The Return of Jake Sunrise: The Wheel is a comic written by Dean Page with art by Vin Dulay, Juan Manuel Gutierrez, and Hafid Ardi. Five bank robbers hole up in house as they try to avoid their pursuers. This is a violent Western comic with horror elements that takes place entirely in one building. The titular character is Jake Sunrise, he is a silent bounty hunter who shows no reluctance when it comes to killing. There are six men in the house, the owner, a pair of twins(one is mute), a Native American named Nick, and two other guys. We see most of this story from Nick’s perspective. This story begins with the men quietly sitting around the house as they wonder who their pursuer is. While they wait they argue over what they might have done to warrant this. The action in this story is very bloody with some gore. The pacing is slower than average and there is an unsettling and creepy tone that will keep you on edge. The intensity is high the entire time as no one really knows what is going on and potential danger surrounds the house. The spoken dialogue is conversational with Western insults and slang while featuring poetic narration by Nick that is as frequent as the conversation. There is, at most, one word-heavy page. This is an eerie Western story that stars a group of bad men who are parts shaken and other parts terrified about what might happen next.
The art here is detailed, very gritty, and heavily shaded. The colors here are overall pretty dark with a lot of browns and dark blues. At the beginning of the story we get a look at the grass and trees surrounding the house and besides some shots of the sky that’s all we’ll see of the outdoors. The location is this one room house with a sink, a bed, some chairs, and a cellar. The backgrounds go back-and-forth between showing the house and being a gradient color. The expression level here is overall on the lower end but as the story progresses the gruff exterior of these men will start to fall. The main look is an hard stare but we’ll get angry and fearful looks aplenty. The faces are detailed but sometimes they have heavy shading which makes it a bit harder to tell what the expression is. You will most likely get characters confused due in part to some face sameness and similar outfits. The violence is all-firearm based and in the Western-style with significant amounts of blood and some gore. The action scenes can get confusing due to the character similarities and you might be confused about what is happening to whom.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes.
“Would I like this?”
If you like Western stories with horror elements that have a large cast and get very violent with light noir vibes then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence, gore.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“And I’m planning on getting out of here with that money.”
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jakesunrise/the-return-of-jake-sunrise-four-stories-high/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 19
Violent Pages: 4, for 21% 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 – 4
“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 – 1
“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.”
