Jack Scratch's Blog

December 17/2018
Gun Barrel Texas is now available in print on Amazon.com
Find it here!

December 16, 2018
Lieutenant Blueberry IV: Iron Horse

I have to admit, I am not much of a graphic novel man. I don't know why I would make my first review on GoodReads about a graphic novel, other than I have found myself flipping through Lieutenant Blueberry: The Iron Horse repeatedly for the last few months. It occupied that part of a voracious reader's bookcase that you know is there but you rarely revisit.

I remember buying it on a trip to a used bookstore. The bookstore was closed but there was a comics book store nearby. What drew me in was the busy first frame, which struck me as something Bruegel the Elder might come up with. The wide expanse of prairie in the background, a tent city of railroad workers, an iron horse on the tracks billowing smoke as it impatiently waits for a crew to set a section of track, a man trying to control a team of horses hooked up to a wagon, the railroad construction engineer in his top hat with a group of men pouring over plans on a table, a group of workers squatting by a campfire waiting for a pot of coffee to come to a boil, even a man hanging off a nearby telephone pole with a loop of wire.

It is an opening fit for a movie.

There is that movie director's artistic eye all through the graphic novel. A director heavily influenced by Sergio Leone. There is a feel to the entire novel that it was created in the 1960's, there is that iconic Western stand-in character with a red shirt, white Stetson wearing a dappled white and black cowhide vest. I think that if you yanked 20 Western comics from 1960's-1970's off a shelf you would probably find a version of him in half of them.

Lieutenant Blueberry: The Iron Horse is stylish and Jean "Mœbius" Giraud's work is a treat. It reads like an overdone art board for a movie producer. The story itself is a little cliché' and simplistic, which is due in part to the abbreviated format. It is missing beat to build tension - throwing some action in for distance between plotline events. Characters are stock and little is done to give them complexity.

The narrative centers around two railroad companies battling for control as they build their empires. Indians are used as the stoogies, an ever-present menace who is drawn into the fray by the killing of a herd of the chief's horses. They are unwittingly setup by the stranger hired by one of the dueling railroad companies to be the agent provocateur. Lieutenant Blueberry comes into conflict with him like a protagonist magnet.

Personally, I like this graphic novel for the artwork and direction it takes the audience. It asks you to open your imagination and write your own story or fill-in the missing pieces in the one Jean-Michel Charlier wrote. That isn't a bad thing. Reading back through some of the Blueberry graphic novels, I wonder how many screenwriters and producers over the last 50 years thought the same thing?

My Goodreads Review

I wanted to introduce myself to everyone as a new Goodreads author. I am excited join the site with a new e-book under my belt. The genre I am currently writing in is Erotic Thrillers. I hope to have some great discussions!

December 1 2018
Gun Barrel Texas has just been released as a Kindle E-book on Amazon.