Ballad of the Black Rose #1 is a comic written by Danny J Quick with pencils & inks by Kyrun Silva and colors by Veronica Smith. The Rose family runs into trouble when unexpected property taxes come due. This is a supernatural Western comic with classic Western drama, life-or-death gunfights, and it stars a Black family. The Rose family consists of the father who is a former bounty hunter, the mother with a somewhat sordid past named Deja, and a daughter who seems to be around the age of six named Prim. This story begins in the town of Ragsedge, Nevada in the late 1800’s. The Rose family is about to head home when they run into a man named Jack. After a heated and disrespectful altercation with Deja that results in Jack getting punched Mr. Rose finds himself in a standoff. This has some bloody violence but there isn’t anything gory or gruesome. The pacing is steady with the classic Western “villain with power vs. the little guy” kind of tone. There are many violent and a few dramatically intense moments. The dialogue is very Western/country with old grammar, shortened words, and it is very conversational. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is an exciting and intriguing debut issue that tells the story of one small family’s fight against cruel men with sinister motivations.

            The art here is drawn in a lightly cartoonish modern style with well-done lighting and decent shading. This comic has a very Western color palette with a wide range and a lot of brown and purple. For scenery we have grassy plains, mountains, rivers, and orchards. The main location is the home of the Rose family which is a large house with an animal pen. Some of the other places visited include the town of Ragsedge, railroads, and poker games. Backgrounds here usually show the surroundings but close-up backdrops tend to be gradient colors. The expression level here is high as there are strong reactions multiple times a page. Most of the emotions seen here are aggressive from anger to irritation with fear as well; there are smaller moments of happiness and joy. Faces here have a slightly above-average amount of detail and they can get animated which helps show the different expressions very clearly. The supernatural effects have a soft purple glow. Firearms are the weapon of choice from revolvers to rifles. The violence here is bloody with some hard physical hits but there isn’t really anything gory or gruesome. There is one lengthy gunfight scene with a high panel count and a decent flow.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like supernatural Western stories that star Black families and features classic gunfights and drama then this is for you.

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

PG-13. Violence, blood.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“I’d hate to see you lose it.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dannyjquick/harlem-and-the-black-rose-double-kickstarter/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

*
*
*
*
*

Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 31

Violent Pages: 7, for 23% 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 – 3

“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 – 2

“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.”