Jonah Hex #15 V2 "Retribution, Part 3 of 3"

Jonah Hex #15 V2 Mar '07
"Retribution, Part 3 of 3"
Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, story - Jordi Bernet, art and cover

Wilcox Apache Internment Camp, 1868 - We see several soldiers abusing the Indians that have been placed in their charge when suddenly a rifle cracks and men start falling. We find Jonah Hex up in the overlooking crags carefully drawing a bead time and again, dropping the soldiers with little to no effort.  Finally Jonah rides into the fort with a wagon and addresses a very large Indian, Widow Maker. They exchange mild threats/greetings and it is revealed that they are old friends.

Jonah is there to enlist Widow Maker's help in killing Col Ackerman because Ackerman has killed the Apache tribe that bought Jonah. Widow Maker asks if it is the same tribe that scarred Jonah's face.

The Mark of The Demon - Jonah slowly rides towards the pueblo that he used to call home. When he arrives White Fawn greets him and says that Noh-Tante had said that Jonah was dead...things have changed. Then we learn that Noh-Tante and White Fawn are married. Jonah tells the chief of the chief's son's betrayal and lies and then challenges Noh-Tante to a battle to determine who is telling the true.

A friend of Noh-Tante provides the tomahawks and points out which one is damaged. Noh-Tante instructs him to be sure that Hex gets the faulty tomahawk. The battle begins and during the fight Jonah's tomahawk breaks forcing him to pull a knife to defend himself after Noh-Tante gloats that he knew of the faulty handle.

Unfortunately, Jonah kills Noh-Tante before the rest of the tribe can hear the confession. The penalty for cheating in a battle is death, however, since Jonah is a son of the chief, he shall not die. He will be branded so that the world will always know that Jonah carries the Mark of The Demon.

On the Warpath - Jonah demands an answer from Widow Maker who pledges the power of himself and his men. They ride off with Widow Maker asking if more men will join them. Hex replies in the negative.

Blood-Splattered Moon - Hex and Widow Maker hide in the rocks outside another fort. Hex points out the Gatling guns on the wall and says that they must be turned inward if they are to win.

Inside, Ackerman is questioning his men on the lack of word on the shipment of guns he is expecting from Fulsome. Ackerman instructs his fellows to dispatch someone to find Fulsome in the morning and then asks how the recruiting is going. During the discussion we learn that Ackerman's plan is to raise up an army and venture forth into Mexico, destroying Mexicans and Apaches and eventually becoming a sovereign nation.

A soldier enters and tells Ackerman that someone is there to see him.... Jonah Hex. Ackerman asks if Hex is alone and to have him carefully disarmed and brought in. Hex explains that he came to inform them that Fulsome and his gang are dead and that the guns have been 'distributed accordingly'.  Ackerman demands that Jonah get to the point and Hex tells him that Ackerman slaughtered an Apache camp not too long ago. Jonah wants to know why.

Ackerman states that he needs no reason to slaughter savages, what were they to Hex. Jonah explains that they were his family and he is here to avenge them. Ackerman tells his men to prepare for an attack and one man leaves. As he opens the door he is shot dead and we find the Apache storming the fort.

Jonah breaks out his knuckles and takes on Ackerman and the other man in the room. The Apache have topped the walls and Widow Maker is having free reign in the fort. Hex stabs the second man and Ackerman pulls his pistol but misses. The fight becomes hand to hand with Ackerman gripping Hex by the throat, choking the life from him. Jonah digs his thumbs into Ackerman's eyes, blinding him and then breaks a chair over his head, finally grabbing a busted chair leg and stabbing Ackerman to death with it.

Widow Maker bursts in just in time to prevent a soldier from shooting Hex. Widow Maker offers Jonah a chance to head to Mexico with he and his men but Jonah says that he ain't a joiner...not anymore. Widow Maker asks what Jonah will do. Jonah says he will continue doing what he's doing.

Finally Jonah rides off, declining the large Indian's offer of some of the gold they found in the fort.

