It's been a bit of an emotional
roller-coaster for me the last few days when it comes to Jonah Hex stuff: one
big high point followed by one bigger low point. The low you probably already know about, and
I'll get to it later, as I would much rather start with the high.
This past Saturday, my husband and I made our annual pilgrimage to
the Motor City Comic Con. Money's still
kinda tight around Hillwig HQ, so we had a limited budget, but we each managed
to obtain our major targets. For Jamin,
it was autographs from Chris Sarandon and Robert Hays, and for myself, it was
getting a chance to finally meet the legendary Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez.
Since I write so much about Hex, you
probably think that's where I got hooked on the artist, since he had a good run
on Weird Western Tales and Jonah Hex, but I actually knew him from
further back, thanks to that big ol' stack of comics my dad would bring home
from work. Mixed into that stack were a
few issues of Atari Force, the
earliest one being #8. My 10-year-old
self was instantly drawn in, both by Gerry Conway's story and Garcia-Lopez's
art. I fell instantly in love with his
style, and when I found out that he was also responsible for creating many of
the images used for DC's licensed products, it pretty much blew my mind,
because it meant that his work graced all those puzzles and paint-by-numbers
and other things that my dad's company made (it also meant that I had scribbled
all over a Batman marker-by-number poster with his stuff on it as a kid...my
coloring skills haven't improved much since then). This guy was everywhere, perfectly capturing
the image of every DCU character that he rendered.
When I got into Jonah Hex, I eventually
stumbled upon the Garcia-Lopez issues, and once again had my mind blown. As I mentioned when chronicling his first Hex story for my li'l history project, the way he draws the character differs
greatly from how so many others have done it over the years. All those crisp lines and pitch-perfect
expressions that Garcia-Lopez is famous for seem like they wouldn't fit in a
Jonah Hex story, but it becomes like a breath of fresh air. Dwayne over at Matching Dragoons points to
one issue in particular -- Jonah Hex #32 -- as being one of the most outstanding Hex stories ever produced, mainly
due to Garcia-Lopez's art. He took what
Tony DeZuniga originally envisioned and distilled it into a form that can stand
next to all the characters he's ever worked on, so that Jonah fits in perfectly
without losing anything that makes the character what he is (weird fact:
Garcia-Lopez is the only Hex artist I've ever seen that remembers to add the
little deerskin pouch onto Jonah's belt that Tony DeZuniga always put on
there...seriously, go look at a bunch of renderings and see if you can spot
it).
Needless to say, when I found out he was
going to be at the con, I was bound and determined to meet him. I sent him a note via Facebook, asking if he
would be doing sketches (some artists don't do them at cons anymore) and was
thrilled when he sent a positive reply. I
will admit, I geeked out heavily, bouncing up and down a bit from
overexcitement before I even spoke with the man -- when he looked up at me and
said, "I remember you," presumably from my Facebook pic, I just about
went over the moon. Thanks goodness
Garcia-Lopez had some original pieces laying out on his table in portfolios, as
the images helped me find the words I wanted to get out. "This is the first work of yours I ever
saw," I told him, pointing at some Atari
Force pages (yes indeed, he still has four in his possession...they're a
couple hundred bucks apiece if you're interested). Then I pointed at a recent Jonah Hex piece
he'd done and said, "But today, I'm here for him."
He gladly did a head-shot of Jonah for
me (his fourth of the day, according to his assistant), and as he worked, I
told him that I'd been enjoying the Madame .44 backup he'd been doing in
All-Star Western, but I'd love to see him draw one more Hex story. I know quite a few folks who've been hoping
for the same ever since the character came back in late 2005, as Garcia-Lopez's
version is so quintessential. I reckon
that's why my hands began to shake when he handed the sketchbook back to me --
I actually had to put the book down on the table and lay my hands flat upon it
until I was sure I could hold onto it. I
must've thanked him a dozen times before, during, and after he did that sketch,
and even now, I look at it in disbelief. Buying that Tony DeZuniga piece earlier this year was phenomenal, but
this...I stood there while Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez himself drew it! I swear, Jonah's staring at me from the page
as if to say, "Yuh ain't worthy tuh own this."
