Monday Memories #48 - The Gunwitch: Outskirts of Doom #1

Each Monday this year I'll be taking a look back at a random comic, prestige format issue, graphic novel or collection of reprints from amongst my 3,000 or so comics that date from 1962 to 2003 - I figured anything in the last ten years would be too recent to hark back to.

The comics are chosen completely at random and apart from a four week lead-in period, even I don't know what I'll be looking at in the weeks to come!

THE GUNWITCH: OUTSKIRTS OF DOOM #1 - June 2001

Dan Brereton's Nocturnals featured a range of visually arresting characters and it wasn't that surprising that the one to get a spin off solo mini-series was the Gunwitch, the silent, undead bodyguard of Halloween Girl.

As he takes her on her way to school in Heliopolis, they stop off at a small town with a gang problem: one gang of vampires headed up by the somewhat aristocratic Miss Goodnight, with another gang of vamps headed up by the biker Fang. Caught in the middle are the townsfolk, who used to get along nicely with everyone until Fang and his bunch - who used to just pass through every now and then - decided to stay.

Gunwitch decides to stay and help the town sort its problem, leaving Halloween Girl to head to school on her own, though she has some parting words:

It's not long at all before Gunwitch is co-opted by some of Fang's gang who mistake him for a ringer that Fang's hired from outside. They tell him to prove himself by entering a bar run by the Goodnight clan and wipe out the vampires. Not a problem:

Brought before Fang - who also believes him to be the ringer - Gunwitch is offered money to kill off the Goodnights once and for all:

Sound familiar? There's definitely a touch of A Fistful of Dollars about the story but if you don't mind that (and I don't) this makes for an entertaining three issue mini. And hey, the black and white art's lovely as well.