Broken Frontier

Jean Lafitte and Jim Bowie arrive in Galveston but find that Lafitte’s mortal enemy Cyrus Wesley has arrived as well.

Writer Johanna Stokes takes two historical figures that have been larger-than-life for over a century and crafts a tale around them that is even more larger-than-life in a way that only a comic book can get away with. Just as a pearl grows around a grain of sand, Stokes has built a charming tale around a tiny kernel of truth.

Successfully reaching land after being put off Lafitte’s ship by his mutinying men, Lafitte takes Bowie to Galveston to get cleaned up and relax. With Galveston a wide-open town where the only law is whatever Lafitte feels like, one would think this a Heaven-on-Earth for the privateer and his ilk. Even here, though, Lafitte is not safe. Cyrus Wesley comes calling and he has the backing of the governor of Louisiana! Lafitte is between a rock and hard place… so why is he so jovial about it?

Galveston is one of those rarities in comic books today. There are no global conspiracies here, the fate of the world is not at stake, there are no powers beyond human comprehension at work… instead there are just four men with big personalities and even bigger appetites. Stokes does not need for the stakes to be high here because she makes the characters so utterly charming their story is compelling all on its own. Lafitte comes across as the charming rogue – the quasi-heroic anti-hero who is not really a bad guy at heart – while Bowie reveals himself to be fairly level-headed, practical, and actually the voice of reason of the two. There is something of the The Sting here in a number of ways – all of them good. It is this perfectly matched odd couple – the French-American pirate and one of the symbols of the American Frontiersman – that make this comic book work. There is not a lot of action here but that is just fine since it is the dialogue between the two main characters that keeps one reading.

Artist Todd Herman has a style that puts me in mind, slightly, of the work of Jordi Bernet. Herman’s work here, however, is heavier than Bernet’s with thick lines and quite a bit of crosshatching. There are also some sequences that perhaps would have come across better with a little more detail. His specialty seems to be in close-ups and head shots, which is a shame since the time period and the setting would lend themselves well to stretching an artist’s talents in portraying them. All-in-all, Herman’s work is a bit of an acquired taste and I am not fully convinced that his style is the right fit for this story.

If you are looking for a comic that is out of the ordinary then look no further than Galveston. There are laugh-out-loud moments, characters that are rich and a setting and story that are just plain fun.