Harpy of the West #4 is a comic written by Rob Burton with art by Rio Burton and letters by Jim Campbell. The hunt for the harpy comes to an end in this final issue. This is a Western tale with noir vibes that deals with the supernatural and has a woman-led cast. The main lady is Sam, a bounty hunter with a bad attitude that seems to be annoyed by everything. With her is a woman named Kelly and her partner Michael; they currently disagree on how to capture the harpy. The story begins at least a couple of hours after the events of the previous issue. We see them dealing with the aftermath of a failed attempt to capture the harpy. There are themes of revenge and justice here. The action here gets very bloody and gory with some rough moments. The pacing here is steady and methodical like the latter half of a Western TV show. The intensity climbs as the story goes on and the tone is serious throughout. The dialogue is pointed and should probably be read with a country accent. No wordy pages here. This is a violent Western comic that provides us with an exciting and intriguing conclusion.

            The art here is made up of three colors(black, white, and red) and may remind you of some webtoons. The scenery here is standard Western fare with but you’ll barely see it as this story takes place at night. The atmosphere is heavy and the red is used to highlight some of the more serious moments. The main location of this story is a bar that looks like every bar you’ve seen in a Western complete with rooms for rent upstairs. The backgrounds of the panels more often than not contain parts of the scene like wallpaper or a bar shelf but when they aren’t doing that it is usually gradients. The expression level in this comic is above-average and most people here are angry and upset. Though the characters here try to maintain a hard, unbothered look the situation at hand reveals their true feelings. The faces are detailed enough to make all the different looks come across clearly. The violence here gets very bloody with some organs being shown and body parts getting separated. Some of the direct action isn’t shown but the aftermath is. Everything flows well.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like Western comics starring women and dealing with the supernatural with an air of mystery than this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Blood, gore, death.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“It’s not my fault! What was I supposed to do?”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/harpy/harpy-of-the-west-1-4-final-issue/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 25

Violent Pages: 10, for 40% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 5

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 3

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 2

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”