#sometimes more

Reading Falling In Love On The Path To Hell the other day put me in a real cowboy mood, so today(11/29)'s comic is Skottie Young(Author) and Jorge Corona(Artist)'s 2024 Ain't No Grave.

An infamous gunslinger, happily married and settled down with her family on the frontier, finds herself on death's door with nothing doctors can do for her. So to take matters into her own hands, she resolves to venture across the wastelands, delve into the land of the dead, and fight for her life back from the grip of capital-D Death himself.

Absolutely stunning work by Corona on this one. He's been a favorite of mine for a while now I don't know if I've been as impressed with any of his other work, and Jean-Francois Beaulieu doing colors here really nails every spectacular moment, and with a very particular emphasis on the unique quality of light from scene to scene that's just so intimately moody. There's always been something about the "Weird West" genre that hits just the right mix of things that I'm a sucker for, and this really feels like all the absolute best elements of both.

shockingly the covers actually do the art so little justice somehow, so here have some random establishing shots from the endless parade of fantastically cool set pieces the story takes you through

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i think that the ridiculously titled subsection of literature ("my boobs wife is transformed into a million dollar wizard and having sex with me is like antidepressants to her?!?!?!" ya know light novels and doujins and whatnot with names like that) allow for a lot of sneaky high concept writers to play around in subversive long form story telling. and when its good, baby its good.

(This started as a headcanon and then grew. I hope your day has gotten better 💜)

Squalo is an unwilling fan of Lussuria’s telenovellas, soap operas, k-dramas, what have you. And he hates it. Mostly he’s confused by the stories, often he’s annoyed, but occasionally he’s intrigued. What he hates is that he’s been caught in this net at all, and he’s not entirely sure how the hell it happened.

He and Luss had been on a mission together - a couple of overnights and a lot of driving. The first day, he caught Lussuria entranced by the television screen and sniveling piteously. Without a single shred of remorse at interrupting this colossal waste of time, he kicked Luss off the bed, and told him to hurry up, it was time to go.

Luss was still dabbing at tears under his glasses by the time they were both in the car. Squalo flexed his fingers on the steering wheel, put the car in gear, and considered ignoring his colleague's… everything. But he didn’t. Maybe he should have, but damn him he didn’t. He went ahead and asked.

“What the hell has gotten into you?”

“Oh, Squ! It’s this drama I’ve been following, and it’s gotten So. Good.”

“…drama.”

Much to Squalo’s dismay, Luss blithely ignored the clear, scathing undertones of his response. “Mmmmhmmm! Let me tell you, this last episode was a doozy!” And tell him, he did. Lussuria was not one to let go of a chance to speak to a captive audience. It was a long drive, and it wasn’t like he had much else to do anyway, so Squalo listened with half an ear as Luss prattled on.

But somewhere along the way, Luss’s words began worming their way into his brain. Once there, Squalo’s analytical mind seized upon them, searching for patterns, meanings, and whatever the hell the damn plot was supposed to be.

“So let me get this straight. Carlos has got the inheritance-”

“You’d think so, but noooo.”

“WHAT?”

“Just wait, hunny bunny! This is where it gets really juicy~”

Squalo grumbled and glared at the road. He was sure he had figured it out, but he listened dutifully until the next bombshell hit.

“VOOII what do you mean Alicia isn’t Esmeralda’s baby?! How does that even work?!”

“Breath, Squ-chan.”

“I am breathing! This is just stupid!”

“Do you want to know, or do you want to be mad about it.”

Squalo ground his teeth. “…I want to know.” He was so busy fuming that he missed Lussuria’s knowing smirk.

And that was that.

She is very tightly swaddled