Among comics collectors, Coyote, originally published by Marvel's Epic imprint, is perhaps best known as the series that served as Todd McFarlane's professional debut as a comics artist. Of course, that was in issue #11, and this collection features issues #s 5-8, all published in 1984. As for the comics storytelling in Coyote, for most readers, that's an unknown quantity, and I was among them. I've enjoyed Steve Englehart's work on company-owned super-hero comics in the past, so I was interested to see what he had to say when he was calling all of the shots. It turns out he has some pretty wild ideas... too wild, actually. The plotting and concepts in this book come off as rather scattered, and the loose art from Chaz Truog (long before his acclaimed work on Grant Morrison's Animal Man) is difficult to follow.
The spirit of the native American trickster god Coyote has taken human form and is exploring life among regular people, mainly in the Las Vegas area. He's taken a lover, Tally, but what complicates matters is that he's already slept with her sister. Also making like complicated are the various men seeking to kill or capture him, from an Israeli secret agent to a Russian cyborg named X-Caliber. Also among his enemies is the Djinn, a master of espionage and the deadly arts, but the villain finds himself being hunted by a determined young man and his accidental compatriot in Cairo.
Truog's panel layouts are unconventional, but unfortunately, his experimental approach does not serve the story well. It's difficult to discern what order in which one is meant to read the panels on several pages. Furthermore, the loose quality of the line art makes for poorly defined figures and action. The clean, Jim Valentino-esque art we find on the cover of this reprint collection isn't to be found within. The colors are far too bright, even garish, for the darker, more mature tone for which the writer strives.
Why would a Russian agent be codenamed X-Caliber? I get why Englehart would connect a book titled Coyote to the Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons, but why, oh why, would he play the idea straight? And why would the ghost of James Dean be cast in the role of the Road Runner? The plotting and character concepts in this book seem almost random. Is this a story of mystical self-discovery? Or an espionage story? Is Coyote a super-hero? Is Coyote the actual native trickster god, just a portion of the deity or some kind of reflection given life itself? The storytelling seems almost psychedelic, a drug trip put to paper. It's a shame that meaning is so sparse here.
Where the book boasts its greatest strength is in the latter pages, which offer up a much more focused "Djinn" feature, brought to life with inventiveness and much cleaner lines by legendary artist Steve Ditko. The plotting is much more on point and direct. There's a clear story; the characters' motivations are much easy to understand and accept. The dialogue's a little ham-fisted, but this is a product of more than two decades ago, so it's easy to accept. The real treat, obviously, is Ditko's participation in the storytelling. The characters boast the intensity that's called for, but there's a slightly surreal and quirky quality at work that brings a playfulness to the story that's really enjoyable without being distracting. 3/10
