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The right combination of story and art can take you to another world.

Most comics can help you to escape your own world for a little while but not many can take you to a whole new one.  It’s a rare comic that can make you feel the temperature in the air of a mid autumn day or can make you hear the gallop of horse or the crunch of dry, brown leaves.  And that’s just what Jonah Hex #35 can does on the opening page.

I can’t say that I’ve read many Jonah Hex stories other than a few issues of the recent title when drawn by Jordi Bernet or Darwyn Cooke but I have read Joe Lansdale’s Jonah Hex Vertigo miniseries from the 90’s, the stuff that got DC sued by Jonathan and Edgar Winter.  Lansdale’s stories were collections of westerns, freak shows and horror but I don’t think they’ve got anything on Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti and J.H. Williams III’s story “A Crude Offer.”

The story begins simply enough for a western—a sheriff leading his men into a fight against some desperadoes who have a very big gun.  it’s in those opening pages that J.H. Williams and colorist Dave Stewart perfectly create the setting.  Going back to the “western” style that he used in Seven Soldiers #0 (part Jean Giraurd, part Unforgiven,) Williams III and Stewart drop the reader into the middle of an ugly fight, that’s out of the good guy’s control until they turn the battle over to Jonah Hex, letting him win for them in his usual style—an ugly and bloody gun fight.  Visually it’s a great sequence even if the story is a bit obvious for a western.

In the second half of the book, Gray and Palmiotti take over, writing a story that’s disturbing and creepy.  When the fighting is done and the sheriff, his men and Hex are the only people left standing, Hex asks for his money.  It’s a swift reminder of the mercenary that Hex actually is.  But it’s late and the bank is closed.  Since they can’t do anything until the morning, the sheriff invites Hex to a home cooked meal by his wife.  It sounds all pleasant enough, doesn’t it?  The sheriff and his wife have other plans for Hex and they’re not what you would ever think as they try to drug and use Hex for their own selfish purposes.  It’s a fantastic twist that puts Hex into a position that he’s not used to—the victim.  Here, he’s not the tough guy, in control of the situation with every possible way mapped out.  He’s put into a situation that doesn’t involve guns and death but is no less ugly. 

Jonah Hex #35 features just the right blend of story and art.  Williams III’s art matched up with Gray and Palmiotti’s story make a beautiful, alluring and ultimately ugly and jarring world where the real threats are often hidden.  The men with the big machine gun early on in the issue is no more or less threatening than the sheriff and his wife, even if they hide behind an appearance of respectability.  In fact, the men with the machine gun are less threatening because you know what to expect from them going into battle.  The sheriff and his wife are the danger you never see coming.

Jonah Hex #35
“A Crude Offer”
Written by: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti
Drawn by: J.H. Williams III
Colored by: Dave Stewart
Lettered by: Rob Leigh

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