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