I normally don't do this for First Look, but I'm reviewing two books together, because the first issue is something of an anomaly, a book that was only released on Free Comic Book Day, and if you're gonna pick up issue two, you might see if your retailer has any copies of #1 laying around as well. Because taken together, this is a promising story, which means that it's intriguing but that it could go either way, developing into an interesting take on a fable with a western spin or devolving into a bunch of western outlaw cliches. Benson's script has a number of overly familiar elements from the western genre, but the modern interpretation of a fairy tale gives the book a unique twist, and the dark and ambiguous personality of one of the protagonists is equally fascinating. Mike Hawthorne also turns in a great art performance, although I still find that his work tends to look better in black and white than it does in color, odd given that colorist Mike Atiyeh has done some really excellent work in the past.
Benson's story reads like many a western that I've seen and read, and given that I'm at best a casual western fan, that says to me he might need to get a little bit more off the beaten path. The outlaws rescued from a hanging, the mysterious and corrupt law enforcement officer on their trail, these are core elements of these first two stories, and I've seen them done, in almost this exact same manner, many times before. Fortunately, Benson tempers these cliches with some intriguing new elements, including a very effective take on the Sleeping Beauty myth that makes it loom larger than just being about one girl and an unflinching look at what turned Cole from a loving husband into a cold-blooded outlaw.
In fact, so far, Cole is my favorite character of the bunch, someone whose role in the story is yet to be determined. He has enough of a hero's heart to go back for the kid he was supposed to hang alongside, but at the same time, he is just as ready to kill the kid himself for some perceived slight. He strikes me as a very realistic sort of outlaw, viewable as heroic from a certain perspective but certainly as dangerous and unpredictable as a modern-day gang-banger or other "noble criminal" archetype.
It is the blend of supernatural elements, however, that makes Ballad of Sleeping Beauty really pop for me. The western/horror blend has become pretty prevalent in comics, but this isn't really magic in a horror sense, but more of a fantasy sense. The ghostly hunter driven by vengeance or the town that has vanished thanks to the curse of a native american woman are a sort of southwestern magic perfectly fitted for this setting, and while there are certainly some horrific elements to being pursued by a ghost or being put to sleep by powerful magic, it's not really played for horror effect but more to add an element of mystery and supernatural to the tale.
Mike Hawthorne is a talented artist who continues to explore different genres in his work. His take on the western setting might not be as sweeping and epic as spectacular western artists like John Severin or Tim Truman, but he does give a good feel for the open plains and the wooden, creaky towns. Probably the biggest strength he brings to the work, however, is in the expressive faces of the characters, which have a simplicity and clarity that you'd expect to find in animation more than comics. His take on the Sheriff and Cole's sidekick are especially good examples of this. There are also some terrific setpieces, notably in the first issue, as he shows the townsfolk attempting to leave the doomed town or the woman walking through the snow-shrouded territory earlier in the town's life.
