The Old West is an integral part of the American mythos. There’s a lot of romanticization of the Old West in everything from books, to movies, and even comics (Westerns were a huge part of comic book sales in the early days) and it’s easy to see why. The idea of the pioneer family traveling out West to seek their fortune and start a new life is ingrained into our history and culture, and it’s certainly turned itself into a powerful symbol.
The truth of the Old West is a bit more complicated. The truth is that the Old West was settled by fallible, complicated humans doing fallible and complicated things to each other and to the people that were already living there.
Deconstructing mythology–which is the practice of adding a dose of realism to the stories we tell ourselves–is a powerful thing, and before anyone gets too angry, I’m not here to question anyone’s beliefs or identity. This is what “The Enfield Gang Massacre” #1 is really about, and there’s a well written bit of text in the back to prove it.
So with that out of the way, let’s deconstruct some myths.
Written by Chris CondonCover by: Jacob Phillips
Illustrated by Jacob Phillips
Color Assists by Pip Martin
The THAT TEXAS BLOOD duo returns to Ambrose County, Texas with an all-new MINISERIES set 150 years in the past!
Gunslinging action meets dark frontier drama in this original Western thriller, as Montgomery Enfield and his gang of outlaws find themselves in the crosshairs of an aging Texas Ranger and a newborn county that’s hungry for law.
“The Enfield Gang Massacre” #1 follows the life and death of one Montgomery Enfield, a notorious outlaw who waged a war on society itself, took what he wanted, and killed anyone in his way. At least, that’s what the carnival barker displaying his corpse would tell you.
However, the comic then cuts to the actual living Montgomery Enfield, who is a bit more complex than was originally believed. Sure, Enfield and his gang rob banks, but there’s a real sense that Enfield doesn’t seem to take any enjoyment from it. In fact, there’s a very real sense that Enfield might be looking to quit the life of an outlaw, he even gets a job offer from the bank he robs!
Unfortunately, the people of Ambrose County have had enough of the gang’s antics, and when a bank teller winds up dead, the gang and the law are headed towards a violent and bloody confrontation.
“The Enfield Gang Massacre” #1 is written by Chris Condon and is a spin off of his very popular and successful “That Texas Blood” series. The comic is a Western noir story, which is right in Condon’s wheelhouse, and as a result it is very good. Condon does a great job of taking the gritty, violent, and morally gray tropes of a classic noir story and transposes them onto a familiar and classic Western. The book has everything from a career criminal questioning his life choices, to a retired lawman who just wants to retire in peace but is pulled back into the mess for one last job, to townspeople who aren’t necessarily telling the whole truth and might have ulterior motives. Condon does a great job of laying the foundation of a simple, easy to understand mystery, and the entertainment comes from seeing well written and fleshed out characters bounce off each other and commit horrific acts of violence either on purpose or due to tragic misunderstandings.
If “The Enfield Gang Massacre” #1 has any problems, they’re very few. It’s a comic created by a team that knows how to use the genre well and understands that its job is to lay the foundation for future issues. If you want to get picky, you could argue that Montgomery Enfield could have been fleshed out a bit more since the comic does hint that he has a sweetheart that’s looking to start a family but never shows that. Also, there’s a wall of text at the end that talks about the story as a historical event, but it presents information that could have been shown in the art. Still, it could be argued that this was a creative choice since it does give the comic a real sense of historical authenticity.
Continued belowThe artwork for “The Enfield Gang Massacre” #1 is done by Jacob Phillips with coloring help by Pip Martin. First and foremost, the cover of the comic is gorgeous with a painted style that looks like it would be right at home as an old fashioned Western dime novel. The second thing you’ll notice is that the artwork bears a striking similarity to Brubaker and Phillip’s “Criminal” series, which makes sense since Jacob Phillips is Sean Phillip’s son. More specifically, the artwork couples scratchy and rough character drawings with a minimal color palette. It’s an extremely effective combination which immediately thrusts the reader into a world where a hard and scratchy art style adds weight to hard and scratchy characters, and the simple colors combine to create some really stunning vistas. The final thing the reader will notice is just how bloody and violent this book is. This is a story that isn’t afraid to show blood and entrails, and when you read up on what the massive soft lead bullets of the time did to a human body, or what a Bowie knife could do to a human, it’s easy to see why the comic doesn’t shy away from showing some genuinely nasty stuff.
“The Enfield Gang Massacre” #1 takes the traditionally morally gray ideas of a noir story and combines it with the more black and white Western in a way that is thoughtful, heartbreaking, and violent and combines it with very pretty artwork. It’s a great piece of deconstruction and a great mystery too.
Final Verdict: 9.4- A great example of mythic storytelling mixed with the hard and brutal reality of the Old West where nobody is truly evil or truly good.
