Graphic Novel Book Club – Six-Gun Gorilla

six-gun-gorilla-1_600Six-Gun Gorilla is a six issue series put out by BOOM! written by Simon Spurrier and Illustrated by Jeff Stokely. Last week we had our monthly bookclub meet at Boomerang Comics in Lewisville with this book. It was well recieved by everyone really. There were a few comments on the art but even they were nit-picky. The over all feel was good. Maybe the gorilla’s feet are a bit wonky in the cover shot to the left. “It’s artistic interpretation of a crazy gorilla with a six-shooter…”.

 

Six-Gun-Gorilla-Page-2Spurrier borrows from an original story published in 1939 for inspiration on this otherworldly tale. The original is public domain and was originally put out by Wizard in 15 parts. It told the tale of a gorilla in the old west on a quest for vengeance for a murder commited on his human master. Spurrier’s tale has a gun toting gorilla but the simalarities really stop there. In this Boom! title the Gorilla exists in an eratic land in a pocket dimension on earth, and it is sort of a buddy piece. The gorilla and his companion, Blue, out to set the world right I guess. Even if Blue really only signed up to die on reality tv.

 

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Stokely does a good job with the art and it has a good indipendent approach which explores the use of space far differently than the big two approach their stories these days (according to one member of the club). I personally felt like some of the human characters had a bit of a implistic look about them and the creepy villian and kids with no eyes were a tad too creepy. However, Stokely brings his monsters and atmosphere to life in a very fantastical way.

A couple of us were pretty excited going in. Simon Spurrier wrote Number Cruncher (see our review) which is also worth checking out. It too has an extra special approach to story telling that isn’t in line with what you would normally expect from anything. He does not dissapoint with SGG. By the end what you thought was just a wierd approach to a western turns out to be a call to wake up; a wierd idea of how the world could be when we give up on dreaming and replace it with reality TV.

 

At the end of the night, even trying to play devil’s advocate with the Gorilla’s feet and some of the way the art looks, everyone still loved the book. It’s definately worth a read. The collection recently came out and it is a fairly new story borrowing on some classic elements. Look into the old Creator Unknown SGG as well. It looks like a fun read.

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As always feel free to disagree with me in the comments below or @werewolforigin on twitter. We will be reading Coffin Hill for October’s bookclub. Join the conversation. We meet the last Tuesday of the Month and I usually post the general thoughts of the group the next day, barring special circumstances.

About Eric bookout

Writer/Artist for X amount of years. Recently worked with people from IGN on a comic and studied writing under Victor Gischler of Marvel Comics at RSU in Oklahoma more X amount of years ago. Follow me @WerewolfOrigin on twitter
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