The Black-Jack Demon #1

The Black-Jack Demon #1

Literati Press 2021

By Nick Hermes

A boy crosses the American old west in search of the stranger that brutally murdered his father after destroying their family mine. Bent on revenge, the young man soon realises that this simple killer is something much, much darker. The Black-Jack Demon is a genre-breaking Western revenge tale focused on young Silas' journey through the changing American landscape, following the trail of carnage left behind by the mysterious figure that caused the boy's loss and pain.

I’ll be honest I had forgotten I’d even ordered this one from my shop. I saw it in Previews and thought okay this sounds interesting and so when it came I was surprise, in a good way. I knew it sounded good but boy let me tell you this is so much better than I could have hoped for and our hero here is a lot more interesting and put together than many adults I know. So if you want to find a supernatural western than look no further because this has all the remnants of the classic western shows woven through demons or one specific demon who wrecks havoc on young Silas’ life and family.

I really like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development is amazing as seen through the dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react to the situations and circumstance they encounter continue to flesh them out beautifully. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story as well as the twists & turns along the way we find ourselves engrossed, engaged and invested in this book.

I am impressed with the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, evolve and strengthen as they face new challenges. These layers are where we see the story really emerge and the characterisation shine brightly. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is greatly achieved. There really is a fantastic way that we see this flow through the pages and how it Segways from one moment to the next making it feel so natural.

The interiors here are pretty interesting. I like that this is a western and that the clothing represents a bygone era and I will say this Silas looks like he’s going to grow up to be the Man in the Yellow Hat lol. I like the linework it’s really well laid down and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work that we see is absolutely stunning. I am more than impressed with how we see the backgrounds being utilised throughout the issue and how they work within the composition within the panels to bring us the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the book. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show an extremely talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is great. The colour choices are amazing and it is pretty much packed in so there’s little in the way of hues and tones and much to my surprise I don’t mind that in the slightest. What we see looks great and that Hermes does all the writing and artwork means that what we see is precisely what he intends for us to to get that maximum effect and it works beautifully.

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How this story progresses and how we learn information towards the end is spectacular. I think this is extremely well written and has these charming interiors that will take us on one of the most unexpected of journey’s.