#IReadsYou Review: SAVAGE DIRT AXES

SAVAGE DIRT AXES

CANDLE LIGHT PRESS

STORY: Will Beard

ART: Will Beard

LETTERS/PRODUCTION: John Ira Thomas

MISC. ART: Carter Allen; Will Grant

ISBN: 978-0-9743147-0-9; paperback (2025)

60pp, B&W, $10.00 U.S.

Savage Dirt Axes is a 2025 original graphic novel from writer-artist Will Beard.  Published as a paperback original with black and white interior art by Candle Light Press, Savage Dirt Axes is set in the 19th century Old West and focuses a ragtag band of friends fighting a monster invasion.  John Ira Thomas joins Will Beard as the story's letter.

Savage Dirt Axes opens with two cowboys – the stoic and stern, Rhett, and the somewhat cowardly young fella, Billy – ready to close out their day.  They head on over to visit some roughneck pals, Ottis and Rex.  Billy also hopes to meat his girlfriend, Josie, the daughter of Rex.

However, it turns out that Rex is missing, and the search for him takes the group right into a confrontation with a herd of monstrous, demonic, and gigantic creatures, which one of them call “dirt axes.”  Can the cowboys, ornery old dudes, and one gal stop a monster invasion or will they end up being meat for the beast – just like the cattle?

THE LOWDOWN:  Will Beard is a budding master of the weird Western comic book.  In collaboration with writer John Ira Thomas, he drew the hardcover original graphic novel, Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates.  Also, Savage Dirt Axes reminds me of the 1999 weird Western original graphic novel, Red Range: A Wild Western Adventure, from writer Joe R. Lansdale and artist Sam Glanzman.

In Savage Dirt Axes, Beard has fashioned a weird Western comic book that is first and foremost set firmly in the Western fiction genre.  Secondly, the monsters are genuinely scary and practically impossible to defeat, yet they don't feel out of place in or contrived for this story.  I had a blast riding along with our heroes as they fight to save their lives.

I also like that Beard embraces the weird fiction roots of comic books and goes wild, weird, and wonderful on this story that doesn't try to make scientific sense.  Savage Dirt Axes is pure comic book fun; it is a pure monster comic.  Dear readers, you can enjoy the fun by finding the Candle Light Press table at any conventions they attend.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of the weird western will want to try Savage Dirt Axes.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

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#IReadsYou Review: FRAGMENTA 7: Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates

FRAGMENTA 7: DAN CALLAHAN AND THE SAND PIRATES

CANDLE LIGHT PRESS

STORY: John Ira Thomas

ART: Will Beard

COVER: Val Mayerik with Will Grant

Color, $15.00 US, 68pp, hardcover (2015)

Fragmenta 7: Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates is the seventh entry in Candle Light Press' Fragmenta publications.  This is a series of paperback and hardcover books, picture books, and pamphlets.  Each edition collects essays, scripts, art, and/or comics produced by the writers and artists of Candle Light Press.  Some of this material concerns early or uncompleted projects, while other material represents developmental words and pictures for completed projects.

Apparently, back in the old days, several of the creators who would eventually form Candle Light Press produced an anthology comic book entitled, ED.  One of the projects that would be serialized in ED was a weird western adventure entitled, Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates.  Written by John Ira Thomas and drawn by Will Beard, this comic was never finished.  Everything that exists of Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates is three finished chapters, one chapter in pencil form, and a script for a fifth (and evidently, final) chapter.

Fragmenta 7: Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates is a hardcover book that collects the five chapters of the Dan Callahan serial.  This book also includes a nine-page history written by John Ira Thomas that details both ill-fated projects – the Dan Callahan comic and the ED anthology.

THE LOWDOWN:  So, dear reader, you probably want to know something about the actual Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates comic.  It is set sometime in the latter half of the 19th century.  The title character, Dan Callahan, is a 20-something young man who is studying engineering at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO.  He is also eagerly awaiting his wife-to-be, Miss Dolores O'Riordan, whom he has never met in person, having only seen a picture of her.

Dolores is presumed dead or, at least, missing after the train by which she was traveling is attacked (obviously, as far as white people are concerned) by those reliable savages, Indians!  Determined to find her, Dan heads towards Arizona on a misadventure that nearly costs him his life.  A half-Chinese, half-Apache woman who calls herself “The Painted Lady” rescues Dan.  Although she thinks that he is stupid and crazy, she decides to help Dan find his betrothed, who happens to be prisoner,  She is held captive by a band of pirates wreaking havoc aboard a ship that sails through sand as if it were water.

Although Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates is an early and primitive work by the exceptionally talented John Ira Thomas and the imaginative Will Beard, it is entertaining... at least to me.  I don't think that Dan Callahan should be an abandoned project.  When one considers all the weird Westerns that American comics creators have given their readers, a spiffed-up Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates could be a standout comic book.

So Fragmenta 7: Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates is probably the best Fragmenta so far, because of the potential of its contents.  Also, this book has a Val Mayerik cover that is hard to resist.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of earlier Fragmenta and also fans of Western comic books will want Fragmenta 7: Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates.

B+

★★★½ out of 4 stars

Fragment 7: Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates is available for sale at various shows and conventions in which Candle Light Press appears.

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The text is copyright © 2025 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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