I was still somewhat giddy about the
whole experience when my husband broke the bad news to me Tuesday morning: All-Star Western has been cancelled. The final issue -- #34 -- will be released in
August, wrapping things up just before DC does their next big event...which I
have absolutely no interest in. After
ASW's departure, the only two DC titles left on my pull-list are Harley Quinn and the upcoming G.I. Zombie, both co-written by Jimmy
Palmiotti (who appears to be the only reason I still buy DC these days), so if
they get tangled up in this "Future's End" mess coming in September,
that'll be my only exposure to it. I've talked about this conundrum before, how I've been drifting away from the
current DCU offerings even though they're the ones who got me interested in comics
to begin with, and to be honest, I figured that, when Jonah got the axe, that
would be the end of my association with DC, but things keep ending up on my
pull-list here and there (Li'l Gotham
ended a few months back, but I'm also signed on for the Batman '66/Green Hornet mini, and Sandman: Overture occasionally shows up in my box was well), so for
now, my connection with the DCU is not fully severed.
After they did a "skip month"
last September, I figured ASW's cancellation was only a matter of time. I still held out hope that we'd get another
year out of the book, though, or maybe fortune would smile upon ol' Jonah, and
he'd actually make it all the way to issue #55, thereby enabling Jimmy &
Justin to surpass Fleisher's record for number of Hex stories written (and maybe
we'd get some new Garcia-Lopez art out of the deal, as well). Of course, that isn't going to happen now,
but I am happy they'll have 106 tales under their belt when it's all
over...twenty shy of Fleisher, but still a damn respectable number. Add in the guest-shots, the cartoon
appearances, the action figures, plus the movie (yes, it was lousy, but it
still happened), and you've gotta admit, the past nine years have been very, very good for Jonah Hex. It's been over four decades since his
creation, but that sonovabitch is still here, and just because his title is
bring cancelled doesn't mean he'll cease to exist. Over six years passed between HEX#18 and Jonah Hex: Two-Gun Mojo #1, and another six passed between the last
issue of Jonah Hex: Shadows West and
the first issue of Palmiotti & Gray's tenure on the character. If the trend holds, and those fellas don't
crank out a special or something after August 2014 passes (thereby skewing the
numbers), Jonah will claw his way back onto the comic book racks sometime around
2020. Hunker down, be patient, and keep
your eyes peeled for more guest-shots in other titles -- any time there's a
whiff of the Old West in a DC book, Jonah's there more often than not.
As for myself, I'll continue to keep
Jonah's memory alive in my own peculiar fashion. And that's really the key to bringing the old
man back on a large scale: we can't let folks forget about him. I really do enjoy writing the Hex-fics and
such, but part of the drive to do them has always been to raise Jonah's
profile, and to get people interested enough in the character that they'd go
out and plunk money down for his books. Justin
Gray told me years ago that he should buy me a shot of whiskey for every new
Hex-nut I'd brought into the fold, to which I replied that I'd already roped so
many in, he owed me a whole bottle. Now
there's no book to hype (save for my own...release date still pending), but that
doesn't mean the work stops. Yes, I can
switch to a lower gear, especially since I now have a paying gig with Permuted
Press, but until the ideas totally dry up in my brain or I simply run out of Hex-related
things to talk about, I'll keep chugging along.
To that end, I'm doing my best to set up
a schedule, as opposed to my usual scattershot method of writing this stuff. "An Illustrated History of Jonah Hex" will become a bi-annual thing, with new parts being released on
November 1st (Jonah's birthday) and May 1st (exactly 6 months later) until we
hit the end, after which I'll start to work on appendices, like comparing Jonah's
known Civil War activities to real-life history. As for fanfic, there's still a few tales that
need to be told in Weird Western Quarterly, including the long-delayed issue #25, so I'll get those out eventually, and of
course, there's the ongoing saga of Jonah Hex: Shades of Gray, which I plan on writing for a good long time. With no regular Hex title being published,
this'll be the only way to get new stories for the foreseeable future, so if
you like what I'm doing with Jonah, let me know...and if you hate it, let me
know that as well (I also encourage you to write your own fics, and if you do,
send me a link, I'd love to read someone else's take on Jonah). I don't have a schedule pinned down for WWQ
or SoG as of yet, but I'm working on it.
And now I shall make a promise to all my
fellow Hex-nuts out there: if my novel series Swords & Sixguns becomes a hit, and I gain enough clout that I
can actually wrangle a meeting with The Powers That Be at DC Comics, I will do
my damnedest to bring Jonah Hex back to the racks, even if it's just a one-off
special (this is presuming he's not already there in this hypothetical scenario). There's a couple of tales rattling around in
my brain that I'm holding in reserve just in case the opportunity ever arises. Until that day comes, though, tell others
about Jonah Hex. Buy the trades from
DC. Join us on the "Jonah Hex, Via Pony Express" Facebook page so you don't miss any news that might pop up. Draw pictures, write stories, dress up as Hex
or Tallulah Black or the other DC Western folk at conventions, do anything you
can to keep that memory alive.
Because Jonah Hex will come back one day, and
it'll be nice to have friends waiting for him when he arrives.
