Indie Spotlight: The 3 Deaths Of Willis Waterhouse

Rob reviews The 3 Deaths Of Willis Waterhouse...

The 3 Deaths Of Willis Waterhouse is the debut title of the bi monthly series called '13 Shots of Whisky'. Created by Markus Pattern, The 3 Deaths Of Willis Waterhouse is a 22-page Western themed comic that will certainly appeal to fans of 'The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly' and many other classic Western films.

The creation to this Western tale stemmed from Markus having time on his hands due to a failed Kickstarter project. Deciding to channel his salty energy and free time into some new. Whilst originally wanting the challenge of creating something new in under 7 weeks, '13 Shots of Whisky' and 'The 3 Deaths Of Willis Waterhouse' are the result of this. Even though Markus admits that they took a little longer, it's still a pretty impressive achievement! 

So whats it all about? 

This opening tale tells the story of Willis Waterhouse, a no-nonsense cowboy who's trying to live his life in 1850's California. Having just been shot - and bleeding to death on his horse, Willis then takes us through plenty of scenes that recount this aging Cowboy's life. We see everything that Willis believes himself to be - a good honest person with great friends and a good wife by his side. However things aren't as they seem. 

In between Willis' tale we're also shown events via the perspective of Willis' wife Sarah, and his best friend Teneca. This then lifts the vail to show that actually, Willis Waterhouse is a bit of a scumbag. Teneca recounts an earlier bar fight to Sarah which is vastly different to Willis' version of events. He's cheated his friends at Poker, then once thrown out of the bar he returns to shoot one through the eye, and the other straight through the throat. As such Willis is now missing, bleeding to death, with more than a few people out for his blood. But who fired that fateful shot? And who exactly is Willis Waterhouse? 

With The 3 Deaths Of Willis Waterhouse, Markus Pattern creates a decent reading Western tale. The premise boils down to how Waterhouse isn't the person he portrays himself to be - even if he does think that he's a good and honest man. Pattern does a good job in making us believe Waterhouse' lie to then flip the table to show us that he definitely deserved getting shot. It's an interesting idea that calls back to plenty of Spaghetti Western films of the past. 

Considering this is essentially a full story in 22-pages, the pacing is fairly quick. Where as some scenes seem to be glossed over, Pattern does revisit them as he recounts the story via their different perspectives. Personally I would of liked to have seen the scenes between Sarah and Teneca explained a bit more as the revelation here seems to come and then quickly vanish with no other explanation. 

The art work throughout this issue has also been produced by Pattern. Whilst it's black & white style is serviceable, it's quite hard to differentiate what we're meant to be focusing on. Quite often the background and foreground mold into one continuous image, which makes focusing on the action pretty difficult. The scene where Willis gets dragged away from his horse is a good example as uopm first glance it looks as if he's melted into the floor. It's not until you turn the page that it's shown he's actually hog tied and being dragged along. 

However even with this minor issue, Pattern does produce some strong line work that goes into detail when needs be. The flashback to the younger Willis is a superb one shot. Here, Pattern makes great use of the black & white style to show the characters black eye and bloody nose, with plenty of bold line work too.

All in all, The 3 Deaths Of Willis Waterhouse is a great opening to the Thirteen Shots of Whisky anthology. While it's not without its weaker areas, Markus Pattern has a springboard to improve upon. The story it's self is an enjoyable journey that's certainly leaves its future open ended. While Willis Waterhouse's future is certain, what about his past? 

The 3 Deaths Of Willis Waterhouse is available to buy now and can be purchased via the creators Etsy and Gumroad stores. 

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Rob Lake - For more comic book and video game chat why not follow Geek Culture Reviews on Twitter and Facebook @GeekCultureRev