Dark HorseBILLY THE KIDS OLD-TIMEY ODDITIES 1
By Eric Powell and Kyle Hotz.
Review by Larry Stanley
While there exist many legends of Billy the Kid that still circulate in the American Southwest, the one where Billy escapes and lives out his life under an assumed name seems like one of the hardest to dispel.
But in all the things I have read about him, how he cheated death so many times, how he was loved by so many people, how he tricked jailers to escape, this is one of the weirdest. And also, one of the best.
Having faked his own death, Billy is now free to travel across America and try to start a new life unburdened by his past record. But a strange man names Fineas Spoule sets next to him on a train and engages Billy in a lucrative and dangerous business venture.
Fineas and his merry group are traveling sideshow performers and after they ‘invite’
Billy to join them, he discovers that the show is made up of what is commonly called ‘freaks’, but prefer the more dignified human oddities.
The group includes as alligator man, a dog-face boy, a wild man, a miniature boy, a psychic, a tattooed woman who’s body can deliver several types of messages, and Sproule, known as “The Human Spider.”
All of this does not set well with our young Billy. He agrees to help, mostly because of the many letters Sproule wrote to various newspapers around the country, telling of Billy’s escape and new life.
Spoule finally explains to Billy what the job is. They will be traveling to Europe where they will steal a priceless artifact of great power known as the 'The Golem's Heart,' from a scientist living there.
The scientist is Dr. Victor Frankenstein
Powell and Hotz have delivered a fun book with great characters that has all the things needed to be a hit. Humor, action, monsters a great story and women; what more can you ask for in a book like this?
When I was a kid, I watched some pretty weird films about Billy the Kid. He met Dracula, so why not Dr. Frankenstein? Stranger things have happened in movies and Comic books.
After a long journey across the ocean, Billy the Kid and Finneas Sproule's band of sideshow performers find themselves in a creepy European village filled with all the weird characters you might expect in this sort of place. But, the real problem with issue #2 is someone at the printer messed up and put the pages of the book in the wrong order. Which is one of the things I use to point out that we really do need to start numbering pages again.
Of course, Billy is forced to confront his own past in this story and find that even deep in the heart of a killer there is still a soul that can be reached.
The plot of this story is excellent, with well thought out situations and character development that is right on the mark. The art is quite well done, with just the touch of Universal Monster mixed with Hammer Horror that hits you right where you can really feel it.
I would love to see a sequel to this book, continuing Billy’s adventures with Sproule and his band. This is the sort of book that makes you glad you picked it up.