The Black-Jack Demon #2

The Black-Jack Demon #2

Literati Press 2021

By Hermes

The Wilderness of Other People

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. After enlisting the help of Humphrey, Silas has realized that he's not chasing a simple claim-jumper, but something far more sinister.

Fresh from an encounter with the Black-Jack Demon, a now solitary Silas tracks the stranger through settlements in the shadow of the eastern Rockies.

There is something about this that is charming and it’s probably Billy’s naivete and innocence as he tries to track down the man who killed his Pa. You really do have to admire the boy's tenacity in chasing the Leper since he did manage to catch up to him once only to have his hired hand get killed in the encounter. So that we see him still going after him is both impressive and sad at the same time. This poor kid doesn’t have any family and is all alone, orphaned, in this world and revenge is what is keeping him going and holding it together. Honestly it’s a brutally honest portrayal of him and his situation and it really manages to capture the readers’ attention and imagination as it engages your mind.

I am very much enjoying 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 that we see through the dialogue, the character interactions as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in making the characters relatable to. I really am impressed with the way we see their personalities get a chance to shine. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story we’re swept up in this story exceptionally well.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and strengthen is wonderfully done. What I am immensely enjoying is seeing the layers open up new avenues to be explored, now not all of them will be explored but that’s okay because they all add this wonderful depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is exceedingly well done.

The interiors here are a bit simple but they are rather effective that way. It brings us back to a simpler time in storytelling and this is part of the book's overall charm. The linework is clean, crisp and sharp and with the varying weights and techniques being utilised to showcase the detail in the work we see throughout the book is exceptionally well rendered. Backgrounds are utilised fairly well, we could always use more to expand and enhance the moments. They do work well within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a solid eye for how colour works. I like that we see this more four colour style work being done here and again it works well with the throwback angle I've mentioned previously.

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The cliffhanger ending takes this down such a different path than I was expecting to see though it does tie into the name of the book as well as what Dor tells him in the story. I can’t get enough of this as it is a cute little book that engages the reader beautifully thanks to its smart intelligent writing and interesting characterisation with these charming interiors.