Way back before we were born, in the 1920s, “barnstormers” flew their little airplanes from town to town. Self-employed daredevil pilots took the locals for short rides in the air, giving them thrills that were otherwise out of reach to the average rural resident.
In Barnstormers #1 from Dark Horse, pilot John Baron is having a tough go of it in North Carolina; sales are down, and his spirits are in the dump. Writer Scott Snyder gets us into the downdraft quickly in this first issue, telling and showing us the stressful underside to the barnstorming craze. Baron flits from (fictional) town to town, barely making enough to pay for his petrol. But Barnville looks promising…
Artist Tula Lotay illustrates Barnstormers with a confident flair of bluster and gusto, giving us a pastiche of Hollywood-casting faces and postures. Lotay renders wonderfully accurate early 20th-century roadsters, storefronts, hairstyles, and clothing. The towns are bathed in colourist Dee Cunniffe’s sepia, the misty lens of nostalgia portraying ‘everytown America’ straight out of movie matinees and Saturday Evening Post. It’s beautifully lit, fuzzy, and rose-coloured. Lettering is by Richard Starkings.
But not all is what it seems, with Baron getting himself involved in local politics and romance, all the while looking over his shoulder as his past threatens to catch up to him. And Barnstormers keeps up the suspense and interpersonal drama throughout, giving us our dime’s worth in movie poster images put into rapid sequence, with plenty of reasons to keep us coming back for the next show.
NOTE: Having said this, Barnstormers #1 sure ain’t no kiddie matinee, folks. This is one of the foulest, f-bomb-filled books I have read in a long time, so beware. The characters tend to swear incessantly. In my opinion, this is unnecessary, and far too gratuitous, for ‘f-sakes’.
Dark Horse, Barnstormers #1, $4.99 for 59 pages of content.
Newsdesk