El Diablo
Azzarello, best known for the hard-boiled 100 Bullets, branched out into the western genre with Loveless and here takes fans for another spin through his grim vision of the American west. Sheriff Moses Stone gathers up a posse to track down a vicious outlaw known only as El Diablo. Problem is, he is more specter than man, and the pursuers soon become the quarry as the shadowy past that Moses thought he’d left far behind snakes back toward him in the ghost town of Halo. Azzarello spills out the incredibly violent, tersely rendered story, with all its ponderous religious trappings, in tantalizing bits and pieces, all leading up to an unexpectedly revelatory ending. Zezelj’s expressive artwork is composed of thick, stark lines and heavy shadows that match the narrative tone, which ranges from harrowing to downright sadistic. The characters’ craggy features sometimes blend together, making who’s emptying whose brains out confusing, but for this brutal vision of the west, where sins literally haunt you to your grave, that ends up mattering less than you may think. --Ian Chipman