The Gold Eater and Dance of the Vultures (The Undertaker #1)

Meyer and Dorison’s gritty Old West action series, long-running in France, gets its English-language debut in a story chock-full of rugged desert vistas, whiskery ne’er-do-wells, shotgun showdowns, and desperate horseback escapades. As the title suggests, its antihero has literally made death his business. This first volume peaks early in a mostly silent page, in which undertaker and gritty survivor Jonas Crow plies his trade with practiced solemnity in tight, detailed, gas-lit panels. That welcome attention to the weight of mortality grounds an increasingly wild story of mine owner Cusco’s efforts to horde his riches after his demise, by burying the gold along with his body. Charged with hauling the corpse of “old fat-cat” Cusco across the desert, Crow and a pair of hard-edged women, including Rose, who worked for the tycoon, are relentlessly pursued by aggrieved miners who want a crack at Cusco’s fortune. The bristling and uncertain connection between Crow and Rose, with revelations about their past and intimations for their future, are the storytelling highlight. Other sections indulge in repetitive scenes of nearly identical shoot-outs. Still, the moody western realism should charm fans nostalgic for films like The Good the Bad and the Ugly. (Mar.)