, as women typically have been. 

Franco #1

Samir and I worked together nearly a decade ago on Franco, a metafictional romp set in a superhero universe (that you can read here!) and I’ve been jonesin’ to work with him again. Dude is a master of action and energy on the comics page, a sorcerer working with the old Jack Kirby magicks. As I was crafting the script to “Mother Hen” he was the guy I had in mind just about the whole time. 

Cristian Docolomansky Cerda ties a bow on the whole thing with astute lettering. I don’t use Facebook for much but it’s served as a great repository for finding talented artists (if you can fight through all the spammy stuff). Doco is a savvy creator, a jack-of-all-trades type in the kingdom of comics. I appreciate his help in proofing the Spanish grammar in this short!

I hope you enjoy this one. It previously received third place honors in the 2024 Negative Space Short Comics Competition , and we couldn’t be more proud of what we produced. 

Check us out next week for the second installment, . And don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Bluesky, X and Facebook. Any support is greatly appreciated. 

Westward!

 

~ Jamil

Comic One: Horror on Hogger Hill

Posted on December, 2024 by JS

Greetings cretins,

We launched All-True Outlaw two days ago and I welcomed you all to the festivities.  Now it’s time to dig a little more into the making of “Horror on Hogger Hill”. 

The call for submissions to Alterna Comics’ horror themed anthology came just as I was conceiving this story. The launching point was pretty simple, a Western/Horror mash-up with a The Last House on the Left vibe – What if some bad dudes got caught up in something more fucked up than their crime-ridden lives?

A prime goal on All-True Outlaw is to try to adhere to limited page counts so I knew I needed to find an artist who could convey a lot of information in a truncated space. Claudio Muñoz’ portfolio swiftly convinced me he was the guy for the job.  Below are some of the character concepts he sent me in our initial back-and-forth. His approach to the characters was dynamic yet unifying.

 

Perier, Long and Brutal

I loved how eclectic designs of the gang converged into a single atmosphere; it really looked like something out of a spaghetti western. The script for HOHH is a pretty tight and eventful affair and Claudio nailed it at every turn, quickly introducing all the characters and properly framing the scene. Most of all, he succeeded in executing the claustrophobic aura of the piece – these seedy guys in a tight space with danger at their backs. It’s one of the most satisfying script-to-page journeys I’ve had in my career. Look out for a future All-True team-up with this guy and myself down the trail. 

Letterer Nikki Powers is one of the best I’ve worked with, period. She makes the right choices in a fickle-as-hell art form. It’s part of the reason I hired her for the comics project I hold very close to my heart, which you’ll see here in a of couple months. 

Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to follow the social accounts as well as our newsletter. 

Westward!

 

~ Jamil

Welcome to All-True Outlaw!

Posted on December, 2024 by JS

Welcome rapscallions, 

This is All-True Outlaw, a black & white anthology series of Western tales with an antagonistic slant. 

I’ve been writing comics since around 2011, at times struggling to find a niche or any publisher that gave a damn. I never thought building a career in comics would be easy, but it’s actually a lot harder than I expected. The peaks have been lean, the valleys wide. 

Around 2018, I decided to try my hand at a story set in the Old West, and in the brainstorming session I was surprised at how many different ideas and perspectives I could go toward. I had grown fond of the genre in college, and works like the impeccable Jonah Hex series by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray (and many, many artists) and the first Red Dead Redemption game opened my mind to the vast storytelling potential of the setting and time period. 

That story, “Horror on Hogger Hill” (drawn by Claudio Muñoz and lettered by Nikki Powers), was accepted into the IF Anthology Horror by Alterna Comics, and it spurred my ambition to write more stories within the genre, and to create with art teams similarly hungry for more Westerns. 

It required time, concentration, support and the right collaborators but we have reached the launch for this webcomic endeavor. Here, you’ll find adventure fiction in the short form but with a long view of scoundrels and black hats. A new story will be posted every month, so follow the socials and subscribe to the newsletter to get updates and news as they post! 

I thank you, and my art teams, greatly for joining me on this adventure. I really hope you enjoy what you read, and if you do, tell a pal or two. 

Westward!

 

~ Jamil