Statistics for This Issue
Men Killed By Jonah - 6 in the fort, Noh-Tante,  Ackerman and his toady for a total of 9
Running Total - 601 (432 past, 55 future, 15 Vertigo, 109 V2)
Jonah's Injuries - Choked, kicked, punched
Timeline - 1868, flashback to 1866. The flashback covers a day. Current day, maybe a day or two.
Rape Percentage - 40% (6 out of 15, steadily going down)

All in all, a good Jonah adventure with a nice dose of origin and some healthy action at the end. There were several nice touches in the dialogue and Bennet's artwork fits in very very nicely. It was enjoyable to see the origin through the eyes of the J's and then did a fine job.

Next Issue - Things get really nasty and we get a double dose of ugly on top of it.

Jonah Hex #14 V2 "Retribution, Part 2 of 3"

Jonah Hex #14 V2 Feb '07
"Retribution, Part 2 of 3"
Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, story - Jordi Bernet, art and cover 

Fathers and Sons -  Jonah Hex walks into a bar and sits down with his back to the wall, facing the only door. The local deputy asks the sheriff "Was that?" and the sheriff replies that the deputy better tell the Reverend to dust off his Bible. Shortly a young boy enters the bar and walks up to a lone man leaning on the bar, drinking. The boy entreats his father to come home for supper. The man turns on the boy, but the boy persists and finally the man slaps his son to the floor as we get a very close look at Jonah Hex watching the entire drama.

Greeley, Colorado, 1851 - Jonah, as a young boy is watching his father, Woodson, load up the covered wagon. Jonah is wanting to know why they have to leave and Woodson crawls out of the wagon and kicks Jonah into the dirt. He yanks the boy up by the hair and tells him to never question him again. He continues to verbally abuse Jonah until Jonah spits in his old man's face.

Woodson knocks him to the ground an Jonah lunges for Woodson's pistol. The father breaks a bottle over Jonah's skull and then drags him to the outhouse, lifts the seat and throws his son down into the gut wrenching filth. Throughout the night Jonah tries to crawl out, falling back time after time. When he finally emerges from the outhouse, he is greeted by darkness and his father sitting there with a pistol trained on him. Woodson hands Jonah the pistol and the chance to rid himself of the abusive father forever, but Jonah only stares at him silently. Woodson gives forth some words to live by and then tells Jonah to clean up, they leave for California in the morning.

Black Hills Apache Territory, Arizona, 1851 - Jonah and Woodson pull up to a pueblo in the wagon. He begs the Apache for safe passage through their land and is told that the toll must be paid in either gold or blood. Woodson says that he aims to make his fortune in California and return to Colorado to reclaim his lost farm. Woodson glances at Jonah, the son he has never wanted and has always hated and then kicks Jonah from the wagon, stating that the Apache can have him and do with him as they see fit. Woodson will return in six months and buy Jonah back three-fold.

A medicine man stares at Jonah, whispers some incantation and the Apache tell Woodson that they have a deal.

The Black Hills, Two Years Later - Jonah is out chopping wood when he hears a scream. He finds the chief being mauled by a puma, which Jonah quickly dispatches with the axe. Jonah then helps the chief back to camp and help. Because he saved the life of the chief, Jonah is elevated from slave to son of the chief and is looked upon lovingly by White Fawn. As they walk in the moonlight, they are approached by Noh-Tante, the chief's real son. Noh-Tante has no good feelings towards Jonah and tells him that the chief wants the two of them to raid a traveling Kiowa camp of their ponies.

They both head off into the darkness and Jonah makes short work of the lone sentry. Noh-Tante grabs the ponies and then trows a knife into Jonah's left leg and then sounds an alarm. Several Kiowa come rushing out and Jonah single-handedly kills the entire tribe.

Present Day - The man in the bar pulls a knife on the boy and the bartender is trying to diffuse the situation. The man pulls his pistol on the bartender and Jonah lifts his own pistol and tells the man to drop the knife. The man turns and growls that it ain't Hex's business. Jonah replies "It is now." and places a single bullet right above the man's eyes. He falls to the floor dead and.....

The boy grabs his father's pistol and aims at Jonah's back as Hex leaves the bar. The boy pauses and then drops the gun into the pool of his father's blood.

Hex is now on the street and six armed men approach, demanding that Jonah take them to where he has hidden Col. Ackerman's weapons. Things escalate and one man tells Hex that he will kill hex and he is dead serious. Hex replies "Got that partly right". (Yeah, I actually laughed at that line) A huge gunfight results and Jonah shoots five of the six men. The last one is about to shoot Jonah in the back when a bullet suddenly rips through the man's leg. He falls into the street as the boy from the bar walks out with a smoking pistol.

