Having been somewhat perplexed by Slave Labor Graphics’ recent Strange Eggs Jumps The Shark anthology, I was pleasantly surprised at the entertainment value in this western/zombie/comedy mash-up. Zeke Deadwood: Zombie Lawman is created by T.A Boatwright and Ryan Rubio, and the title of this one-shot pretty much tells you what it’s all about.
It begins with an old-time radio show as an earnest narrator tells tha tale of the titular gun slinger, or as he puts it: Whenever innocent blood is spilled upon the sand of the American West, a foul wind blows in across the frontier – signaling the arrival of justice!
It opens on a nameless town filled with the kind of bandits and desperadoes seen in many 1950s TV shows (or The Three Amigos) before a brave sheriff makes his last stand. Then in rides a skeletal figure to rescue the people from the wild shooting in the streets. Zeke makes his presence known at the church and tavern, and makes a rotten impression due to his undead stench, and then seeks the leader of the bandits for a good old fashioned shoot out.
Boatwright’s pencils are simple, but the inks really make it stand out. The black and white art fits perfectly with the rough atmosphere and it’s an entertaining enough one-shot. It’s certainly not hilarious, but it’s pretty harmless too. The 3 pin ups in the remaining pages by T.J Kirsch, Havard S. Johansen (see below) and Guy Davis are simply awesome and I’d love to see a Zeke Deadwood series done by any one of them.
Zeke is basically a zombie Clint Eastwood or Gary Cooper, but with a penchant for singing and falling off his horse, though not at the same time. There’s nothing revealed about his origins, or any deep themes. Zeke Deadwood is just a streamlined approach to a novel concept.
There’s an interesting interview with Boatwright here, with a look at some interior pages too. I hope we see more of Zeke. As we all know, zombies work in any genre, and this one has the potential to be another winner.
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