Story by Cullen Bunn
Art by Brian Hurtt
Bound, the third story arc in Oni Press’s The Sixth Gun, finds Drake and Becky traveling with the monks of a religious sect called The Sword of Abraham on a mission to secure and conceal General Bedford Hume’s undead corpse on consecrated ground. Nothing is ever easy for Sinclair, though, as Hume’s widow has plans afoot to retrieve and revive her undead husband.
In every arc so far, Cullen Bunn introduces us to new environments and adds little bits to the world’s mythos. He also takes a very Whedon-esque tack with his antagonists, introducing a new “big bad” – in this case it’s a mercenary named Eli Barlow. With each new introduction, we are given just enough information to be intrigued – and to make the world feel fully realized – without bogging the story down in needless details or backstory. With just a few simple pages, we learn more about the nature of Missy Hume’s gun, and we’re given a glimpse into the perils that Eli Barlow will present to our heroes.
Bunn and his collaborator Brian Hurtt manage to choose exactly the right moments to tell us a sweeping story so efficiently that a single panel feels like a page; a single page like an entire scene. The transitions between dialogue- and action-driven set pieces feel natural, effortlessly carrying us from an implication-ridden conversation between Sinclair and Brother Roberto into a frenetic train battle. Hurtt’s artwork is as efficient as the script, sparing excess in favor of exquisite attention to just the right details.
Issue #12 presents a more action-oriented beginning than the last two arcs, without abandoning the individual charm of our favorite duo or the mythos that fills their supernatural western world. I can’t wait to see where The Sixth Gun takes us next.
