I'm a fan of the western, a genre that doesn't get a lot of play in comics these days, so I was pretty happy to see not only a new western but one done in the lush painted style and oversized hardcover production of Humanoids Publishing. Bouncer is a two-volume series that is named after one of the quirky supporting characters, a one-armed bouncer, but which really focuses on another character altogether. The central story in Bouncer has everything a good western needs, including revenge, a young man's transformation into a gunfighter and buried treasure, and a couple things it doesn't, including a somewhat forced love story. It also features artwork which really gives a sense of the deserted plains of the west and captures both the beauty of the unspoiled land and the ugliness of a brutal period in American society.
Jodorowsky is a guy I know best for big ideas and wild science-fiction, so it was interesting to see him take on a western. He doesn't seem to have any trouble adapting to the genre, because while his story is as wide-ranging as his usual tales, it is definitely more focused on character and less on big ideas, as it needs to be for this story. The tragedy that befalls the lead character and many of the supporting characters could easily be unbelievable, but Jodorowsky sells it with the idea of a cursed diamond and the notion of a town that is legendary for its brutality and corruption, both of which are staples of western fiction.
While Jodorowsky is following the general road-map of the western, though, that doesn't mean he doesn't diverge for his own interesting touches. Crazy Butterfly, the legendary Scottish gunfighter who was a sort of sensei to the Bouncer, has a training montage and general style that is more reminiscent of the Eastern zen master archetype of Hong Kong martial arts films than your average western, and it's an interesting blend. Given how much similarity there is in the structure of westerns and martial arts films in general, it works surprisingly well, and it doesn't hurt that Crazy Butterfly has an interesting and outrageous visual.
As much as Jodorowsky captures the style of the western in his writing, Bouco does the same in his artwork. I sometimes had a little difficulty telling his characters apart, and could have wished for more distinctive designs for a couple of the characters, but the background detail, from costumes to backdrops, is stunning. The shots of the open plain or the town are suitable for framing, full of a sort of dusty reality but romanticized enough to make for compelling visuals and the colors by Fructus and Dimagmaliw also give the sense of a sort of omnipresent heat and dirt without getting too muddy or gritty and obscuring the art.
The story structure of Bouncer is sometimes a little wonky, because important details are explained after they've impacted the story and not before. To some extent, this is meant to build a mystery, as with the reason why Deborah is set free by the robbers or what Ralton is up to when he murders Seth's father, but I found that the books were much more enjoyable on second read, when I knew all the facts. A slightly more unconventional storytelling style that jumped around in time a little more might have revealed the puzzle pieces in a more compelling order.
In addition, I had some trouble with the rapid "love at first sight" relationship between Deborah and Seth, which felt like it could have used considerably more time to develop. However, that is largely made up for in the complexity that results given the relationships between Deborah, Ralton and Seth, and if there's one thing I enjoyed in Bouncer, it was the somewhat twisted and unusual relationships of the many characters.
