Saloon Chapter 1 is a comic written by Aaron Williamson with pencils and inks by Cloves Rodrigues and colors by Jose Ramirez. A pair of men, driven by vengeance, are hunting down the Bengal Gang. This is a gritty Western comic that gets very violent with a decent dose of drama. The primary partner for this comic is Hank Henderson, he is a former member of the Bengal Gang who was left for dead when he tried to move on. Riding with him is Whip Wells, a man who was attacked and robbed by the Bengal Gang for no reason at all. This story begins in Red Ridge, Nevada at a saloon where some men are playing poker. When one of the losing players gets too angry and aggressive Hank calms him down with a beer glass to the back of the head. The violence here is very bloody with many gruesome attacks leading to light gore. The pacing is mix of slow and fast depending on how much talking is involved. There is a storytelling tone here like something you’d see on classic Westerns like Cheyenne or Maverick. With the threat of and actual performing of violence the intensity is high throughout. The dialogue is very Western-like with the talking style and it mostly conversational. There is one word-heavy page and the text bubbles can get thick. This is an exciting debut issue that wastes little time diving into the action and that gives us two hardened and determined leads out for revenge.

            The art here is drawn in a lightly gritty, modern style. The color scheme here is very brown and tan with it having the overall vibe of a Wild West wanted poster. The scenery here ranges from the dry and barren to bush-filled but leafless forests with rushing rivers. The main location for this story is a sizable saloon with an upstairs. Besides the saloon everything else takes place outside. The backgrounds usually show the surroundings both immediate and distant. The expression level here is bit below average as most of these characters are hard men. Some of the common emotions we’ll see here are anger, pain, and shock, with a little bit of fear. The faces here sport a good amount of detail so when they do show a different expression it tends to come across clearly. Guns are the primary weapon here from pistols to rifles. There is a lot of shooting here with heavy amounts of blood, gruesome attacks, and alight amount of gore. The action scenes tend to feature a higher than average amount of panels and have an overall smooth flow. They tend to come in bursts and there are more than a few.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like Western stories centered around revenge that star two tough men and that features a heavy amount of violence, blood, and gore then this is for you.

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

R. Violence, blood, gruesomeness, gore.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“The sun…taunting me, playing it’s tricks again.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/704912867/saloon-1/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 24

Violent Pages: 12, for 50% 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 – 4

“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.”