Shpadoinkle! It's Mr. Chair's Comic Book Pick of the Week!

And not even that late in the week! Too much superhero stuff lately, so I'm going with...

Indie Western Retro Books: When Jack Batlin lent me a mini-series years ago written by Joe R. Lansdale, about Tonto and the Lone Ranger fighting a man-eating mummy, it became very obvious to me that horror/western comics were a genre way undertapped. So after being a little disappointed with the first one, I'm finally sold on "Western Tales of Terror," after issue #2. The frame is a mockup of the old Creepshow and Tales from the Crypt comics, where a spooky narrator tells a handful of gory short stories in one issue. There's even one story in #2 that's told in 2nd person, "You're just a boy living in a small town with your father ..." So cool and dead-on the classic horror comic style. That and a couple of good running serials are making the whole package a blast.

Also out this week was "Desperadoes: Banners of Gold," from IDW. Nice to see an IDW title not written by Steve Niles. This is also a pretty cool western with supernatural themes. John Cassady does the cover too. New in a series of Desperadoes books, it's about the same band of outlaws, this time escorting a sexy psychic and her entourage across Arizona to New Mexico.

Also a good one: David Lapham's second Batman Detective Comics (#802) came out. The story is getting complicated and extremely dark. Something about a blackmarket baby ring with Gotham's villians somehow complicit. Other highlights include a half-dozen dead pregnant girls, and a scene with Batman sitting down for a cup of tea with a stranger. Would be cool if Lapham drew it, but he does the layout and a great cover.