Western Comics Focus: The Seven Deadly Sins

Troy D. Smith

The western comic book continues its ride... they are not as plentiful as they were in the 1930s-1970s (when they were ubiquitous), but they seem  more common now than they were a couple of decades ago. This is due, in part, to the existence of smaller, independent comics publishers (and a growing amount of online content).

TKO is one such publisher. Their recent western entry was a six-part miniseries (collected last year in a single graphic novel volume) called The Seven Deadly Sins. It is written by Tze Chun, who is best known for his television work (including as writer for the show Gotham). The illustrator is Russian comics artist Artyom Trakhanov. The plot is sort of a mashup of The Magnificent Seven and The Dirty Dozen, as directed by Quintin Tarantino.

The book is set in Texas in 1867. A kind priest, Father Antonio, rescues six killers from a stagecoach that is taking them to their just reward (to wit, hanging in San Antonio). The priest describes each as a "deadly sin," with himself providing the seventh -sloth. He had been peripherally involved in a great injustice ten years earlier, you see, and had only now summoned the courage to try to set it right.

Antonio is the subordinate of Father Threadgill, who is head of the mission. Father Threadgill has a maniacal hatred of Indians, but wants to save the souls of their children... save them from their very Indianness. In 1857, after taking Antonio in when his own mission had failed, Threadgill took his new assistant along on a secret mission. He had hired a company of corrupt Texas Rangers to attack a Comanche village while the men were away hunting, kill all the adults, and capture their children. The kids were to be taken back to the mission, identified as Mexican, and give away for adoption (well, not exactly given away.) It was not the first time.

One infant was deemed too small to make the trip back, so the Rangers were going to kill her. Antonio begged for the child's life and took responsibility for her. He named her Grace, and from then on he was her surrogate father, Her real father, though, was the fierce war chief Black Cloud. His fury at his child's abduction caused him to step up his band's war on whites along the border tenfold, and for years he wreaked his vengeance by slaughtering settlers and stealing their children.

Finally, Father Antonio's conscience could take no more. He stole a large amount of money from the mission -money "earned" by selling Indian children -and freed the six outlaws, offering them a hefty payday if they would help him accomplish his mission.

Taking Grace deep into Comanche country in search of the dreaded Black Cloud -to give her back. Pursued along the way, of course, by Father Threadgill and his corrupt Rangers.

Father Antonio has assembled a colorful crew...

JERICHO  MARSH (wrath). Clearly modeled on Samuel L. Jackson's character in The Hateful Eight, Marsh had led a group of black Union guerrillas during the Civil War and was wanted for war crimes. When the war ended, his two daughters were forced to sign labor contracts- their contracts were sold and they were taken away. This is a pretty rare pop culture reference to the very real historical situation for ex-slaves in the years immediately after the Civil War, when state legislated "Black Codes" were passed that kept them enslaved every way but in name.

Jericho Marsh will do anything, and kill anyone, to find his daughters.

MALENE JOHNSON (envy). A pregnant ex-slave. The father was her former master, with whom she was in love and who had promised to marry her -but who betrothed himself to a proper white lady instead, whereupon his whole family perished in a house fire. Malene was convicted of arson and murder.

HOGG SMYTHE (gluttony). An overweight and simple-minded Confederate veteran who, when besieged by Yankees, killed and ate ten of his comrades.

IRISH CLAIRE (greed). A foul-mouthed, hot-tempered young Irish woman who is a notorious bank robber -described by others as a "tomboy" and a Lesbian (or more accurately, a Trans person who identifies as male, and wants to be called Clarke.)

DAPPER DUDLEY (lust). A crack shot, formerly a pistoleer in Wild West shows... also a vain con man and a consummate showman. His face is scarred because his former wife mixed mercury in with his stage makeup to get revenge for his raping her ten-year-old sister.

CHANG (pride). A brilliant surgeon in China and San Francisco who was forced into indenture and made to work on the railroad. He killed in order to make his escape.

The above description may seem like I am telling you a lot... but it is really just setting the scene for the story. Needless to say, there are a lot of shootouts, double crosses, and occasional acts of redemption (sort of).

It may not be for everyone. If you think Tarantino's westerns are too violent and profane, you won't like this. I certainly enjoyed it, though- it was fresh take on some very time-honored themes, and felt a lot like a spaghetti western.

VILLAINS WE LOVE TO HATE by Meg Mims

A few months ago, I explored a few Western movie sidekicks. Now I'm featuring the big bad black hats, the villains we loved to hate in movies. I have my own favorites, but I also checked through a few websites to see which names other bloggers came up with for great movie villains.

