The Return of Jake Sunrise: The House is a comic written by Dean Page with pencils by Andrey Lunatik,, inks by Faris Indra Praseyo, colors by Juan Manuel Gutierrez, and flats by Hafid Ardi. Jake Sunrise is hired by a magician to guard them as they spend the night in a haunted house. This is a supernatural western comic with brawling violence and horror elements. The main man here is Jake Sunrise, he is a never-speaking, drifting gunfighter who can transform into a werewolf. He constantly finds himself in violent situations. The magician he is assisting is Uri Merlin, also called “The Man Who Knows” and “The Irreplaceable Uri Merlin”. Uri loves to talk and they speak with a humorous tone while being very descriptive and informative. The story begins with Uri arriving in the town of Thatcham, where the large and supposedly haunted Thatcham House is. Uri speaks to the bartender about finding a bodyguard and while they talk a brawl breaks out at the poker tables involving potential candidates Big Slim and Jake Sunrise. The violence here is very Western with brutal brawling leading to blood and light gore. The pacing is overall steady with some fast moments and a classic Western feel. The intensity comes from the violence and supernatural elements. The dialogue is quite verbose and conversational with most of the talking coming from Uri Merlin. There aren’t any word-heavy pages here. This is quite possibly the most supernatural installment of Jake Sunrise to date and it brings the scares, a strong new character, and a lot of violence.
The art here is detailed and drawn in style reminiscent of older comics with some heavy shading. The main color here is brown with red and ethereal green playing key roles. This story takes place in either the saloon or the Thatcham House with natural scenery being rare. The saloon is two stories with rooms, a piano, and a fully stocked bar. The Thatcham House is very large with over thirty different rooms and it sits atop a mountain overlooking the town. The backgrounds do a great job of showing the surroundings from the wood-paneling in the wall to the rugs on the floor. The expression level here is a tick below-average as most of these characters try to maintain a stoic/hard look. Anger and rage are the main emotions here with smiles usually being sinister. The faces are well-drawn down to the small details like stress lines and they show the different expressions clearly. The mystical effects are green and glowing with clouds of smoke and electricity. The violence is brought to us via, knives, fists, and guns, which fits a Western perfectly. There are bloody,, slightly gruesome moments that lead to some light gore. The action scenes flow smoothly and feature a high amount of panels.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes, if this is up your alley.
“Would I like this?”
If you like supernatural Western stories starring a silent gunslinger and a talkative magician while featuring violence and horror then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence, blood, gore.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“Only for the crowd, chap! Paying customers!”
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jakesunrise/the-return-of-jake-sunrise-a-horror-western-series/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 30
Violent Pages: 12, 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 – 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 –
“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.”
