5 out of 5

I’d like to congratulate Mr. Bunn on securing what feels like a worthwhile followup to his – thus far – masterwork of Sixth Gun with this most recent Harrow County arc.

HC had started off incredibly promising, but that in itself isn’t so unusual for Bunn.  He’s many a good idea rattling around in his brain – and a lot of them seem to have intriguing supernatural bents to them – but building lasting characters around those ideas and forming a lasting narrative have, to me, proven problematic.  But Harrow County had a very homespun feel that was helping to keep it grounded, this vibe also seeming to inspire a very dedicated fan base which bonded over a shared fear of ‘haints.’  This type of support, in turn, added to the grounding, so County had a good direction for moving forward.  But Bunn frightfully set out for bigger pastures maybe a bit too soon, which almost seemed to cause some back-pedaling and stalling for subsequent issues.  This arc puts the sidetracking in perspective, as it raises the stakes enough to give our lead a reason to plant her heels and proclaim she ain’t moving.  This stance – and the side characters to whom she pledges allegiance – wouldn’t feel as important if we hadn’t taken the issues to go a’wanderin’ for a bit, though I still think the arc with sister Kammi felt out of place, especially given how Emmy meets more “family” here.  By the same token – although that storyline is touched on in the backmatter shorts by Tyler Crook – Bunn smartly doesn’t call back to that character to confuse the focus of our tale, which has Emmy assisting Bernice on a search through a cornfield for a lost boy, then running across a strange fellow who has an interesting story to tell them…  And that story, and its results, are what’s in these issues, so no more to he said.  But it’s a wonderful synthesis of character and theme, which is what made Sixth Gun stand out from its very idea-centric (as in lacking in qualities besides the idea) brethren.

Crook brings the art, as usual, and its nice to have him for several issues straight.  The issues move through more of a variety of settings than what we’ve seen yet, and Crook manages to make them all look delightfully dreary.  I also noticed his lettering more so these issues, as we have some characters with unique “voices” that he depicted particularly well, and a lot of exposition that’s rendered without slowing down the pace.

It sounds like we’re gonna’ step aside with some guests artists again for a couple more issues, but now I have the confidence that we’ll return to an even stronger central story.