By d. emerson eddy — As we travel further down that dusty western trail, we realize that it's becoming less and less a trail well-travelled, maybe not even a path now, and we're getting tangled up in a messy bramble growing out of what looks to be a swamp. The horses don't much like it, but you notice that one of them is now skeletal and the other appears to be speaking an indigenous language no one thought was extant. We've strained far from the westerns of old and are back in one of my favorite realms, the weird western. And to another modern masterpiece, The Sixth Gun from Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt.

Bunn and Hurtt make an incredible team. Along with other collaborators like Bill Crabtree, Tyler Crook, Brian Churilla, AC Zamudio, and Carlos Zamudio, they've carved out a nice bit of idiosyncratic horror in The Damned, Manor Black, Shadow Roads, and The Sixth Gun. Playing with horror mixed with storytelling approaches and themes from other genres. The Sixth Gun itself starts out circling around searching for the titular sixth gun, one of a set of supernaturally enhanced weapons, and the forces looking for it, playing with the conventions of the western.

The world is built nicely through the investigation, first with a group of Pinkertons working for the widow of a very bad man we'll meet later and then through one of our protagonists, Drake Sinclair. Brian Hurtt does a wonderful job breathing life into the world. With a fine line, angular style, his lanky characters populate the Old West landscape well, but what helps put the supernatural aspect over the top is the gorgeous Gallows Tree, with spooky spirits and an unnatural glow that comes through Hurtt's beautiful colors. It's a nice counterpoint to the darker shades and earth tones that blend together the colors of horror and westerns.

I find that Cullen Bunn is a bit of a chameleon when it comes to much of his work. Like Ed Brubaker, he has an amazing ability to change the voice and content of the narrative to more perfectly suit the characters and setting of his books, rather than have a telltale voice of the author (like, say, a Stephen King book). He does it again here as we get an impressive, almost storybook approach to the narrative boxes. It gives me personally the impression of this being a “tall tale”, suiting the weird west aspect of the story. It gets even more interesting when we get to the Montcriefs, and the introduction of the second protagonist, Becky, that we get more play on the traditional roles of women in an Old West society and how it gets upended by the quest for the sixth gun.

Overall, The Sixth Gun #1 from Bunn and Hurtt is a highly entertaining opening to an incredible weird western saga, eventually spinning off a number of mini-series and the follow-up series of Shadow Roads. The mix of supernatural and the Old West here is seamless and an essential addition to fans of either genre.

The Sixth Gun #1

The Sixth Gun #1
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist & Letterer: Brian Hurtt
Publisher: Oni Press
Release Date: July 14, 2010
During the darkest days of the Civil War, wicked cutthroats came into possession of six pistols of otherworldly power. In time, the Sixth Gun-the most dangerous of the weapons-vanished. When the gun surfaces in the hands of an innocent girl, dark forces reawaken. Vile men thought long dead set their sights on retrieving the gun and killing the girl. Only Drake Sinclair, a gunfighter with a shadowy past, stands in their way. The Sixth Gun is a two-fisted adventure set in the mysterious and supernatural corners of the old west.
Price: $1.99 on Comixology | Also available in the collection: The Sixth Gun – Volume 1: Cold Dead Fingers ($9.99)

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d. emerson eddy is a student and writer of things. He fell in love with comics during Moore, Bissette, & Totleben's run on Swamp Thing and it has been a torrid affair ever since. His madness typically manifests itself on Twitter @93418.