Broken Frontier

New artist Donny Hadiwidjaja climbs onboard for a tale exploring the sinister Redman’s method of seditious operation, plus a stunning opening sequence with BK!

The second issue of Bounty Killer kicks off with a bizarrely affecting scene, as our hero – BK, the Bounty Killer himself – acquires for himself a new fugitive head, and this he accomplishes with such a sudden, alarming alacrity (and this during a sequence which seems to revolve around another, wholly diverse but integral plot function) that the reader can’t help but realize that this comic either isn’t going to make one lick of sense, or that they’re in for an unexpectedly complex and truly unpredictable read (but what are the odds of that occurring over the former in a comic book?). Amazingly, Bounty Killer proves to be a playfully elusive yet clearly cohesive epic. In fact, if I could sum this title up with just one word it would indisputably be the one I presently used: unpredictable. If I could use two words, I throw in "complex."

To indulge myself with a movie-centered pair of allusions: writer/publisher Michael Westerman has crafted a discombobulating narrative that, on the one hand, seems to be as attuned to the attention-deficient as Fight Club, yet on the other is as multi-layered and carefully structured as Memento or Primer. The story hardly ever slows from its adamantly high-speed tempo and action-oriented exchanges. Yet due to the implementation of such rapid pacing to tell such a many-tiered tale (like trying to take in a zoo while riding shotgun in a jet) there is more attention to panel-by-panel detail required than there would be for any slower, more obtrusively told epic drama, wherein each piece of the larger whole would be effortlessly laid bare for its audience as they plodded evenly along. Not so in Bounty Killer; here is a story whose purpose, plot, and point are all packed sardine-tight between the covers. Everything needed to understand the events inside (and even come to a few educated understandings as to how they connect to past events and where it all might go from the there) are hidden amongst the cavalcade of sedulously placed details littered within every single panel. I repeat: Every. Single. Panel.

It’s tempting to race ahead and allow the eyes to gloss over the hyper-dynamic artwork, the plethora of characters racing in and out of the overreaching plot, the seemingly unimportant scenes of over-the-top humor that occasionally come to the fore; but to do so would eventually frustrate any potential reader to the point of throwing the comic to the side and swearing never to open such a convoluted, pointless piece of nonsensical garbage again. However, if said reader had, say, an honest half-an-hour to devote to a single, solitary issue, and was willing to use that time to slowly, gradually process all the zany, loony, wild, wicked, and western events that make the sum total of the Bounty Killer reading experience, then they – no matter who, no matter where, no matter when – would be richly rewarded with one of the most immersing storylines I’ve ever had the pleasure of diving into.

New series artist Donny Hadiwidjaja is another standout reason to hop on board the BK train as of now; his work is intricate, likeable and as fitting to the script as his name is long. While first issue artist Erfan Fajar brought a near Alex Rossian (can I say that?), painstakingly painted, oil-on-canvas photorealism to the book, Hadiwika…Haduwukija…Donny brandishes a far more kinetic, classic cartoon style. While this is an impossible to ignore turnabout, the tone of the comic itself shifts to encompass this artistic departure. Rather than plod relentlessly ahead with a stubbornly unchanging tenor that would have conflicted mightily with its current visual appearance, Westerman makes certain his script is apt for his artist’s style. In fact, the story moves so fluidly and fittingly into territory tailor-made for Donny’s pencils-and-inks that it’s hard to believe the changeover wasn’t premeditated – it appears that Fajar was utilized for the first issue alone because that single issue (the story’s start) was appropriate for his atmospheric black and whites, whereas Donny was necessary for where the story would unflinchingly journey to. Probably not, but it’s a plus that it reads this way.

Bounty Killer #2 (if combined with #1 – no fair starting in the middle and whining how it doesn’t make sense!) is the most rewarding single comic book I’ve read so far in 2006. It has humor and action and drama and an execution that is far from ordinary, but it has structure, too, and that transforms its peculiarities into its greatest strengths (it’s highly redolent of Joe Kelly’s Steampunk or Penny Farthing Press’ The Victorian in structure – though it traverses across decidedly different genre borders). The art change is likewise an improbably bolstering aspect – what other book would bother to switch its artists in order to perfectly harmonize with its chapter-by-chapter flavor (or possibly vice versa, but same principle either way)?

It’ll take some patience, as well as an open mind to enjoy the headlong trip into such undiscovered comic book country, but Bounty Killer gives a tanker more than it takes, so journey on, young son, and freely explore the great frontier that is BK without pause. It’s a product whose creative worth far outweighs the genius of its title (and thank god for that)!

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You can order Bounty Killer #1, #2 and a full-color, over-sized version of #3 as well as other Americanime products direct at: www.americanimeproductions.com