Jonah Hex Volume 1

I'm not a huge western fan, but I remember as a child reading the Jonah Hex comics. On a whim, I decided I would give this book a shot. Boy was I glad I did! I think this is the best Showcase Presents I've read so far! All of the stories are classic good versus evil, with Jonah having a seemingly supernatural aurora around him. With every story, wrong is righted and the evil are brought to justice. For some strange reason, this made each story feel kind of satisfying, given the uncertain world we live in. I'm waiting with bated breath for Volume #2.

When I first started reading comics I was primarily interested in super hero books. A series about a facially scarred western bounty hunter did not appeal to me at all and I avoided this series entirely. It's a shame that I did not read this sooner as it contains some of the best writing and art I've ever encountered in comics. Each issue is a shirt story masterfully written and beautifully drawn with the skill of a master. The quality that you will find here is up there with the greats and may surprise the casual reader who thinks they know what to expect from a comic book 30 odd years old. Hex is a grizzled loner. A crack shot, he is feared throughout the west for his steady hand and nightmarish features. If you are a comic book fan looking for something new, try out this bargain-priced collection.

While it's always nice to read a good book, perhaps the greatest pleasure comes from the books that exceed your expectations. I'm not a huge fan of western comics and prior to reading Showcase Presents Jonah Hex, I knew nothing about the character. My only guess, based on his last name, was that there may have been something supernatural about him. I was wrong, and was delighted to find that this book, from which I expected nothing, turned out to be far better than I would have thought. Jonah Hex is a bounty hunter in the post-Civil War West. Although he fought with the Confederates, he soon became disillusioned with their cause; he wasn't much happier with the North, however. Along the way, in a way that's left unsaid (at least in this volume), he was hideously disfigured and rather embittered at the same time. A great gunfighter (in fact, deadly with almost any weapon), he sullenly wanders from town to town, seemingly with no interest other than money. What makes Hex such a wonderful character is that he has more depth than he lets on. As mercenary as he often acts, he actually has a moral code. His callous attitude is really more of an emotional wall that keeps some obvious pain hidden. He knows that he will never have a normal life and sometimes that bitterness seeps through. Of course, it also helps that the stories are almost all well-written. Hex may be almost unbeatable as a gunfighter, but he is often manipulated into bad situations. Typically, at the end of a Hex story, there are few people left alive, and most of the dead deserve to be (at least in Hex's mind). The only negative to this book is that it is not all Hex. The last fifth of the book features other characters in stories that are best forgotten. Maybe in another context, these stories may be passable, but after the excellent Jonah Hex tales, they are a major letdown. Nonetheless, I am giving this book a full five stars because most of the Hex stories are that caliber. Even if you're not a fan of western comics (as I am not), this is still one collection worth reading.

Jonah Hex, DC comics 1970's version of Clint Eastwood's Man with no name character from the Good, The Bad and the Ugly, was a staple in the DC universe. Howeever it also played outside the DC comics realm (Superman, Batman, Justice League, Wonder Woman) as did such characters as Sgt. Rock, The Haunted Tank, and the Losers.He appeared in All Star Western and Weird Western Tales before getting his own book. Hex was a bounty hunter. His stories weren't the John Wayne All American type of Western. He was an anti hero hero. You can see many old western style stories stolen and adapted within the Hex collection, from such Westerns like The Man who Shot Liberty Vallence, Shane, the Shootist, Sante Fe, The Searchers and Red River Also in this collection towards the end of the book is the back up tales of Outlaw, DC Comics's jesse James style book. Some with great art from Gil Kane, showcasing his artistic skills. This volume only touches the Hex comics history, with any hope there will be a volume two and three and so on. One can hope that DC is smart enough to also release a further volume of Western Characters like Scalphunter, El Diablo and of course the loveable rogue Bat Lash in a separate collection It nice that DC Comics started to release its older comics and unique series in a black and white format similar to Marvel Essentals Its a great collection for anyone who like the Hex Legend Bennet Pomerantz, AUDIOWORLD

If you want to read a Sergio Leone movie in graphic art form, Hex is the book for you. Most of the stories are a step up from your ordinary western fare. Its like Shane/ The Man With No Name or Gary Cooper riding across these pages. For a comic written in the early 1970's it takes on topical issues and doesn't hold back.This is not the Vertigo version of Hex but it provides one with a wonderful feel of after the civil war Americana. Most of the line work of the artists work well in this black and white format. I only found two stories where it seemed the source material didn't scan well. You get 500 plus pages of very entertaining reading and its well written. Five stars for DC. Their version of Essentials blows Marvel away. Better paper and the pages are numbered and the bindings doesn't fall apart after one read. My only complaint is how long before volume two ???