The boy says to Hex "You're welcome." Hex then finishes off the wounded man and walks down the street to his horse.

Statistics for This Issue
Men Killed By Jonah - 6 in the street, 1 in the bar, 10 Kiowa, and a Puma (I'm not counting the puma) for a total of 17
Running Total - 592 (432 past, 55 future, 15 Vertigo, 100 V2)
Jonah's Injuries - Knife in the leg, slapped, punched, bottle to the head, kick to the ribs, thrown into an outhouse.
Timeline - Well, 1868, flashback to 1851 and 1853. The flashback covers a few months and then a day. Current day; about 15-30 minutes.
Rape Percentage - 42% (6 out of 14)

Man o man o man. This one stays very very true to the original origin and does tie back into the Ackerman revenge storyline, but over all the absolute best panels are the two where Jonah kills the drunken father in the bar and considers it a favor to the boy.

In the boy, Hex saw everything that he was and knew what would become of the lad if he didn't intervene. I can only imagine Hex was wishing that someone seventeen years earlier would have done the same and rescued him from the hell that lived/lives.

Again, Justin and Jimmy produce a book that demands to be read out loud, with the framing captions ringing in the ear so very much like actual texts from that era.

Next Issue - Jonah returns to the Apache, in more ways than one.

Jonah Hex #13 V2 "Retribution Part 1 of 3"

Jonah Hex #13 V2 Jan '07
"Retribution, Part 1 of 3"
Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, story - Jordi Bernet, art and cover

The Wyoming Badlands, 1868 - Two wagons sit under a full moon and four men huddle around a fire that is battling back the Wyoming darkness. Bix, Rufus, Pete, and Captain Fulsome are discussing their business, running stolen rifles down into Mexico.

Bix heads out into the black to relieve himself and during the continuing talk we learn that Fulsome served with Colonel Ackerman in the Confederacy. Rufus staggers back towards the fire and falls down, face first, a tomahawk embedded in his back, stuck clean through a wanted poster of the now dead Rufus (wanted for Murder, Train Robbery, and Rape(?!?)). Bix starts to panic and states "It's HIM".

Fulsome gives orders to kill the fire and cover the wagons. A rope leaps through the air and Pete finds himself yanked off his feet and drug into the dark. Bix makes it to the wagons and suddenly finds a knife in his chest, piercing the wanted poster with his likeness. Fulsome makes it to a wagon, yanks back the canvas and drags out one of two women and holds a pistol to her neck. (the woman says words to the effect "not again", so I am taking that as impending rape)

Fulsome shouts that he will kill the girl if he isn't allowed to leave. He should have killed 'him' at Fort Donelson and the camera slowly pulls back into the night.

Fort Donelson, Tennessee, 1862 - A Union wagon train is slogging through a downpour and a few Confederate soldiers rise out of the underbrush as the wagons roll by. They climb on to the back of the wagons in order to gain access to the Fort in the distance. Once inside, the Rebs attack and open the gates to the Fort, allowing the rest of their men access to the Fort. One Reb in particular seems awfully fond of using a tomahawk.

The Union forces finally get a Gatling gun set up and mow down the Confederates as they enter the Fort. Colonel Ackerman and Captain Fulsome stand over the bodies littering the ground. Ackerman looms above our downed Jonah Hex, noting that rumor has it he was raised by Apaches and that Jonah seems to have an affinity for being on the losing side. Ackerman orders all the bodies bayoneted except for Hex, of whom an example shall be made.

The Cumberland River, Sept 18th, 1862 - Day breaks and Jonah is tied to a large wooden X mounted on a raft. He has been stripped naked and covered with a Confederate flag. Ackerman and Fulsome are there and Ackerman gives Fulsome the order to proceed. Fulsome produces a large whip commences to whip Hex. Hex whispers that he will kill Fulsom but the promise rings false on the Captain's ears. He orders Hex set adrift and the raft is pushed out into the current.

For two full days and two full nights, Jonah hangs from the cross, mosquitoes and other bugs feasting in his bloody open wounds. On the third day, Jonah is sighted by a family on the river bank performing a baby's baptism.  The raft is caught and drug ashore. It is determined that Hex is alive, just barely.