Since I'm more of a young whippersnapper, I'm sticking to movies *I've* seen, not the B-movie classics (usually made and shown on the big screen and as television reruns before my time). So bear with me if your baddies aren't in my list. Add 'em to the comments below, though!

I'll start with a thriller movie starring ROBERT MITCHUM as "Reverend" Harry Powell in The Night of the Hunter. Yes, I know it isn't a western, being based on a real life killer in West Virginia. But it could be, given the river setting (try the muddy Missouri), the Midwest-style flavor of small town life, the poverty-stricken Depression, and the nightmarish sequences. Directed by Charles Laughton, (yes, the star of Ruggles of Red Gap), it's a haunting film. And Mitchum is a fabulous villain. Scared me to death as a kid, and still scares me. He's perfect "with his long face, his gravel voice, and the silky tones of a snake-oil salesman." The righteous Lillian Gish "looks nothing so much as Whistler's mother holding a shotgun." (Roger Ebert)

One of my favorite western movies is The Magnificent Seven. A small Mexican village is overrun by bandits on a regular basis, and the only heroes available are gunfighters - most of them not regular "white hats" either, like Charles Bronson and Robert Vaughn. But ELI WALLACH plays Calvera, and he truly is the baddest of the Mexican bandit band. Wallach also played Tuco, the Ugly role as a gunman in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, and the outlaw Charlie Gant in How The West Was Won. The actor played roles into his nineties, a trooper until the end.

WALTER BRENNAN, a villain? No way! I remember him fondly from The Guns of Will Sonnett, The Real McCoys and The Over-The-Hill Gang movies. But he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, his third, as 'Old Man' Clanton in the western My Darling Clementine where I rooted for Henry Fonda. He also portrayed a murderous Colonel in How the West Was Won opposite James Stewart. I already featured him as a great western sidekick, too. A man of many talents indeed. He also is only one of three actors to win three Best Supporting Actor Oscars - Jack Nicholson and Daniel Day-Lewis are the others. His career lasted from 1929 to 1971, quite an accomplishment.

Another surprise-surprise pick - good guy HENRY FONDA. Who would believe him as a villain? But I did, again in Once Upon a Time in the West, as a hired gun. He killed three little kids, for crying out loud! That's baaaad. Cast against type from his usual hero role, he made it memorable. I still prefer Fonda as the stern Mister Roberts or in the western The Ox-Bow Incident, puzzled over the injustice of it all.

Next up, let's go with BRUCE DERN. I mean, he killed the Duke, John Wayne, in The Cowboys! And while wearing a pale hat!! That made me hate him, and that movie was one of the best "coming of age" plots you can ever find. Dern had already been typecast long before as pyscho-killers in many movies, and his portrayal of an outlaw sure convinced me of that ego-centric arrogance that villains are sure to have to motivate their actions. His higher-pitched voice helped, along with his squinty eyes and buckish teeth - if I'd met him in the Old West, you can bet I'd never turn my back on a skunk like that.

I'll throw in a female villain, since there aren't many as good as BARBARA STANWYCK. Granted, she was a better villainous femme fatale in Double Indemnity with Fred MacMurray, but in the western 40 Guns, she portrays Jessica Drummond who runs a county "with an iron fist" and allows her brother and his gang to run amok. She's also the boss of a gang of thieves in The Maverick Queen. I preferred watching her in Union Pacific with Joel McCrea playing Molly Monahan, the daughter of a train engineer, but she also starred in Annie Oakley, California, Cattle Queen of Montana and was best known in The Big Valley. More fun as a strong heroine, in my opinion.

Who can forget the classic movie Shane pitting Alan Ladd against the nasty hired gun Jack Wilson as portrayed by JACK PALANCE? He earned an Oscar nod for that role. He resurrected his career later in life playing Murphy in Young Guns plus prickly cowboy Curly Washburn with Billy Crystal in City Slickers. His hilarious performance won him a "Triple Crown" - the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, a Golden Globe for the same title AND the American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. Well-deserved, too.

Don't forget LEE MARVIN as the lawless gunfighter Liberty Valance opposite James Stewart and John Wayne in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Marvin also won the Academy Award for Best Actor playing opposite Jane Fonda in the comical Cat Ballou, and led a band of mercenaries in The Professionals. In the western musical Paint Your Wagon, Lee Marvin got top billing over Clint Eastwood. Other westerns Marvin starred in are The Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday with Oliver Reed, Bad Day at Black Rock with Spencer Tracy, Monte Walsh with Jack Palance and plenty of TV spots on The Virginian, Bonanza and Wagon Train.

