High Moon Vol. 1

Written by David Gallaher
Art by Steve Ellis

This is a book that I really wanted to like more than I did.  It's a Western with werewolves, vampires, Aboriginal spirits, a mechanical golem, steampunk cyborgs, and great art.  It sounds like a slam dunk.  The problem is that the story is not particularly well-explained, the characters not that well developed, and the plot seems more than a little random.

From what I was able to follow, there's some werewolf guy named Eddie Conroy who might or might not be a decent person, who is being hunted by some guy named MacGregor.  There is some stuff with some vampires that have kidnapped a little girl, and when MacGregor, who I thought was going to be the hero of the book, gets killed, Conroy steals his identity and heads off for more adventures.  He somehow hooks up with MacGregor's brother (I think), who is the cyborg guy, and they have another adventure that involves two brothers who want to kill each other or something.  After that, they get called on by a Native girl to go fight some soldiers, the leader of whom is sleeping with the cyborg dude's wife.

The episodic nature of the storytelling doesn't give much time for the big picture to be absorbed.  I don't know what Conroy's all about, and find it hard to keep track of the people that keep filtering into his life.

Ellis's art looks great, although it is very cramped on the small landscaped pages that the Zuda books are being published on.  It often made it hard to follow the action.  I feel like there is a lot of potential in this story, and if you are just looking for some crazy action, this book satisfies.