What's with the daisy, pussy?
Jonah Hex and the Shadow of Death #1 (10/7/2026)
By Michael Walsh, Toni-Marie Griffin, and Becca Carey
Cover by Michael Walsh
Edited by James Reid and Brittany Holzherr
Like I'd ever call Jonah Hex a pussy! Are you kidding?! Motherfucker isn't even real and he scares the shit out of me. If I had a Babadook living in my house, it would be Jonah Hex. I mean that in the way that I interpreted the movie which might not have been correct. The kid was scared of the Babadook but he also loved it, right? They were like best friends but in that way where your best friend constantly makes you shit your pants? Because I want Jonah Hex to be my best friend and I wouldn't mind having to clean my knickers out every night for the privilege. I mean my pants! Obviously I don't wear knickers. Ha ha. That would be ludicrous!
I probably interpreted The Babadook that way because my heart wouldn't let me actually understand the movie. It was protecting me and my brain was its accomplice constantly telling me, "This is fun! Look at all the fun they're having! Ha ha! Such a silly Babadook!"
I've had a fascination with Jonah Hex for my entire comic book reading life and yet I haven't read a whole lot of Jonah Hex titles. I loved his aesthetic and his stoic solitude and the way his face somehow melted or something. I never quite understood what was going on with his lip or cheek or whatever. I'm not sure what ultimately kept me from buying everything that Jonah Hex was in being that I loved him so much but I think he felt too far outside the genre and the overall continuity of the DC Universe and also he was a dirty Confederate. Like, if I only had a couple of dollars to spend on comics, I'd spend them on comics where I knew the characters definitely lived in the same time and same reality (and didn't fly the Confederate flag) because there was a chance (or my imaginative belief) that they could run into each other and team-up. But Jonah Hex wasn't going to hang out with Batman. At least not usually! I did very much enjoy when he hung out with Arkham in The New 52! All Star Western was probably my favorite comic book of The New 52 (that or Demon Knights!).
A couple of weeks ago, I found a bunch of Jonah Hex comics from the '60s or '70s in some back issue boxes at an old junk store. This month hasn't been great on the amount of extra spending cash in my pockets so I didn't grab any. But maybe next month I'll go back and grab a bunch. I did manage to throw some money at a local comic book store for this new one though! What could I do?! Stupid DC Comics deciding to start up a bunch of series of my favorite characters this year: Doom Patrol, Lobo, The Demon, and Jonah Hex! I had to at least give them all a chance, right?
By Michael Walsh, Toni-Marie Griffin, and Becca Carey
Cover by Michael Walsh
Edited by James Reid and Brittany Holzherr
Like I'd ever call Jonah Hex a pussy! Are you kidding?! Motherfucker isn't even real and he scares the shit out of me. If I had a Babadook living in my house, it would be Jonah Hex. I mean that in the way that I interpreted the movie which might not have been correct. The kid was scared of the Babadook but he also loved it, right? They were like best friends but in that way where your best friend constantly makes you shit your pants? Because I want Jonah Hex to be my best friend and I wouldn't mind having to clean my knickers out every night for the privilege. I mean my pants! Obviously I don't wear knickers. Ha ha. That would be ludicrous!
I probably interpreted The Babadook that way because my heart wouldn't let me actually understand the movie. It was protecting me and my brain was its accomplice constantly telling me, "This is fun! Look at all the fun they're having! Ha ha! Such a silly Babadook!"
I've had a fascination with Jonah Hex for my entire comic book reading life and yet I haven't read a whole lot of Jonah Hex titles. I loved his aesthetic and his stoic solitude and the way his face somehow melted or something. I never quite understood what was going on with his lip or cheek or whatever. I'm not sure what ultimately kept me from buying everything that Jonah Hex was in being that I loved him so much but I think he felt too far outside the genre and the overall continuity of the DC Universe and also he was a dirty Confederate. Like, if I only had a couple of dollars to spend on comics, I'd spend them on comics where I knew the characters definitely lived in the same time and same reality (and didn't fly the Confederate flag) because there was a chance (or my imaginative belief) that they could run into each other and team-up. But Jonah Hex wasn't going to hang out with Batman. At least not usually! I did very much enjoy when he hung out with Arkham in The New 52! All Star Western was probably my favorite comic book of The New 52 (that or Demon Knights!).
