Barr, Steven & Cheaney, Tielman – Devil Water #1

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Devil Water #1

Well, this book sure looks gorgeous, I’ll give it that much. And I’m a big fan of the whole horror/western idea, so I had high hopes going into this one. And I’m coming out of it… still hopeful, but it’s more of a set-up issue than one where anything really significant happens. Unless, of course, you think setting up the characters for the rest of the run is significant for some reason. This starts off letting you know that it’s 1899, and it follows a completely stereotypical gold prospector from back in the day. You know, filthy beard, says “Eureka!” when he finds gold, that sort of thing. Turns out that he was followed by a crew of 4 ne’er-do-wells, who follow his lead to a whole pile of gold… and that’s where they discover an underground pool. Why they jump into the underground pool instead of collecting the piles and piles of gold surrounding them is beyond me, but it seems to change them in a significant way. That’s all we really know about that so far, but it looks to me more like this is superhero/western than horror/western, but that’s a very early opinion that’s almost surely wrong. We also meet a few people in town, and a man who’s passing through, trying to sell his miracle wonder cure-all. I’d say this has some serious potential, and Steven Barr has apparently been involved in all kinds of movies, so he should have the money to keep this going until the story plays out. $3.50