Publisher/author Jim Main brings us a bold, new western/bounty-hunter hero in The Adventures of Clay Hitchens #1.
Main's storytelling is tight, gritty and virile, and Verl Holt Bond's illustrations create an atmosphere that embellishes the contents with fiery thrust, as does Robert J. Sodaro and Marc Haines' pleasing layout.
For the record, The Adventures of Clay Hitchens #1 is a curation of chapters featured in Main Enterprises' *PPFSZT! #48-#50. As individual entries, these submissions proved absorbing, but as part of a seamless, 28-page flow, they truly grab one by the throat and don't let go!
For the sake of the compilation, we learn Hitchens' background, how he was raised on a farm and then joined the militia, but above all, we come to appreciate his caring nature and skill with a gun. This makes him a man to respect and admire within the tumultuous landscape he roams.
The Adventures of Clay Hitchens is reminiscent of western comics of the past, but it also captures the introspective flavor of such television series as Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Rifleman, Have Gun - Will Travel, The Rebel, The Loner and Tate. In other words, Hitchen's story detonates with depth, forging a continuing mythology that's superior to what most contemporary comics offer, no matter the genre.
I tip my hat to Main and Bond for pulling this one off and encourage them to get crackin' on #2. The more we see of Clay Hitchens, the better!
To purchase a within-the-U.S. copy of The Adventures of Clay Hitchens, send $4.50 via Paypal to Jim Main at jmain23@gmail.com. (Please include your email and physical address when doing so. A hardcopy of the issue will be mailed to you first-class, with a PDF arriving in advance.)
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