Back at the house, we find Jonah on a table, with the father performing surgery on him, removing bullets, shrapnel, and maggots. The son (not the baby) asks if Hex will die. The father responds that the Good Lord saw fit to bring Hex to them so they will do what they can to save him. The boy continues to talk of the evil of Yankees. The father says that Yankees are men, differing only in their beliefs and measure of their brutality.

The boy mentions that he is scared and the father reassures him that the North will never reach this far south.

Some undisclosed time later, the father is reading in the paper that Lincoln is expected to issue an Emancipation Proclamation. Jonah staggers into the room. The father explains Jonah's situation and that with the damage to his throat, his voice will probably never be more that a coarse whisper. Jonah can stay until he heals, but once he is able to ride, he will be outfitted with a horse, clothes and a rifle.

January 17th, 1863 - During a thunderstorm, three Confederate soldiers come to the door of the house. The father opens the door.

Jonah and the boy are in the barn, saddling a horse when they hear a gunshot. Jonah grabs an axe and heads for the house. He finds the father in a pool of blood and the three soldiers grabbing the mother. She shouts that Confederates don't act tin this manner and they explain that they are not soldiers but they stole the uniforms in order to gain entry to homes.

Jonah bursts in and buries the blade of the axe into the head of one man, grabs his pistol and shoots the second. The last man reaches for his weapon and his head is deftly removed from his torso, courtesy of Jonah's axe.

Several hours later we see Jonah burying the father as the son looks on. The family mourns the loss of their husband and father. That night Jonah pays his respects and rides off.

The Wyoming Badlands, 1868 - Fulsome is still shouting to the dark the conditions of his letting the woman go. A pistol barrel gently eases against the back of his neck and we hear "Drop the gun." Fulsome states that it was Ackerman that slaughtered the Apache, Fulsome had nothing to do with it. The darkness replies "His time is coming."

Fulsome is grasping at straws now. He says that Ackerman can't be taken down, he has too many men, he'll be too angry to find his rifles stolen, he won't stop until Hex his dead. Hex orders Fulsome on his knees, places the wanted poster against Fulsome's chest and says...

Statistics for This Issue
Men Killed By Jonah - 10 (Fulsome and his men, three 'Confederates', two in the fort and I'm not counting all the others dead in the fort) 
Running Total - 585 (432 past, 55 future, 15 Vertigo, 83 V2)
Jonah's Injuries - Dehydration, exposure, shot, whipped.
Timeline - Well, 1868, flashback to 1862 and into 1863. The flashback covers four months, current day; about 15-30 minutes.
Rape Percentage - 46% (6 out of 13)

This story caused a lot of speculation when it was announced. How close would J and J stick to the Fleisher origin?  The details regarding the Fort Charlotte massacre were changed, pretty much removing Quentin Turnbull from the picture (for now) and the entire scene with the whipping brought up concerns that maybe THAT is how Jonah got his scars. So far (I'm trying to not give things away), I'm liking the story and I especially loved the explanation of Jonah's voice, something that we will never hear in a comic but allows us to cast his voice as that of Clint Eastwood.

Bernet's art, first time here, was slightly cartoony but gritty enough and fluid enough to really really work for me. In fact, I like more photo-realistic art myself, but Bernet won me over eventually. In some cases his work, cinematically, works as well as that of Ross, especially here...

All in all, a great issue and a fantastic place for folks to jump on board and learn more about the scarred bounty hunter.

Next Issue - Woodson Hex, The Apache and two panels that sum up the entirety of Jonah Hex's life.

Jonah Hex V2 #8 "Never Turn a Blind Eye"

Jonah Hex V2 #8 Aug 2008
"Never Turn a Blind Eye"
Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, story - Dylan Teague and Val Semeiks and Dan Green, art - David Beck, cover

It's the Southern Nevada Territory, 1868 (arrrgh. More later) and a small town is all astir because Jonah Hex just came riding in, his horse pulling a small wagon with a casket tied onto it. He pulls up in front of the jail and tosses the wagon's rope to the sheriff who pries open the casket only to find six heads inside.

