2 out of 5

Switching genres is tough.  I was interested in reading this because I’ve seen and enjoyed a couple of J.T. Petty’s films, and a dusky Western horror certainly would match with his themes.  First Second’s (publisher) track run is uneven, but only because they seem supportive of a wide range of artists.  Their books generally look pretty great, and Bloody Chester’s design is no exception – the cover a total Saul Bass / exploitation blend of negative space and bold colors courtesy of one of First Second’s in-house colorists, Hilary Sycamore.  It’s eye-catching, and that title and the vibe set the mood right away.  It’s a satisfyingly sized mini-trade, skin to the Bone Scholastic editions, with thick but flexible pages and a smartly angled binding that allows for easy reading.  So nothing disappointing about the presentation.

Inside – it’s a different story lord no pun intended.

Writers and artists hook up for all sortsa reasons.  ‘Chester’s illustrator, Hilary Florido, has, I’m sure, more qualifications than I do and according to the back blurb, does storyboards for ‘The Regular Show.’  But this was her first GN.  Both of those puzzle pieces are apparent.  Florido’s style is quick and sketchy with minimal detailing and backgrounds unless, I’m assuming, a quiet scene-setting moment was specifically written in.  This allows for plenty of wide open space in which Sycamore can ply her trade, adding gorgeous nuance onto panels that frankly don’t deserve it – awesome subtle shifts in tone or perfectly chosen gradients to help emphasize some action sequences… it plays a massive part in getting across emotions that Florido often can’t quite articulate.  Unless it comes to gags.  This really isn’t meant to be a knock – let’s just refer back to my starting point, of genre switching being difficult.  Storyboarding cartoons is not the same as drawing comics.  The facial ‘response’ that I assume are often necessary in the beats for storyboarding aren’t going to be the best match, generally, for the pacing of a book, and such is the case here, with characters over- or under- responding just before or after the appropriate moment.  There are some cute interactions scripted between the characters, and here’s where Florido’s talents can shine – silence and timing perfect, milking just enough from each panel to bring the scene to life.  But since, overall, this is a more serious tale, these moments are few.  The skill also translates well to small scale fights or violence, with the sketchy, swift lines and simple figures allowing the scenes to have an appropriate sense of movement and down-and-dirty scufflin’, but when the scope has to go bigger – to the shooting of a gun, or expanding to more than two characters – her grasp feels shaky, experimenting with mixed versions of action lines and angles to, probably, try and feel out what could eventually become her ‘own’ comic style.  The paneling is just poor.  Sticking to a grid would’ve been wise for this first outing.  I appreciate the attempt at trying to break up the page with connecting lines and angled panels, but it rarely actually makes sense in context and feels too much like an after-the-fact external application.  Assuming she handled the lettering as well, this also goes into the amateur column, with word bubbles given waaay too much space and the thick bubble borders poorly contrasting with the loose art.  The standardized font for each character is also jarring, and looks too much like a computer font.  These very, very comic book elements – paneling and lettering – are easy ways to include or exclude the reader into or from story.  ‘Chester’ has a lot of interesting plot pieces (though part of this 2 star falls on Petty, for sure), but these artistic woes didn’t help it to pick up steam.

So on to Mr. Petty.  Not as much to pick at here, but it’s the same issue – movies aren’t comics.  Petty has also written some kids books, which I’d definitely like to check out, but neither are books comics.  A few paragraphs later, we learn that online blogging ain’t reviewing, and I haven’t explained much about the plot of ‘Bloody Chester.’

We follow the trod-upon Chester Kates, homeless, penniless, cares for his horse, and is called Lady Kate based on his last name… as well as some background events that Petty eventually reveals.  Kates gets his assed kicked in order to score a free breakfast, managing to amuse a Mr. Croghan, who would like to pay Kates to travel to the nearby town of Whale and burn it down in order to make way for the railroad.  I’m sensing if I knew my history, the ‘why’ of this would make more sense – Croghan explains that his wrecking crew has run off due to ‘being spooked’ – and though, again, we get some more details as to how Croghan and Whale are further intertwined, it still didn’t quite sell me on the explanation…  Beyond that railroad men are rich and they ain’t gonna’ do the manual labors.  So Chester takes off thataway, and discovers that Whale isn’t deserted, as Croghan had said, but has our tough and gentle Western lass – Caroline – and our sassin’ lad Potter and his father the Preacher, who does the crazy Preacher bit from behind a closed door.  Petty and Florida appropriately paint Whale as a creepy, mostly empty town, and add our horror element via the cause of the afore-mentioned spookin’ – an Indian plague named Coyote Waits that eats one from inside.

Kates is skeptical, and set on completing his task.  But Caroline won’t leave without her father – who’s squirreled away in the hills – and Chester is sweet on the girl… and so over 100 some pages, we see Kates’ attempts at shooing the residents from the town, details concerning character’s pasts and the nature of the plague twisting and turning in what our author hopes are interesting ways.  And some of them are.  But some of them just don’t work very well in the format.  There are a couple visual reveals – plot through picture – and these are effective.  But the dialogue reveals are a bit choppy and almost too open at points; we can see Petty viewing the process through a filmic eye, but Florida’s work isn’t nearly cinematic enough to make it happen, so certain character cues or a visual ‘tone’ that might assist us in being affected by these moments are lacking, and thus… same to the overall story.  The tension dribbled throughout also ends up just being clutter, unnecessary distraction, especially given some more lighthearted moments and almost a wink of an ending.  Yes, there is tragedy here, and a lot of good stuff welling just ‘neath the surface, but it remains unrealized.

Script and art must work in concert.  Florida’s art wasn’t up to the scripts subtleties, nor was it appropriate for the style, and Petty’s writing shifted away from comic book beats or framing and didn’t work with Hilary’s strengths to tighten up the tale.  Further comic efforts from Petty, if they happen, would be of interest, but ‘Bloody Chester’ is a training ground.