Vodou Cowboy #1 - Matt Garvey Comics

VODOU COWBOY No. 1, May 2022

Described by co-creator Matt Garvey as “a ghoulish western comic inspired by our love of Eighties horror movies... with a cowboy twist”, it’s arguably crystal clear just why 360 backers pledged £3,714 to help bring Issue One of “Vodou Cowboy” to life via Kickstarter in May 2022. For whilst the twenty-four page periodical’s central plot is a pretty straightforward tale about a demonic possession requiring an exorcism, the narrative’s intriguingly imaginative secondary storylines really help to ‘reel’ the reader into a disconcertingly dangerous world of mean-spirited gunfighters, bed-ridden call girls and bible-thumping preachers.

Indeed, perhaps this comic’s greatest strength is in the way the “once thriving community” of Sweet Root is so palpably depicted as a stark, derelict municipal shaken to its very foundation by “an incident here two days ago”. This sudden descent into desolation smacks the reader straight in the mouth just as soon as the book opens with its titular character slowly moseying their way up to the dilapidated, threadbare small town on horseback, and doesn’t stop even once Grady Young has identified the true monster lurking within the settlement’s meagre population so as to put the creature to flight; “If I must reverend… I will shoot through you. For your own sake… Move!”

However, Garvey is also extremely good at imbuing this tale’s quite considerable cast with plenty of raw emotion. The evident fear in both the heavily-moustached Barkeeper and young Ned when they are first introduced to the audience really helps build up an enjoyable sense of nervous expectation as to what grotesque nightmare might actually be lurking behind Maddie’s bedroom door before it’s opened. Whilst, the rector’s evident angry displeasure at the sheriff bringing a witch doctor into the ‘haunting’ gives him some added depth once he realises his holy tome doesn’t seemingly contain all the answers he thought, and that the “Bokor” is his parishioner’s only source of salvation.

Helping to also ‘sell’ all this comic’s scary situations is Arjuna Susini, whose somewhat rough, scratchy sketching style quite marvellously adds to the atmosphere of horrid wretchedness and ungodly despondency which permeates throughout the publication. In fact, one of the highlights of this book are the illustrator’s layouts for when Young physically places his hand deep inside a poor prostitute’s mouth and literally pulls out the fearsome, multi-eyed fiend inhabiting her writhing body.

Written by: Matt Garvey, Art by: Arjuna Susini, and Colours by: Dee Cunniffe