Gunfighters in Hell: Original Sin

    (Broken Halos, 2002)
™ and © Broken Halos

Original Gun Fighters in Hell creators Joe Vigil and David Barbour return to present a full-color prequel to their 1993 mini-series. The story promises to be an origin of sorts for series protagonists The Gunfighter and Anna Sinbuck.

But it doesn’t deliver, at least in the introductory issue. The story opens with an ancient scribe claiming knowledge of how Hell’s legendary duo came to be and proceeding to tell of his recent encounter with the pair. This in turn flashes back further to the story of the scribe’s own damnation. At which point the 18-page chapter abruptly ends.

The story seems to forget its purpose as it moves along. It badly digresses, fully explaining the reason for the damnation of the story’s narrator, but the “Original Sin” of the main characters isn’t even mentioned. And the scribe’s own sin is blatantly obvious long before its revelation on the final page. The entire framing sequence is contrived and wasteful, and the nested flashbacks further weaken the whole premise.

Vigil’s art, however, is decent, and the gorgeous coloring by Enayla saves this book from its own damnation. But the steep price for an all-too-brief intro that doesn’t even begin the story is a sin unto itself.

— Jim Johnson
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Cover Price: $3.95
1 copy available for $7.98 		Dave Barrour, Joe VigilJoe Vigil