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Desperadoes #3
Desperadoes: Quiet of the Grave
Death rides in their shadow…
… and the Desperadoes don't seem to be able to shake him. Even at rest in a tiny settlement hidden on the Mexican border, Gideon Brood and his band of compadres are assaulted by violence, this time in the form of a self-styled bounty hunter looking to cash in on their reputations. Disgusted with the pointless bloodshed, Gideon Brood determines to leave his companions behind, hopefully taking the danger with him. But Death isn't playing favorites with any one of the Desperadoes, and once this chain of events gets started their only hope of survival is to stick together. Because something even worse than Death is stalking them now.
Nominated for both the Horror Writers Association's Bram Stoker Award and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative, Desperadoes: Quiet of the Grave collects the five-issue miniseries by acclaimed comics writer Jeff Mariotte and legendary comics artist John Severin.
128 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2002
18 people want to read
About the author
Jeffrey J. Mariotte
161 books163 followersAlso writes as Jeff Mariotte
Jeffrey J. Mariotte is the bestselling, award-winning author of more than 70 novels, including the Cody Cavanaugh western series, historical western epic Blood and Gold: The Legend of Joaquin Murrieta (with Peter Murrieta), thrillers Empty Rooms and The Devil's Bait, supernatural thrillers Season of the Wolf, Missing White Girl, River Runs Red, and Cold Black Hearts, horror epic The Slab, and the Dark Vengeance teen horror quartet. With wife and writing partner Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell, he wrote the sf/horror/thriller 7 SYKOS and Mafia III: Plain of Jars, the authorized prequel to the bestselling video game. His most recent release is the short story collection Byrd's Luck & Other Stories, comprising five "traditional" Western tales and five horror-Western stories, two of them brand-new for this edition.
He also writes occasional nonfiction, short fiction (some of which is collected in Nine Frights), and comic books, including the long-running horror/Western comic book series Desperadoes and graphic novels Fade to Black and Zombie Cop. With Marsheila Rockwell, he has published several short stories and is working on more. He has worked in virtually every aspect of the book business, as a writer, editor, marketing executive, and bookseller.
Learn more at www.jeffmariotte.com, and follow him at https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyJMari... and @JeffMariotte on Twitter.
Also writes as Jeff Mariotte
Jeffrey J. Mariotte is the bestselling, award-winning author of more than 70 novels, including the Cody Cavanaugh western series, historical western epic Blood and Gold: The Legend of Joaquin Murrieta (with Peter Murrieta), thrillers Empty Rooms and The Devil's Bait, supernatural thrillers Season of the Wolf, Missing White Girl, River Runs Red, and Cold Black Hearts, horror epic The Slab, and the Dark Vengeance teen horror quartet. With wife and writing partner Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell, he wrote the sf/horror/thriller 7 SYKOS and Mafia III: Plain of Jars, the authorized prequel to the bestselling video game. His most recent release is the short story collection Byrd's Luck & Other Stories, comprising five "traditional" Western tales and five horror-Western stories, two of them brand-new for this edition.
He also writes occasional nonfiction, short fiction (some of which is collected in Nine Frights), and comic books, including the long-running horror/Western comic book series Desperadoes and graphic novels Fade to Black and Zombie Cop. With Marsheila Rockwell, he has published several short stories and is working on more. He has worked in virtually every aspect of the book business, as a writer, editor, marketing executive, and bookseller.
Learn more at www.jeffmariotte.com, and follow him at https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyJMari... and @JeffMariotte on Twitter.
Also writes as Jeff Mariotte
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 8, 2012
There's gonna be some minor spoilers here.
Desperadoes went from "pretty good" to "pretty awful." I don't know how immediate this drop was; in the comic book store, I had trouble finding out which episode came after the first comic. Turns out, it didn't matter; these are more episodic than continuous. Reading the preceding one doesn't matter that much. That's not a bad thing, really, but not my personal preference.