Hex demands his money and the sheriff says he'll get it right away. Jonah tells him to bring it to the saloon. Jonah is relaxing in the saloon when a man stumbles through the swinging doors, not believing that he sees Jonah.  The man collapses and Hex tells the barkeep to fetch a doctor. The man, a fellow bounty hunter by the name of Jake Clevenger, is moved to a table where he relates the tale that he and Mike Brogan, Matt Tobias and Bat Shiff were tracking a man when they got ambushed two days out of Flagstaff.

It was a dozen or so bedroll killers and Jake was the only one to get away. The doc comes in and looks at Jake but Jake says that the killers are on his trail and will kill everyone and everything in town once they arrive. Jake tries to warn the sheriff but Hex tells him to let the doc finish his work first.

Outside, four men on horseback ride slowly into town. The storekeeper runs over to the saloon to tell the sheriff and Jake says that it has to be the killers, the sheriff had better be careful. The sheriff steps outside and asks if he can help the men. The men answer him in German and suddenly Jake bursts out of the saloon and shoots one of them through the head. One of the men shoots the sheriff in the shoulder, Hex steps out and kills two but the fourth one rides off.

The sheriff, bleeding from the shoulder tells Jake that he has to give up his gun. Jake says that there is no reasoning with crazy killers. The sheriff tells Hex that he could use his help to which Jonah replies that this is the sheriff's town and he better start handing out badges. Jake rails on about how they are all going to die and the sheriff panics and enlists the help of as many men as he can.

Hex goes back to the saloon and Jake is right behind him begging for help. Hex tells a saloon girl that he wants a room and she takes him upstairs. Jake said he thought Hex was one for taking sides and Jonah tells him that the only side that makes sense is his. Upstairs the saloon girl is getting undressed but Hex has a small telescope and is looking out the window. Hex asks her why she does this and...

Again with the "heh."

Outside, the sheriff is placing men all around town for an ambush and a large group of riders are getting close to town. The sheriff meets the riders in the middle of the street and Hex sees some wagons far outside of town with a lot of kids hanging around. He leaves the girl and heads downstairs.

In the street a woman from the riders approaches the sheriff and says "We is here...to..fair dealing." The sheriff is confused and just the Hex kicks Jake out of the saloon and into the street. The woman grabs a knife and lunges for Jake but the sheriff stops her but one of the townspeople get jumpy and shoot a rider.

Well, all hell breaks loose with riders shooting towners and towners shooting riders. One man shoots a woman rider in the back and Hex dispatches him without a thought. Once the shooting ceases...

Hex grabs a man, a rider, that is still alive and the man hands Hex a photo of himself and family. Just then several dozen kids come walking into town and start mourning their dead parents. Hex walks over to Jake a plants the muzzle of his pistol right between Jake's eyes, demanding an explanation. Jake starts stammering and Hex shoots him in the left knee.

Jake screams and relates the tale about how they were on the road to Flagstaff and come upon a young girl washing in a river. Things being what they are, Jake and his three buddies rape and kill the young girl. Her younger sister sees it and runs off but Jake shoots her in the back and kills her. The nearby wagon train hears the shots and commence to chase and kill the men, following Jake to this small town.

Back in the present, Jake is begging for mercy from Hex. Jonah grabs a rope and hands it to the surviving rider and then leaves town. As Hex rides off we see Jake strung up from a tree and several dozen children mourning in a graveyard.

Statistics for This Issue

Men Killed by Jonah - 9. Six heads, two riders and a townsfolk.
Running Total - 555 (432 past, 55 future, 15 Vertigo, 53 V2)
Jonah's Injuries - None
Timeline - 1868. But, as we all know, Nevada became a state on Halloween, 1864. Things like this should be easy to check, so why aren't they? I said "WHY AREN'T THEY!?!?!?!?"
Rape Percentage  - 37.5% (3 out of 8)

This story was a good heaping plate of "Meh." First off the artwork was rough. Dylan Teague did the first 13 pages and the last nine were by Val Semeiks and Dan Green. The change in work was pretty jarring and the break was after a couple of pages of ads. I found myself flipping back to see what had happened. Teague's work was very stiff and the last part of the book was too scratchy and cartoony. This ranks on the bottom of the pile as far artwork for this series.

