WESTERN TALES OF TERROR whetted my appetite for Western comics with a horror/fantasy bent. While I await the next JONAH HEX trade paperback for such, THE WICKED WEST II: ABOMINATION & OTHER TALES fills the void.

ABOMINATION tells the tale – or, rather, two dozen of them – of cursed cowboy Cotton Coleridge, who’s always running across ghosts, monsters and other beings of supernatural origin. Apparently, the first WICKED WEST – I haven’t read it, and you don’t need to in order to enjoy this one – told one story, of Cotton battling vampires in the Old West. This sequel, however, is an anthology from a host of talented authors and artists.

At 50 pages, the title story is the longest. But the rest are bite-sized, with Cotton taking on space aliens, zombies, skeleton gunslingers, a human/fly hybrid housewife and a duplicitous whore. The book’s rapid-fire nature makes it difficult to grow bored, as does the varying style of illustration –  only a scant few of which aren’t up to snuff.

Strange Western stories are a lost art, or at least an ignored one. Comics readers tired of routine, uninspired superhero stories and generic concepts may find something a little more fresh if they’d only give indie project like this – accessible, amusing – a try. –Rod Lott

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