The stunning characterization isn't as strong here. It seems like a mix of random Western cliches just thrown into a pot, with ugly dirty bad guys who seem to be evil for evil's sake. The aspect that drew me to the comics in the first place, the supernatural, is incredibly tacked on. The climax is a zombie; this is treated as a surprise in the comic despite being spoiled in the title, the cover page, and a SECOND cover page inside the comic itself. And, by the way, it's no threat at all. It is taken care of by its creator about five pages later. I remember feeling a sense of dread as I got nearer to the end, telling myself "there's no way they can wrap this all up in so few pages... it's gonna be To Be Continued." Nope. Everything solved neatly with a bow on it almost as an afterthought.
Remember my complaints about the woman that Gideon Broods (the main character) accidentally murders in a gunfight that he started? That's resolved, too. The widower, an angry sheriff, corners Broods one last time before Broods snaps and says, "Dude, it was an accident! Leave me alone, sheesh." The sheriff agrees to do so.
A new character is introduced! He's a lovable rogue, the kind of personality that is missing in the quartet of heroes. He immediately stank of "new character," which made him less interesting. I still rather liked him. He, too, came with a Mysterious Magical Artifact. It was promptly discarded after it's introduction. Literally thrown away.
Big spoiler following!
Race Kennedy dies. He was my favorite. I don't mind deaths of characters, or even deaths of my favorite characters, but this death fucking sucked. It came out of nowhere (he jumped in front of a gunshot fired by the zombie, to the zombie's mother) and was handled in all of two pages. Seriously. He dies on the end of one page, and the next page (the last one in the comic) is his funeral. It was meaningless and drama-free. Was the point to replace him with the new guy? To drum up some drama? It didn't raise any emotion but irritation in me.
The pacing was bad, the plot and characterization and even the setting were all just as bad... and the art sucked, too. They replaced John Cassady (who did a damn fine job in the first one) with John Severin. His artwork is OK at best, often sloppy, and downright bad at times. Except in Epidemic. Cassaday is still the artist there, but either his skill is dropping or his attention is. Either way - the artwork is still noticeably, significantly worse. I was surprised the same team was involved in both comics.
I also bought Desperadoes: Epidemic to go alongside this. Just imagine I wrote the same review there as here. It's just as bad. Which is a real disappointment, since I enjoyed the first one so much. As a comic, "Desperadoes: A Moment's Sunlight" is quite good. As a series, "Desperadoes: Subtitle" plummets quickly. I'm giving it two stars as a courtesy. I hope I didn't get unlucky and just pick out the shittiest two possible, because I'm done with the series.
Desperadoes went from "pretty good" to "pretty awful." I don't know how immediate this drop was; in the comic book store, I had trouble finding out which episode came after the first comic. Turns out, it didn't matter; these are more episodic than continuous. Reading the preceding one doesn't matter that much. That's not a bad thing, really, but not my personal preference.
The stunning characterization isn't as strong here. It seems like a mix of random Western cliches just thrown into a pot, with ugly dirty bad guys who seem to be evil for evil's sake. The aspect that drew me to the comics in the first place, the supernatural, is incredibly tacked on. The climax is a zombie; this is treated as a surprise in the comic despite being spoiled in the title, the cover page, and a SECOND cover page inside the comic itself. And, by the way, it's no threat at all. It is taken care of by its creator about five pages later. I remember feeling a sense of dread as I got nearer to the end, telling myself "there's no way they can wrap this all up in so few pages... it's gonna be To Be Continued." Nope. Everything solved neatly with a bow on it almost as an afterthought.
Remember my complaints about the woman that Gideon Broods (the main character) accidentally murders in a gunfight that he started? That's resolved, too. The widower, an angry sheriff, corners Broods one last time before Broods snaps and says, "Dude, it was an accident! Leave me alone, sheesh." The sheriff agrees to do so.
