An Old West where Myth, Monsters and Magic are all real.

Christian Read and Michael Maier ride off into a blood-red sunset with their new supernatural western, The Eltritch Kid:Whisky and Hate, solicited in the June edition of Diamond Comics’ Previews catalogue.

Ten Shoes Dancing is a shaman of the Lakota people. He also happens to be an Oxford scholar. There’s not much work for literature experts in the Old West, so Ten Shoes finds himself working as a hired gun, an escort for a group of pilgrims and settlers heading West.

Out there he finds a man he scarcely believed to be real, the dime novel hero, the Eldritch Kid. With an impossible reputation as a hero and champion, the Eldritch Kid was known for seeking out the dark forces that plagued those newly United States. But is the Kid all he seems? With bad times coming for the wagon train, the price Ten Shoes will pay for the Kid’s help might be too damn high.

“The book came out of my enduring interest in the history of America and specifically, that expansion after the Civil War. But really, I just wanted to tell a story about cowboys. I kept dreaming, actually, of an uncanny man, whose eyes were hidden behind smoked glass with two evil Colt Peacemakers and I knew it wasn’t a straight historical”, says writer Christian Read.

“Michael Maier’s work is so richly textured you can taste it in your mouth. An eerie colour palette and such strange personalities. He’s turned out to be the perfect partner for this project and we’re both looking forward to this morbid cowboy romance.”

The Eldritch Kid: Whisky & Hate is a 112 page Original Graphic Novel, scheduled for publication 11th August 2011.

Details at a Glance
shelfdate: 11th August 2011
retail price: $11.95
diamond order code: JUN11 1132
website: www.eldritchkid.com