The Desperado Primer is part anthology and part advertisement, and it gives a pretty good overview of what Desperado has coming up from Image, most of which look pretty good. From a review standpoint, though, the Desperado Primer's half-page ads aren't as compelling as the original story content. Fortunately, those stories are pretty good as well, from a preview of Tony Harris's amazing-looking samurai story "Roundeye" to a whirlwind tour of worlds of adventure from Ron Marz and Brandon Peterson to a self-contained glimpse of lives intersecting courtesy of Paul Jenkins and a variety of talented artists. If you were to judge Desperado solely from this primer, you might come away with the notion that they represent top-notch art and imaginative writing, and given that, I think you have to call the Desperado Primer a success.
By far the strongest offering in this Primer is the story that opens the piece, the samurai story "Roundeye" that is written and drawn by Tony Harris. I've always been fond of Harris's artwork, from Starman to his current work on Ex Machina, but this is the first time I can remember where he was handling almost all of the creative chores (save the lettering) himself, and this snippet of the story is very promising. From a deadly samurai duel at the beginning to a softer, more human moment as he reflects on his lost wife or greets his raccoon child (?), "Roundeye" offers up striking imagery and ideas along with lyrical narration that has me very curious about the story as a whole. In addition, while Harris's work is always strong, this might be some of the best stuff I've ever seen from him, gorgeously rendered and colored and making full use of important detail and negative space, reminiscent not only of Harris's usual stuff but of the work of Heavy Metal creators like Richard Corben as well.
"World Traveler" is a shorter tale, essentially a number of splash pages by Brnadon Peterson and Jason Keith with a story told in captions over it by Ron Marz. It's a cute idea with a nice revelation and payoff, but I admit that I was more intrigued by what it seemed to be, the story of a man who travels between different worlds of pulp adventure, than in the cute payoff of the story that is just this side of being a "one to grow on." There's no indication that this is anything but a cute little story here, but if there is more of a story of the "World Traveler" in the future, I'd be inclined to give it a look.
The book closes out with "A Mirror to the Soul," a tale that starts out looking like a police procedural but quickly becomes a story of an unusual voyeur peering into moments of various lives, woven together through the common threads of human desperation and worry. Jenkins's tale is essentially a number of two-page vignettes, each one featuring different characters and even slightly different tones, but connected through a framing sequence of a cat walking alongside the outside of an apartment building. The vignettes are each very interesting on their own, snapshots of lives that don't really resolve but which give satisfying closing moments anyway, and the finish of the story has a nice punch to it that puts the reader into the position of voyeur as well.
The big selling point of this story, however, is the artwork, which is across the board fantastic. It is mostly done in a black and white motif with scattered color, spot red and green that helps to highlight important features or give a splash of color that draws the eye. The art lineup on this final story captures every mood perfectly, and the variations in style, instead of being jarring, flow smoothly into one another, close enough in general approach but distinct in style so that the reader gets a buffet of styles.
On top of three good stories, the Desperado Primer offers the promise of many more delights in the future, from the upcoming releases of Dusty Star and Stardust Kid to the recent successes like The Atheist to a very tantalizing promise of art books from Brian Bolland and P. Craig Russell. Desperado clearly has big plans, and almost all of what they have sounds at the very least intriguing to me. If you haven't given any of the company's Image offerings a look yet, the Primer is a good (and cheap!) way to get a sense of what this promising new publisher is up to. 9/10