The story wasn't that great either. A small exchange between Hex and the saloon girl showed some insight, but that was it. We end up with a misunderstanding that leads to dozens of deaths and it all started with... wait for it... rape. Wow, eight issues and three rapes. As Chris Sims once said:

But then again, there’s certainly stuff that turns me off just on principle; I stopped reading Jonah Hex because of all the wild west rape that was going on in that book, and if I never see someone in a DC comic have their arm violently ripped off again, it’ll be too soon. We all have our tastes.

I had to remind myself when Sims dropped the book (#27) but I have to admit I was getting tired of the rapes right about this time.  This is one story that could have been left out of any trades and the world would have been better off.

Next Issue - Things get really really weird and we have the return of Tony DeZuniga

Booster Gold & Jonah

Okay, I only pick up my comics once a month or so, therefore my posts about 'recent' comics can be a few weeks old, but I make up for my lateness with incredible in-depth analysis. Everyone cool with that? Onward.

Booster Gold #3. I have never liked Booster Gold. Didn't like the idea when it came out, never cared for the character, didn't read 52, not reading Countdown, but, dang, they put Jonah Hex on the cover I had to drop a couple of $$ to read it.

Rip Hunter tells Booster that they are going to the mid 1800's to Kansas City. "mid 1800's" is an odd, squishy term for a time traveler to use, but if we divide up the 1800's into "early", "mid", and "late" they would be 1800 - 1833, 1834 - 1867, and 1868 - 1899 respectively and since I'm not a scholar (but I AM a thinker!) I'll give some leeway a year on each side of those dates. That means, since we are focusing on "mid-1800's", that our story will plant Booster Gold in Kansas City, at the latest, in 1868 and, at the earliest, 1866 (because that was when Jonah was scarred).

Good. What did Kansas City look like in 1866-1868? If you're talking about Kansas City, Mo, Wikipedia sez:

After the Civil War, the City of Kansas grew rapidly. The selection of the city over Leavenworth, Kansas, for the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad bridge over the Missouri River brought about significant growth. The population exploded after 1869, when the Hannibal Bridge, designed by Octave Chanute, opened. The boom prompted a name change to Kansas City in 1889

Hmmmm, that doesn't look like THAT will fit. What about Kansas City, Kansas, old dear Wiki?

Kansas City, Kansas dates back to the middle of the 1800s. Kansas City, Kansas (KCK) formed in 1868 and incorporated in October of 1872.

Good, and the population for Kansas City, Kansas in 1800 was 3,200, so that appears to be about correct for the town depicted in Booster Gold #4. We have the place, now how about the man?
I have to admit, the depiction of Jonah Hex was pretty straight on. He guns a man down for asking too many questions (obviously not for a bounty, even though he could have been a bounty hunter by that time), ends up having Booster buy him drinks and then knocks out a man gunning for him.

Good job here.

Weird Western Tales #25 "Showdown with the Dangling Man"

Welcome to everyone finding your way here from the Jonah Hex Corral. I try to post reviews on Tuesdays (I'm late this week) with an occasional extra review on Saturday). Thanks for stopping in. This week is somewhat ironic because Jonah is involved in a hanging and the current issue of Jonah Hex starts off with Jonah being IN a hanging.

Weird Western Tales #25 Nov-Dec 1974
"Showdown with the Dangling Man"
Michael Fleisher, story - Noly Panaglian, art

A three page intro covers a train robbery that results in a boxcar of Army supplies being stolen. Meanwhile, two of the holdup men decide to liberate cash & valuables from the passengers. Sadly for them, Jonah Hex is on the train & makes short work of both of them. Hearing the shots, the two men looting rifles from the Army boxcar hightail it out of there but not before gunning down a conductor that had pulled a rifle on them. Jonah unloads his horse from the train and decides to give chase because "Men whut so rude to law-abidin' folks frequently got a price on their heads".

Later the two train robbers come to Antelope Springs Way Station, a toll booth run by a slimy man named Silas Barfrey. Barfrey asks the robbers where the rifles are and they explain what happened at the train. They mention that a scar-faced man is pursuing the,. Barfrey tells them to hide in back of the saloon. Before Jonah can get to Antelope Springs Barfrey is confronted by an old man in a covered wagon heading west on the Oregon Trail. The man refuses to pay the $10 toll ($140 in 2006 dollars) . Barfrey tells the man that he can go around the toll-gate and the town, but he had better watch out for the pools of quicksand in the surrounding marshes.