A couple of weeks ago, I found a bunch of Jonah Hex comics from the '60s or '70s in some back issue boxes at an old junk store. This month hasn't been great on the amount of extra spending cash in my pockets so I didn't grab any. But maybe next month I'll go back and grab a bunch. I did manage to throw some money at a local comic book store for this new one though! What could I do?! Stupid DC Comics deciding to start up a bunch of series of my favorite characters this year: Doom Patrol, Lobo, The Demon, and Jonah Hex! I had to at least give them all a chance, right?
I can't say yet if I liked this book but judging by this first page, I'm going to love it!
That caption was my way of saying, "Hey! I love this art style! Thick, wonky panel borders please me! And the colors are fucking toning the shit out of the tone! Also a cowboy talking about crapping his pants? More, please!" Here's proof that I love thick wonky borders because I used them for the border of my change-on-every-reload-of-the-page pic for my defunct website, Places & Predators! Now that's just where I host all the pics for my comic book reviews!
This is a ghost story. A ghost story about the ghosts of those Jonah killed constantly haunting Jonah Hex. A ghost story about the undying ghost of Jonah Hex himself, doomed to haunt the Old West. A ghost story about the Old West itself, dying a slow death from change and technology and the influx of civilization.
This is a ghost story. A ghost story about the ghosts of those Jonah killed constantly haunting Jonah Hex. A ghost story about the undying ghost of Jonah Hex himself, doomed to haunt the Old West. A ghost story about the Old West itself, dying a slow death from change and technology and the influx of civilization.
God I love him so.
Michael Walsh nails the tense, haunted atmosphere of a creepy frontier town filled to the brim with characters that verge on stereotypes but just in the right way so that they're recognizable but more than what they seem: the tough jerk pushing everybody around, the timid bartender, the flirtatious whore, the precocious stable boy, the haughty sheriff, and the weird, witchy girl with the flowers who wants her father killed. They're expected but they're off in just the right way; a Western town brimming to the rim (and the slightest bit over, precarious, held back from spilling by molecular forces) with unheimlich. And the panel layouts! Fucking majestic. I love when an artist isn't afraid to work small (so much like Moritat in The New 52 All Star Western! Glorious!), allowing for panels that view the action from a ways back, letting Hex and the weird girl interact at a distance to the observer. The characters express so much in art that isn't overworked; Walsh does just enough of everything. The emotion on the face of the dead boy Hex killed! Exquisite!
I'm not sure yet who the narrator is. Perhaps Charlie the stable boy. Or Annie the weird girl. Maybe the ghost of the boy Hex guns down at the beginning who haunts Jonah's dreams. But the narrator explains the story of Jonah Hex in an ambiguous way so you don't know what's truth and what's legend. Has death left Jonah Hex to fend for himself? Does he keep dying and coming back? Or is that just the legend because he survived being crucified in the War, because he's survived so many gun shots, so many flames, so much pain? And does it matter?
By the end, we seen the antagonist but I'm not quite sure who it is. Is it the pastor who brought the bell to this strange town to "bring the Lord" to it? Or is it a manifestation of the killer inside Jonah Hex that he's fighting so hard to bury beneath the boards of the shack he's come to live in? And what is the thing haunting Annie and pretending to be her father?
The Ranking!
I'm fucking hooked. What a beautiful fucking comic book! I should scan in one more page just to show what I can't possibly praise enough because I don't have art words in my dumb brain!
I'm not sure yet who the narrator is. Perhaps Charlie the stable boy. Or Annie the weird girl. Maybe the ghost of the boy Hex guns down at the beginning who haunts Jonah's dreams. But the narrator explains the story of Jonah Hex in an ambiguous way so you don't know what's truth and what's legend. Has death left Jonah Hex to fend for himself? Does he keep dying and coming back? Or is that just the legend because he survived being crucified in the War, because he's survived so many gun shots, so many flames, so much pain? And does it matter?
By the end, we seen the antagonist but I'm not quite sure who it is. Is it the pastor who brought the bell to this strange town to "bring the Lord" to it? Or is it a manifestation of the killer inside Jonah Hex that he's fighting so hard to bury beneath the boards of the shack he's come to live in? And what is the thing haunting Annie and pretending to be her father?
The Ranking!
I'm fucking hooked. What a beautiful fucking comic book! I should scan in one more page just to show what I can't possibly praise enough because I don't have art words in my dumb brain!
God that hostler! Fucking goosebumps inside my spine!
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