Last week, I read Nuts, which was a look back at life as a child. This week, I decided it was time to read a genre that I haven’t read in a very, very long time. I needed to read a western! Not an ordinary western because that would be too simple. I wanted to read a western written by a European to see what they thought of our history. So, I read BOUNCER, THE ONE-ARMED GUNSLINGER, written by Alexandro Jodorowsky, illustrated by Francois Boucq, published by Humanoids.

Bouncer is the resident gunman at the local saloon. He isn’t the sheriff and isn’t interested in being the sheriff. But when the town hangman is murdered, he draws the short straw and gets the worst job in town. And so starts the story of Bouncer, who just wants justice and wants to revenge those who have been wronged. And, because it’s a western, it involves lots of shooting. Lots and lots of shooting.

The story is everything I would expect from a western and everything I expect from Jodorowsky. Jodorowsky, author of the Metabarons (see review here), is an idea man. It’s very evident by the amount of things that occur within this story. The story moves at an incredible pace from one large scale event, such as the bandits attacking the innocent farmer’s house, to another. And by the end Jodorowsky ties all these disparate events up in one gigantic climactic battle. While Metabarons was over-the-top science fiction crazy, this is down-to-earth western crazy.

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