Prodigal Son #1 is a comic written by Clay Adams & Don Handfield with illustrations by Alper Gecgel and colors by Sercan Sarikaya. After a tragic run-in with the Grey Devils a young boy is out for revenge. This is a Western comic with all the trappings you’d expect from this genre and it stars an unlikely pair. The first member of the duo we see is an unnamed boy who just witnessed a tragedy and now has a singular goal: to kill the men who did it. On this journey he meets an unnamed older man who is hard, gruff, mysterious, and downright mean. The plot isn’t unfamiliar to westerns and revenge is the main theme. There are very light Rifleman TV shos vibes but with greater stakes. This takes place near Death Valley before the West was all sorted out. The action here is bloody but not gory. The pacing is slightly slower than average and the tone is very serious with an overall high air of intensity. The dialogue is conversational and the talking style is what you’d hear in other Westerns. No wordy pages here. This is a debut comic that gives us violence, driven characters, and a heavy story in the Wild West.

            If not for the definition and clarity of this art you could mistake for a comic from the 1970’s. From the high detail to the shading to the Western-palette of colors this has that classic gritty look. The scenery is mountainous, rocky, and dry with the sun beating down. The location changes a bunch as things begin on the trail but we visit a couple of towns with the expected buildings like banks and saloons. The backgrounds persist in the smaller panels but during the more violent scenes they are usually solid colors with action lines. The expression level here is very high as there are many moments where the face is the focus. From anger to sadness and from shock to horror there are plenty of emotions on display. The faces are overflowing with detail from the trickle of a tear down the face to the slight grimace of fear. The violence is bloody and usually involves guns but can include some sharper weapons. The action scenes have a good flow and tend to be short and to the point.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like Westerns starring an older and younger pair with tragic violence and evil gangs with classic art then this is fro you.

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

R. Violence, death.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“And no one is killing him but me.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1546838856/prodigal-son-1/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 30

Violent Pages: 5, for 17% 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 – 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.”