A new character is introduced! He's a lovable rogue, the kind of personality that is missing in the quartet of heroes. He immediately stank of "new character," which made him less interesting. I still rather liked him. He, too, came with a Mysterious Magical Artifact. It was promptly discarded after it's introduction. Literally thrown away.
Big spoiler following!
Race Kennedy dies. He was my favorite. I don't mind deaths of characters, or even deaths of my favorite characters, but this death fucking sucked. It came out of nowhere (he jumped in front of a gunshot fired by the zombie, to the zombie's mother) and was handled in all of two pages. Seriously. He dies on the end of one page, and the next page (the last one in the comic) is his funeral. It was meaningless and drama-free. Was the point to replace him with the new guy? To drum up some drama? It didn't raise any emotion but irritation in me.
The pacing was bad, the plot and characterization and even the setting were all just as bad... and the art sucked, too. They replaced John Cassady (who did a damn fine job in the first one) with John Severin. His artwork is OK at best, often sloppy, and downright bad at times. Except in Epidemic. Cassaday is still the artist there, but either his skill is dropping or his attention is. Either way - the artwork is still noticeably, significantly worse. I was surprised the same team was involved in both comics.
I also bought Desperadoes: Epidemic to go alongside this. Just imagine I wrote the same review there as here. It's just as bad. Which is a real disappointment, since I enjoyed the first one so much. As a comic, "Desperadoes: A Moment's Sunlight" is quite good. As a series, "Desperadoes: Subtitle" plummets quickly. I'm giving it two stars as a courtesy. I hope I didn't get unlucky and just pick out the shittiest two possible, because I'm done with the series.
July 14, 2009
Three stars is a bit of a stretch here: the barely passable story is a hodge-podge of Western cliches including two plot devices (a strange mystical Native American artifact and a zombie child) that are abandoned almost as soon as they are introduced. In more capable hands, either device could have powered an interesting story on its own. The drawings by John Severin, however, serve as a reminder of what a comics genius he (still!) is, even if marred by muddy coloring, and the beautiful pictures pull the miniseries from 1 star to at least 3 in my book.
January 11, 2025
Severin’s art is good, the story starts out alright and gets dumber by the page, I was expecting a decent western not some stupid zombie story with a Western Setting. Pass on this trash.
April 28, 2011
Got this for a dollar at the Newburry Comics in Central Square so it was a heckofa deal and I read it in one easy sitting. The plot isn't too dumb though some of the dialog and pacing is, nonetheless an enjoyable enough read. I'm more familiar with John Severin's work in Cracked Magazine (I can picture very vividly in my head his depiction of Cracked's mascot, Sylvester P. Smythe) but he seems a natural for the Western and it's his bizarrely both cartoony and realistic artwork that really makes this little collection come to life. Indeed, if this collection hadn't had Severin's artwork (if this collection had that glossy puke look of most comic books of the last ten years) I wouldn't of read it or even thought of buying it for one lousy dollar.
July 18, 2014
Finally, I read these five issues, making a fine graphic novel, with such great comic art by the late, great John Severin.
Severin doesn't take short cuts in his rendering, and the great color and printing does his detailed art great service.
Oh, this is a western, and may interest anyone in the western genre because of the quality of the storytelling. There is a zombie, a supernatural componenent, but hey, all rendered by John Severin, so it works.
Highly recommended.
Severin doesn't take short cuts in his rendering, and the great color and printing does his detailed art great service.
Oh, this is a western, and may interest anyone in the western genre because of the quality of the storytelling. There is a zombie, a supernatural componenent, but hey, all rendered by John Severin, so it works.
Highly recommended.
November 13, 2013
The ending was haphazard.
January 26, 2016
It's hard to combine odd story lines, like a western and supernatural, but this comic series does it very well. Very good art and great story make this an enjoyable read. Very recommended.
July 7, 2014
Very rushed ending. Should've been one more episode created to be more solid.
But still very good.
But still very good.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews