WESTERN SUN RISING is the story of Kenzo Takeshi, a former samurai who travels through the American West of the late 1800s, pitting his sword against six-shooters and repeating rifles to exact vengeance from the men who murdered his brother. The saurai’s mission to resotre his family’s honor is derailed when he finds himself in the sights of a hired gunslinger who is both a formidable opponent, and a curiously sympathetic kindred spirit.
We mythologize these the samurai and the gunfighter as dangerous, but honorable men who brought order to lawless times. Although the samurai enjoyed his heyday decades before gunslingers roamed the West, these disparate historical figures are cut from the same archetypal cloth. Sergio Leone understood this when he adapted Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo into the “spaghetti Western,” A Fistful of Dollars. WESTERN SUN RISING continues in this tradition by weaving an iconic, enduring figure of Eastern culture into therich, mythic tapestry of Western folklore.
I hope you enjoy this interlude between adventures of WORLD OF HURT. I concocted WESTERN SUN RISING as a pitch for a comic book a couple years before I dreamed up Pastor. The style is cleaner and more open, as I was really into the work of Stuart Immonen at the time. Nonetheless, I think this introduction works as a nice short story with a sort of drive-in, grindhouse aesthetic which complements WORLD OF HURT pretty well. I see a lot of things I would have done differently, but I also see a lot that still works.
- JEP
Samurai and six-shooters! Yes! If I didn’t tell you before, The Thrill Seekers was great. I await Pastor’s next case. Meanwhile you give us this!
I like how expansive the surroundings of the town look in the first panel. Those hills could be miles away (plenty of room for graves). Do I see a full-page layout to reveal Takeshi?
Love seeing the different style from you — brings home that WOH isn’t “how he draws” but “how he draws *this*).
I’d already rather see this movie than what they did with “Jonah Hex.” Of course, I’d rather see “Bambi” than what they did with “Jonah Hex.”
Man… You did blaxploitation, western and chambara in comics form. You’re one of my heroes
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Looking good, as for the Leone/ Kurosawa thing, y’know Kurosawa himself was influenced by the westerns of John Ford, so Leone kinda brought the thing full circle…
Niiiice opening, now all that’s missing is a lil Morricone riff to come in just after the body hits and that first line of dialogue.
What a great beginning for the bloody horse opera to come….
Dont know if you know this or not, but besides Red Sun, there was another actual Samurai in the Old West film that was made in the mid 90’s called East Meets West.
It starred Henry Sanada of Twilight Samurai and Last Samurai fame, and the immortal Tatsuya Nakadai, star of the classic Sword of Doom among many other things. Had a very similar storyline to Red Sun, but it also threw in Ninjas somewhere in the mix. VERY hard to find this lil gem–but definitely worth giving a look see.
Aw, sweet!
Kurosawa — Cooper. Two coffins… No, maybe three.
Leone — Get three coffins ready. My mistake. Four coffins…
Oh, it’s on!
This would be great on an Iphone or Ipad