Broken Frontier

Historical fiction, western gunplay, eastern-style destiny, and jaw-dropping art combine to make Bounty Killer one of the most riveting titles offered today.

Within the heartland of a new nation, a civil war approaches, and a mysterious man known only as "BK" (Bounty Killer) wanders the dirt roads in search of…something. BK is the fastest draw in all the American states – or so he believes – but another, far more beguiling figure keeps a vigilant watch over our hero, a man of inhuman speed and skill, and this man hopes to prepare BK for some great, inescapable, future "destiny." Bounty Killer #1 opens with a near ignus fatuus sequence featuring the first meeting of these two extraordinary men; this is then interspersed with a dramatic chase scene – a series of high-tension vignettes that follow the flight of a lowly black slave named Jim and his masters’ subsequent attempts to bring him to "justice" (i.e. – shooting him ‘til he’s dead). Both of these designs then dovetail into one hyper-violent blow-out of a resolution.

The story of BK, thematically, is highly American, while its execution skirts the line of high-action manga. The plot steals from both hemispheres, though the aspects within are indelibly eastern. Being a "fast draw" in the world of BK doesn’t mean you’re fast – its means your hand never moves though somehow a bullet-sized cavity appears in your enemy’s head. It means two fast drawers can shoot each others’ bullets out of mid-air, using their guns as defense as well as offense. Basically, take everything gleaned from John Woo films and such intricate wild-west genre-blends as Trigun, and the double-fist-full of ideas packed into BK begin to come clear – there are superhuman, supernatural qualities mixed seamlessly with historical, mundane ambiances such as black slavery and a backdrop of burgeoning American civil war (neither truly "mundane," but which do take an odd back-seat to the surreal intensity of the more eastern components).

The story takes the hyper-real worlds as utilized in most manga and plops down within the tellurian complexity of the really-real world. Complementing this dichotomous mixture is fully wrought artwork by Erfan Fajar. In a word – wow. The pencil and inks displayed are on par with oil-painted masterworks by the likes of Arthur Suydam and Greg Horn (and, in fact, may even be somewhat oil-crafted; some look computer-generated, some charcoal and ink, and some paint-work of some kind, though it can be difficult to distinguish). Every panel is painstakingly rendered in intricate detail; it’s fulsome, lush, and – best of all – perfectly clear and natural in flow, which is usually the downfall of most comic books of this visual magnitude. The panel breakdowns, character designs, and actions depicted are all sweetly pure clear-cut crystallinity.

The near portraiture-esque qualities Fajar brings to this first issue are paramount for the establishment that the grandiose concept within BK – that it does indeed take place within the very earthbound world where such outlandish beings wielding divergently inhuman abilities shouldn’t exist, yet here they do. Most of the fun, as with any work of fiction, will be discovering the differences, the places where our own accounting of history and the fictional narrative’s depart. The extravagant art by Fajar goes a long way towards setting a solid foundation for the rest of the series to launch from: tangible, real word setting, with two ultra-powered figures of mysterious origin, one the hero, one the antagonist, and a slow drive towards an esoteric destiny.

Bounty Killer, written by Americanime’s publisher, Michael Westerman, is the company’s most honest amalgamate of American and Asian sensibilities within one single concept. The overall feel of the piece is, as I’ve mentioned before, highly reminiscent of Trigun, and if that long-running manga/anime wasn’t a major influence for BK, then lightning has most certainly struck twice: both are expertly crafted and carry eye-popping visual panache with a speculative fiction bent on the classic spaghetti western genre. Definitely a promising debut for a new series, and with the numerous other well-received western comics filling up shelves (Sixgun Samurai, Shaolin Cowboy, Jonah Hex), it seems the genre may just be making its long-awaited and well-deserved comeback.

You can order Bounty Killer and other Americanime products through Diamond Distributors or at: www.americanimeproductions.com