And who doesn't remember Liberty Valance's henchman, LEE VAN CLEEF? He polished his bad guy role in High Noon over the years in many many westerns and reached the zenith as Angel Eyes in Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. He also played heroes in Leone's spaghetti westerns that followed. "His gravelly voice... gruff, often aloof appearance and persona, became as idiosyncratic as the movies themselves." It seems a villain with a unique voice may be a running theme along with that gruff badness.

Last (for now) and not least is RICHARD BOONE who played Paladin in the TV western Have Gun, Will Travel. He also played the ruthless outlaw and kidnapper in Big Jake opposite John Wayne, Cicero Grimes the gang-leader and kidnapper in Hombre with Paul Newman, plus a man with a grudge against the gunfighter John Wayne in The Shootist. Boone also had a gravelly voice and gruff features. Seems to be a requirement to play villainous parts, and he played plenty of others in westerns.

So... who are your favorite villains? 

Meg Mims is an award-winning author with two western mysteries under her Eastern belt. She lives in Michigan, where the hills are like driveway slopes and trees block any type of prairie winds. LIKE her on Facebook, follow her on Twitter or check out her books on her website.


                

SATURDAY MATINEE with CLAY MORE (Keith Souter)

THE GOOD, THE BAD and THE UGLY

Choosing a favorite western movie is an almost impossible task, because there are just so many that vie for attention in my memory. Yet I have to admit that the group that I love the most are Sergio Leone's  spaghetti Westerns that came out in the sixties.

I saw them all and read the novels. In my mind The Dollars Trilogy - A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966) belong to my school days, when I was studying for my O' Levels and A' Levels, the qualifications I needed to get to go to University and medical school. They were my diversion from science and they spurred me to read more in the genre.

I know that the spaghetti Westerns divide opinions. The fact that they were shot in Italy and Spain, with different fauna and flora from the southwest puts a lot of people off. Yet for others they served to create the mythic west. And the characters were all larger than life. Who could not be enthused by actors like Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach?

Lee Van Cleef smoked an amber stemmed meerschaum pipe in For a Few Dollars More. With his sharp features, gimlet eyes and blue smoke curling from that pipe, he probably did wonders for pipe sales around the world. Indeed, check on the Internet and you'll find that you can get a LVC style meerschaum.

Yet, that meerschaum pipe somehow got into my psyche, I think, for Logan Munro, the Wolf Creek town doctor smokes one exactly like it.

And of course, Clint Eastwood's cigars are excellent and integral parts of his persona.

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly has the most brilliant sound track. It starts with that thumping, then....

Oh heck, why not have a listen and a look at some great stills. It is haunting and stirring.

 

The plot is classic Western. Blondie (the good) played by  Clint Eastwood, Angel Eyes (the bad) played by Lee Van Cleef and Tuco (the Ugly) played by Eli Wallach are involved in a lethal triangle and a chase to find the buried stash of gold, which Bill Carson, the last survivor of a horse carriage loaded with dead bodies tells Blondie and Tuco about.  Tuco gets the name of the cemetery where the gold is buried, but Blondie has the name of the grave marker, so Tuco has to keep Blondie alive. Three men, all deadly and buried gold. Terrific!

Last year my wife, Rachel, and I went on a long distance walk in Almeria, where they filmed a lot of the spaghetti Westerns. We walked through the scenery used in the movie. And here is a picture of the farmhouse and chapel of El Cortijo del Fraile in Nijar, Almeria, which is used in the movie. Excuse the French Foreign Legion hat!

Out of interest, this was also the scene of  real life murder of a local girl called Paca Canadas in 1928. A marriage had been arranged for her in the chapel,but she was 'kidnapped' by her lover, who lost his life in an 'honor' killing. The playwright Federico Garcia Lorca based his play, Blood Wedding, upon the case.

And how is this for a bit of film trivia:

Lee Van Cleef claimed to be faster on the draw than Clint Eastwood. So, they put it to the test.

Eastwood could draw, cock and fire in 0.45 of a second.

Van Cleef took only 0.125 second.

See: Once Upon a Time in the Italian West: The Filmgoers' Guide to Spaghetti Westerns, Page 46

I'd certainly put The Good, the Bad and the Ugly right up there in my favourites and I'd even say that I think it belongs in a short list of the greatest Western movies.