Welcome back to Haunted Trails, Multiversity Comic’s column for talking about Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt’s The Sixth Gun. While there haven’t been any issues of The Sixth Gun lately, there have been plenty of miniseries. Last month Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook’s Dust to Dust concluded, and this month Brian Hurtt and A.C. Zamudio’s Valley of Death began, so they’re both here to talk about these stories. We’ll also be talking about The Sixth Gun RPG Kickstarter. And to cap it off, we have some unlettered preview pages from next month’s The Sixth Gun: Valley of Death #2.
Cullen Bunn: I think that’s a good assessment of what this story is all about, but it didn’t necessarily start that way. When I sat down to write this story, I just wanted to write a nice farewell to my personal favorite character, Billjohn. Even though there’s a lot of love for Billjohn out there, he’s been a walking golem since our sixth issue. This was a chance to explore his life in a little more detail. But, yeah, there’s a sense of fatalism here. We see it with Billjohn, Sally, the Immortal Girl, and even Drake and Abigail in their brief appearances. There’s also something here about what we carry with us to the bitter end. If we look at this story through the lens of Billjohn the golem walking along with a few memories racing through his brain, we realize what is most important to him.
Whatever happens to him, he’ll be someone Sally would want him to be. He won’t be a monster. Even as a golem controlled by one of the Six, he carries the baggage of this story with him. To me, this story feels like a memory from the perspective of Billjohn’s spirit, trapped in limbo within the golem. Especially with those ink wash panels thrown in there. It’s like he isn’t fully aware of what’s happened to him until the final page.
CB: That’s exactly what we were going for. They were memories flitting about within the golem’s mind and Billjohn’s spirit is almost trapped within those memories. The ink wash panels you mentioned were moments of the “real” world invading his memories.
My favorite sequence in this issue was page nineteen. I’m so glad you gave this moment the space it needed to resonate. Tyler did an excellent job with it, and I love the way Bill Crabtree’s colors become colder with each panel.
CB: That was a tough scene to write, actually. From the perspective of being a dad myself, I think that what Billjohn is going through here is absolutely devastating and terrifying. I’m glad the scene resonated with you. All of the Sally and Billjohn scenes really meant something to me in this series.
Dust to Dust was a beautiful way to explore the character. It gives even more weight to an already tragic figure. I look forward to seeing what you do with him in Boot Hill.
Brian Hurtt: I have said for years that the reason I got into comics is to tell stories—that’s the only reason any artist should be involved in the medium. If it was just about drawing, there are many more ways to make more money and to put in less hours than working in comics. So storytelling is at the heart of what I do. I just happen to be able to draw as well. So, for me, getting the chance go from telling stories with pictures to telling stories with words was a really exciting challenge and, yet, something that felt like a natural progression. That’s not to say that it came easy.
Continued belowValley of Death was my first solo gig but it wasn’t my first time writing comic script. Working closely with Cullen, I had done a lot of writing on the Sons of the Gun and Days of the Dead mini-series. Those projects gave me a chance to kind of dip my toe in the water as opposed to just jumping straight into the deep end. With Cullen there, it was like having a safety net. If I wrote a clumsy scene, I knew he would come in and put some polish on it. If I came to a section that gave me some real trouble I’d just think, “Cullen can write this bit”! But with this new series, the training wheel came off and, for better or worse, every aspect of the scripts is now on my shoulders.
The most exciting aspect of writing solo is coming face-to-face with my shortcomings. I love coming to something that I have a bit of confidence about (storytelling) and finding that I have SO much to learn still. It’s invigorating! My biggest frustration has been having my ambition for the story run up against page count. I’m always going to want more pages! In movie-making terms, there is a lot of stuff I really loved that ends up on the cutting room floor. But that’s just the nature of the beast.
You did a really good job of preserving the narrator’s voice. It still feels like the tale is being told by the same character.
BH: Thank you! Actually, that is the aspect writing The Sixth Gun that I am most nervous about. In the mini-series that Cullen and I did together, the Narrator captions were the parts I always left Cullen to write. At most, I’d give a vague notion of what the Narrator was saying but I mainly passed the buck on those sections. Cullen had established such a distinct voice of the Narrator in the main series—and it felt such a part of him—that it was daunting to try and replicate it. But, eventually I was able to put that apprehension aside and try and be true to the voice of the Narrator but also be true to my own writing style. If I try and be Cullen, I’m only going to pale in comparison!
Valley of Death explores the Spirit World, which is a major location in Boot Hill, the final arc of The Sixth Gun. What does this mean for your involvement for the art of Valley of Death? Are you more hands on with the design aspect than a writer would normally be?
BH: Actually, I wasn’t. I gave a description in the script but within that, there was still a lot of room for interpretation and invention. I firmly believe that if you aren’t handling every aspect of the creation of the comic then you are in a collaboration and you need to treat it as such. It can be a hard thing to let go of, but I’ve been doing this for so long with Bill Crabtree and Cullen that it has become a lot easier. After Cullen finishes a script and turns it in it is out of his hands and he has to trust me to bring to it what I will. In turn, when I finish the line art I hand it off to Bill and I have to trust him at that point. We each have to respect the other’s talent and expression and learn to let go.
That’s awesome. I’ve been following your posts on Instagram and the glimpses of the Spirit World look amazing. I look forward to seeing where Arielle takes this series in issue two.
