Bouncer, The One-Armed Gunslinger

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.

Jodorowsky characters are just as insane as his settings. While some are stock characters, such as the prostitute with a heart of gold, there are plenty like the woman who is the town’s hangman (who is also a dominatrix) that make it intriguing. Between all the crazy ideas and the equally crazy characters you can’t help but keep reading the story.

Even though I loved the story, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t without problems. There is an incredibly fine line between cliché and good story, and this book skirts it perfectly. Are some of the characters bad just to be bad? Yes. Are there some scenes that you’ve seen before such as bad blood between brothers who only want their rich fathers ranch? Yep. But that’s okay because it’s part of what makes a western a western. The only part that was truly cringe-worthy was the portrayal of the Asian opium woman who falls in love with Bouncer. In every scene she speaks in Chinese proverbs such as, “I am like the lotus blossom that one likes to look at but never touch.” After the fifth or sixth saying like that you start skipping some of her dialogue. Luckily it doesn’t impact the story in the least.

Unless you’ve read the Blueberry westerns by Moebius, then the art is like nothing you’ve seen before. It’s stunning. It’s lush and full of detail on a scale that only George Perez does. It’s primarily a nine-panel grid with occasional larger panels. Boucq is excellent at anatomy and character design. There’s a fairly large cast as people come and go but no one looks alike.

This book pays homage to every John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, spaghetti western you’ve ever seen. It has every element from mob justice, evil ranchers, and Indians who commune with nature in it and that is what makes it so much fun. If you are looking for something different, then this is the book for you.

- David Lee