Written by Justin Jordan
Art by Patrick Piazzalunga
Published by Mad Cave Studios
If you can imagine a low budget, bloody Troma biker flick with satanic elements, based on a buddy story by Joe R. Lansdale, starring Dirk Benedict and Lou Ferrigno, and directed by Quentin Tarentino back in the 1970s, then you can come close to approximating the thrill ride you get with Mad Cave’s Gunpowder Prophets collection.
Gunpowder Prophets is another of those series I had never even heard of prior to being presented with this graphic novel version to review.
Originally five issues, the actual creators are not any of those folks listed above but rather writer Justin Jordan and the wonderfully named artist, Patrick Piazzalunga. Colorist Roman Stevens and Letterer Taylor Esposito are also deservedly prominently credited.
The story itself is relatively simple.
Our two heroes, the fast-talking Huck Hilson and the hulking Marley Crane, obviously longtime partners, work as sort of supernatural-related mercenaries or detectives, sort of like the stars of TV’s Supernatural.
Pipe-smoking Marley is a Vietnam vet, declared mentally unstable, and genuinely likes to kill as many people as possible on every case. Only he doesn’t just kill people, he squeezes their heads until their eyes pop out, tears their entrails out, and rips off a lot of heads. He kind of reminds me of a more unrestrained Wolverine.
In early scenes, he’s even drawn with a hat reminiscent of Logan. Huck knows that Marley’s a good guy at heart, although Marley, himself, denies that. The two have some sort of bond that has them always looking out for each other.
We start the book with the end of one “case,” more to establish the characters and their settings than anything else, and then we move on to the main plot. The mismatched pair is hired by a rather sorcerous lady to return her young (Ten? Twelvish?) daughter, America Argento, to her. It seems she’s been snatched by her father, not for any of the usual terrible reasons but instead to be sacrificed at the blood moon as she inherits the magical legacy of both her somewhat demonic parents. Poor little thing.
Poor little thing?? Turns out freckle-faced America Argento is more than a little like Princess Leia in Star Wars, a tough, cussing kid with ways and means and a mind of her own. The story really takes off when our two protagonists attempt to rescue her from her cult leader pop and she attempts to allow them to do so.
The artwork strikes that perfect mix of clear-storytelling and over-the-top imagery.
Piazzalunga is adept at drawing some wonderful facial expressions and much of Jordan’s dialogue comes off like actual speech, and not just a script. If I had to compare the art to anyone else’s, I’d say it reminds me most of the great Dave Gibbons.
Apparently actually set in the ‘70s that it evokes, this is underlined by the importance of CB radios in the story as an evil trucker also kidnaps America to auction off for his own ends. There are also crazy car chases and a mean motorcycle gang, who get even meaner after (SPOILER) Marley kills them! The whole thing really is so grindhouse I was surprised there wasn’t one of those cheesy ads pushing popcorn and pizza between issues/chapters.
The ending seemed a tad abrupt but just as clearly sets up a second adventure for our heroes. Gunpowder Prophets is itself completely self-contained, paced to be impactful, with new yet somehow familiar characters, and a whole mess of just mindless R-rated fun and shenanigans.
If you’re a fan of any of the folks I cited in the opening paragraph above, you’ll enjoy the ride.
Booksteve recommends.