BH: I really think she is going to blow people away. I can’t say enough good stuff about her work. She’s still pretty young, but she has the storytelling skills of a veteran and her drawing and cartooning ability is great. I’m excited, because she is only going to get better over the coming years. She is definitely a talent to watch and I hope that Cullen and I get the opportunity to continue working with her!
Continued belowI’ve really been enjoying the interconnectivity between these spin-offs, the way they broaden the world of The Sixth Gun. In Valley of Death you draw on elements set up in various stories, in particular the mythology of the death god, Yum Kimil, from Days of the Dead, and the shamans White Wolf and Screaming Crow from the main series. And in this case, Valley of Death is exploring more of the Spirit World, which will be a major part of The Sixth Gun’s final arc, Boot Hill.
When you start writing these spin-offs, do you go in with a plan to set up certain connections up for later stories, or is it more a case of taking advantage of opportune moments when the story opens up that avenue?
CB: That’s part of the beauty (and the tragedy) of The Sixth Gun for us as creators. There are many stories… and stories within stories… that we could tell. That opens up a world of possibilities, which is terrific, but we know that we will never be able to tell all those tales.
Maybe a prose story for the hardcovers could tell that story some day. I really enjoyed “Them’s What Ails Ya!” (collected in The Sixth Gun – Volume 1 hardcover) and I’d love to see another like that before The Sixth Gun is done.
BH: It’s all about scheduling! I know that Cullen would love to do some more prose and I know that I’d love to see it as well. I think it’s more of a matter of “when”, not “if”.
CB: I would absolutely love to do more prose stories in this world. I have two of those stories in various stages of completion. Both of the stories follow Drake on some of his wild adventures. They probably skew a little more into horror territory, but I think they are both fun stories. I just need to get to a point schedule-wise that I can finish them.
Late last month, you guys launched a Kickstarter for The Sixth Gun RPG. You reached your goal on the first day, and with a week left to go, you’ve unlocked all but one of your stretch goals. It’s very exciting.
So how did this project come about?
CB: It’s no secret that I’ve been gaming almost as long as I’ve been reading comics. When I was a kid, a friend of mine brought his brother’s copy of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons module Tomb of Horrors to school. At lunch, he walked me through the illustrated booklet that came with the module. He was just making up stories to go along with the pictures, but I was hooked. I’ve been making up stories and rolling dice ever since. What might surprise folks is that I once dreamed of writing RPG supplements and games. When I was in fifth grade, I submitted a board game to Dragon Magazine—complete rules, illustrated game board, pieces. It was called (I think) Potions and Powers. The game wasn’t published, of course, and I had sent my original copy, so I don’t have it any more. I like to think, though, that the staff of Dragon played that game in the break room for years to follow.
I think we’ve always felt that The Sixth Gun would make an excellent role-playing setting. World- and history-building is such big parts of the book. Those same elements are some of my favorite facets of RPGs.
Continued belowA couple of years ago, I attended Gen Con with the Oni Press team. Our goal was to talk to game publishers to discuss books like The Sixth Gun. During that trip, the first trade paperback ended up in the hands of Shane Hensely from Pinnacle Entertainment. The rest, as they say, is history.
BH: A lot of credit has to be given to our editor Charlie Chu. He’s known for a while that this is something that Cullen and I both wanted to see happen. As Cullen said, it was at that Gen Con they attended that the contact with Shane was made, but Charlie has been there every step of the way, shepherding this project through every stage.
The success of the Kickstarter has been very exciting to watch unfold. I have to give props to the experienced hands at Pinnacle and the established fan base that they brought to this project. It’s really exceeded all of my expectations and the most exciting thing has been that we’ve seen evidence of fans of the Savage Worlds game system discovering our comics through this Kickstarter and fans of our comics getting into this game system for the first time. It’s really been everything we’d hoped it would be!
In my late teens and early twenties I worked at a comic book and gaming store (this is where I met Cullen) but my interest was still pretty firmly rooted in the comics side of things. But, that job did expose me to the wide world of RPGs and gamers and, interestingly, I remember that it was during my time there that Shane’s Deadlands game came out. Who would have thought that all these years later we’d be working with him to bring another weird western RPG to the world.
It’s amazing that in all those years—and especially in knowing Cullen—that I never got sucked into the role-playing world. It’s not for lack of interest, it’s just that the stars never aligned. In the past year though, I’ve started playing some table top board games and I’ve actually had the opportunity to play a couple one night RPG sessions. One, the new edition of D&D, the other a Call of Cthulhu adventure. I’m looking forward to playing more but I’m especially excited to play The Sixth Gun. Everyone at the studio I work at is waiting for Cullen’s schedule to open up a bit so that he can come in and run a game for us!
At the time of this writing, the Kickstarter is about $2,400 off from hitting that final stretch goal: Another Sixth Gun tale for the RPG with a comics prologue. And I noticed Shane Hensley is teasing another secret stretch goal beyond that!
CB: Yeah, there are apparently some secret stretch goals that we don’t even know about! I’m super excited to see what they are, but Shane and company are keeping them pretty hush-hush!
For those curious about the RPG Kickstarter, there are two free demo games available to download now. You can find the test drive rules here, The One-Hand Gang adventure here, and the Circle the Wagon adventure here. The RPG Kickstarter finishes on the 26th of June. Be sure to check it out.
And The Sixth Gun: Valley of Death #2 will be on sale on the 15th of July. The following preview pages are unlettered and are taken from various points during the issue rather than showing full sequences. The art is by A.C. Zamudio and colors by Ryan Hill.
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