Jonah show up in town shortly after the old man leaves and is welcomed by Barfrey. Barfrey buys Jonah a drink & explains that he hasn't seen the men Jonah is after. Just then, a man runs in hollering about the old man getting stuck in the quicksand. Everyone heads out to see the action. The old man has managed to crawl from the marsh but everything he owns gets sucked into the wet sand. The man turns on Barfrey with a knife, blaming him for the loss of the wagon. Barfrey guns him down in cold blood saying all the while that his toll is perfectly legal. Jonah mentions that it may be legal, but it stinks. Jonah decides to ride to nearby Fort McPherson to report the train robbery and investigate if the toll gate is on the up and up.

On his way, Jonah encounters a covered wagon trying to outrun a buffalo stampede. Jonah tries to aid the wagon but the wagon makes a sudden turn out of the path of the buffalo and almost runs Jonah over in the process. The wagon is driven by a widow and her two young sons. Her husband died of cholera just that morning. Jonah offers help burying her husband, but she refuses and says that after they are done they'll load up supplies in Antelope Springs and head on west. Jonah leaves them and continues on to the fort.

At the fort, jonah reports the robbery & his suspicions about Barfrey to Col. Crandall. The Col. states that he will investigate. Jonah heads back to town but on the outskirts he sees the town gathered around a pool of quicksand. The widow's wagon is being sucked under along with both of her sons. Jonah manages to lasso the woman and drag her out but the entire town watches her sons as they sink beneath the sand. The woman blames Barfrey for her son's deaths and Jonah, fed up with everything, heads back to the fort to set things straight once and for all.

When Jonah gets to the fort, he overhears the Col. talking to the two train robbers about how he gets a cut of the sale of the stolen rifles. Jonah breaks in and kills one of the robbers but not before a stray bullet kills the Col. Soldiers come in and the other robber blames the Cols death on Jonah. Jonah fights his way out of the fort & heads back to Antelope Springs.

As he nears the town, he spots a piece of cloth stuck to a sign warning about a lime pit. Stopping to investigate Jonah finds the lime ravaged corpse of the widow. She has been murdered with an axe and tossed into the lime.

As Jonah contemplates his next move, the surviving train robber shows up and pulls a rifle on Jonah. Jonah turns and throws a hatfull of lime into the robbers eyes and as the lime is dissolving the robbers face, Jonah guns him down.
Jonah heads back into town to discover that the townsfolk are fed up with Barfrey and they are getting ready to hang him from his very own tollgate. Barfrey pleads with Jonah to take him in. He is a criminal so Jonah can get a reward for taking him to the fort. Jonah states that there is no reward on Barfrey's head so he ain't interested. As Jonah rides off, the townsfolk whip the horse Barfrey is on letting him hang from the tollgate. Then they set fire to the tollgate & Barfrey's corpse.

Statistics for this issue
Men killed by Jonah - 4 men shot

Running Total - 72
Jonah's injuries - 0
Timeline - The Oregon Trail was in use from 1841 to 1869. Since Jonah is scarred here, it is after 1866 but I would place this story around 1868 or 69 since he is not wearing the black hat he had in 1867. Brandon, in research, discovered that Fort McPherson was located in Nebraska and since the Oregon Trail went through Nebraska & there is quicksand along the Platte River, everything seems to jive for this taking place in Nebraska.

This is one of the more morbid stories I've seen. The rotting skeleton in the lime pit, the kids drowning in the quicksand, the faceful of lime, and then the burning corpse were all incredibly gruesome. The cover was one of the best ones that Weird Western Tales ever had, perfectly capturing the weird part of the title by having Jonah and his horse rising from the quicksand.

Panaglin's art is fantastic. I especially enjoy the layout of the title page with the circle with Jonah's name in it. The whole issue is very cinematic with the artwork flowing over the panels (like Dezuniga) and some panels not having any lines seperating them at all.

Fleisher's writing was good with some nice comedy bits giving insight into Jonah's character and even his past (when he mentions that he hates stockade food). One of the best issues in the run.

Next Week - More train robbers and a new artist