Written by Eric Powell
Art by Powell and Kyle Hotz

After a very promising first issue, Eric Powell’s Goon spinoff Buzzard continues to provide two deliciously macabre tales with excellent art. The only thing the two stories contained in this miniseries have in common are a Western theme, but otherwise they have very different moods. After the first issue, I was fascinated with the main Buzzard storyline but lukewarm about the Billy the Kid backup, but after issue #2, I’ve become equally interested in both stories and am anxious to see how they will end.

The Buzzard storyline picks up with the title character continuing his journey to find the apelike creatures who have been terrorizing the townspeople who hired him and getting to know the small boy whom the town insisted he take with him. The boy develops an odd case of hero worship and keeps asking Buzzard to train him to be an assassin. Buzzard is reluctant at first but soon takes pity on the orphan and gives him a few pointers on how to be an effective killing machine. During a diversion from their main mission, the unlikely duo rescues a comely slave girl from a band of snake handlers, and at the end of the story, he is grudgingly convinced to have her tag along. The story seems to be moving toward the development of a new surrogate family for the undead cowboy, which should help to brighten his disposition a bit. Powell’s writing and art are both top-notch in this segment, providing a decent amount of gore and carnage but at the same time developing Buzzard as a sympathetic character, despite his penchant of snacking on the limbs of his defeated foes.

The backup story, featuring Billy the Kid and a band of misfits facing off against a grotesque witch, is a lot more lighthearted than the main feature but also provides some effective horror visuals. The witch manages to separate her torso from her legs, which develop a mouth and bites the head off of the gypsy that Billy took captive last issue. The torso floats around and flies off with Billy’s young sidekick, whom the witch thinks will make an ideal playmate for her son, whom we see in the final page of the book as a monstrous amalgam of a baby, Jabba the Hutt, and the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland. Kyle Hotz’s art continues to impress here, as he balances the goofy and grotesque aspects of the story very well.

As stated before, this miniseries doesn’t quite take the place of Powell’s regular Goon series, which has been conspicuously absent for a while, but it’s still a damn good comic from a talented creator. Hopefully we’ll see more Goon in the near future, especially with a movie on the way, but until then, Buzzard continues to be an entertaining diversion. 4.5 out of 5 Holes in the Head.