Death Comes to Dillinger #2 (of 2)

Written by James Patrick

Art & Cover by Se7enhedd

 

In the first half of this awesomely weird western tale, we followed a mysterious rider into the town of Dillinger. A town far, far out in the Wild West, where, writer James Patrick told us, everything had its own rules, even life and death. That rider we followed had hands like a skeleton and a skull beneath his wide-brimmed hat. He was a…thing of few words, sidling up to the bar to drink whiskey, ignore the furtive glances of the terrified townspeople, and keep a eye socket on a strange silver pocket watch marked with the name of a young girl—when it stopped ticking, he'd collect her soul and move on.

 

The rider was Death, and no one dared oppose him because, well, there's no beating death, is there? Tenderfoot Paxton, whose sick daughter's soul is the one Death's waiting on, gives it his best shot however. After a failed attempt to bribe Death, he calls him out and challenges him to a shoot-out—if Death wins, he gets both of their souls; if Paxton wins, Death rides out of Dillinger without taking Paxton's daughter.

 

That's where the last issue ended. It was devoted to mood evoking, scene setting and suspense building, with plenty of silent panels of Death making its way through Dillinger. In truth, it wasn't a bad story in and of itself. As a simple visual essay on what death might look like if filtered through an Old West motif, it worked fine, even before Paxton confronts Death.

 

Much of the credit must go to the artist whose unpronounceable pen name was so highly expressive and stylized that so much story was told in simple gestures, poses and meaningful looks.

 

With this issue, that carefully built suspense pays off, and keeps paying the whole issue. Paxton spends what's likely to be his last night on earth trying to shoot a tin can off a fence post, and gets all the way through every chamber of his six shooter without even nicking it (If there was a gunfighter who could beat Death itself in a draw, Paxton's certainly not it; in fact, he's not even a gunfighter).

 

Meanwhile, Patrick and, um, Se7en demonstrate what a world of trouble Paxton is in by contrasting his failure to hit the can with Death facing off against the sheriff and a posse. He takes them all apart, one shot a piece, without missing a single one of them, or getting hit once.

 

Patrick throws in a nice twist, which makes for a surprise ending but, this being a post-Unforgiven western, not exactly a completely happy one.

 

It's a killer tall tale, and a nice, modern yet mythic story, feeling like a trashy horror comic and a campfire tale and an American fairy tale all at once. I sincerely hope Silent Devil will collect both issues into a single, bound volume at some point, to make it easier to put in bookstores and library shelves, because it's a book I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to just about anyone.

 

Rating - 10