Black Jack Ketchum #1 by Brian Schirmer

Black Jack Ketchum was a real person and, as this graphic novel points out, he was the stuff of legends.  Nobody knows for sure how many of the crimes he was accused of were really his.  This is the world you enter when you start reading this novel...

Image Comics allowed me to read and review this book (thank you).  It has been published and you can grab a copy now.

Jack wasn't really named Jack.  His name was Tom.  He began working as a cowboy but he wasn't making much.  It didn't take him long to get dragged into a life of crime.  His brother ran a gang.  But nobody knows the true story of Tom/Jack.  This novel is bit surreal and dream-like.  There's what we know, what we suspect and what might have happened.

In this tale, Jack has a few friends and a lot of enemies.  He even has a doppelgänger that he thinks is guilty of many of the crimes.  This is an interesting way to take a look at the old west.  I'm not sure about the monsters but the rest of the story seemed real enough.  I can say this is the only way I'd ever want to meet Black Jack...