Filed under: Comic Reviews, Indie Comics | Tags: A Comic A Day In May, Accent UK, Dave West, Gary Crutchley, Josiah Black, WesterNoir
Accent UK has been a great source of entertaining comics in recent years with anthologies and some stunning series & one-shots too……and the next title for me to catch-up with was the first three books from the four-part WesterNoir.
It may well start off with a familiar premise of revenge in the wild west but that becomes far more clouded as the first book plays out. Our main character Josiah Black is introduced as gun for hire as the murder of his wife and son still works at his very soul and his quest to complete his own personal vendetta goes unsatisfied. A widow approaches Josiah with a tale not unlike his own where her family have been killed off in a supposed robbery and this marks the beginning of his latest job to track down and kill a murderer by the name of Jim Wilson. Josiah follows through with his plans but the reality is that Jim is travelling the country taking care of monsters that can’t be seen by the naked eye and Josiah has taken him out from doing what needs to be done. Something that becomes apparent to him when Jim’s employer, Mr Calgary, lets Josiah in on the facts and reckons that Josiah owes him now.
Book two takes us further into the work that Josiah is now doing for Mr Calgary as they continue to track down the monsters from around the country. This time round we’re into swamp country and a messed up human/croc hybrid that are kidnapping & killing people from the local town. That messed up family has Josiah to answer to though and this issue seems to be all-out action as he wades into the swamp with traps and all guns blazing. He takes care of the job in hand and almost disappears into the night and the next job.
The third book starts off by taking us in a different direction to normal with Josiah acting the hero and saving Cassiopeia Eliades (Cassie for short thankfully) from a bar room incident and walking her home to the gambling paddle boat she runs with her two sisters. This chance meeting brings Josiah a real sense of hope for a spell as his life gets good – good food, good living and an interest in Cassie that becomes more. This seems to take us in that hopeful direction with Josiah but the disappearance at towns along the river their boat follows is a sure fire sign that something’s going to kick-off…..and it does when Josiah reaches his final destination. He gets there to be met by one of Mr Calgary’s men and his latest targets are the three sisters that have given him hope…..a cruel twist for sure but Josiah is a man of his word and he sounds find out the truth about them before taking them down.
These three issues are phenomenally good with a hint of Clint Eastwood in our main character in among the circumstances of Supernatural and that’s a fantastic mix. Writer Dave West knows how to write a strong central character and Josiah is one of the strongest in this or any other comic I’ve read and it’s that imperfect hero that makes this all the more engaging as he almost growls his way through conversations and escapes certain death with a hail of bullets. Similarly the artwork from Gary Crutchley seems steeped in that olde time vibe of the west with a gritty noir edge that raises this up another notch and if you ain’t cheering Josiah on…..then you’ve got no soul and you could be Josiah’s next target.
Gritty western perfection in comic book form that’s another real success for the Accent UK team…..so I’ll be trying to get my hands on the fourth and final book soon to find out what’s in store for Josiah……all the while hoping that there will be more of this title to come.
9/10
G-Man
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Comics Anonymous 
There certainly will be more Books. Working on Book 5,
Comment by Gary Crutchley. June 13, 2014 @ 10:27 ambooks 6-9 have been written and I’m writing Book 10 as I type this. Dave and I have big plans for Josiah Black so I hope you stick with us.
Gary