Man with No Name Volume 1: Sinners and Saints

Man with No Name (collected editions) #1

by Christos Gage, Wellington Dias (Illustrator)

From its iconic imagery, stars, and score, MGM's Man with no Name trilogy is a modern masterpiece of cinema! And now, the legend comes to life once again as the next new series from Dynamite! Starring the ultimate anti-hero, and under the helm of writer Christos (New Avengers) Gage and artist Wellington Dias, Man with no Name: The Good, The Bad, and The Uglier follows in the powerful wake of such Dynamite titles as The Lone Ranger and Zorro in its faithful and successful genre-defining Western comics!

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Comic Book

168 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2009

About the author

Chris N. Gage is a writer for comic books and television.

Reviews

[47Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

The American Civil War is not so cut and dried as the history classes in school might say. Men on both sides get sick, suffer hunger and all manner of hardships. Add to that the potential of getting killed and you got yourself a deserter, no matter how righteus the cause of his faction. The main action is an easy to read typical Western with an anti-hero lone wanderer who is ultimately good at heart.

The man with no name is wanted. The Union wants him for blowing up a bridge vital for resupplying the troops. The Confederacy wants him for the hundred thousand in gold he stole from them. Noname is on the run, but he has enough of a heart to help some men of faith in trouble. They healed him in the past, so he feels he owes them.

Noname arrives at the besieged church where it is believed that a treasure is buried. The attackers are soldiers from both the Union and the Confederacy, hoping for a payday. He offers to join them, but instead blows up a cache of their explosives and steals medical supplies for the defenders. They too are made up of Union and Confederate men who, like Noname, were healed by the priests.

Noname tries to help the priests by stealing some more supplies from a defended train, but he and the priest helping him get captured. Their captor agrees to let the priest go if Noname reveals where he hid the treasure. In reality, he plans on killing both of them after they separate. The duo are both capable killers. Even the priest, because of his dark past that he wanted to leave behind.

With a Gatling gun in the defenders' hands, the besieging force decides to attack to take advantage of their still superior numbers. Noname joins the fray and helps win the day.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Likable. But. There are flaws in continuity. And perspective. Sometimes physics... Maybe you enjoy the Clint Eastwood westerns and maybe this will scratch your comic book western itch. I'm just not sure I want to go through the trouble to read the next books.

I've read a lot worse:
—Wicked West I & II


And I've read a lot better:
—Sixth Gun
—Ballad of Sleeping Beauty
—American Vampire

[Steve Howells · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good story and nice art work, like this character.

[Sam Nicholson · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10

[Robert Garrett · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book features the character portrayed by Clint Eastwood in director Sergio Leone’s famed spaghetti Western trilogy. It picks up where THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY left off – with the Man wanted by both the Confederacy and the Union (The former wants him for the gold that he took, and the latter wants him for blowing up that bridge.). He returns to the Mission where Tuco’s brother lives as a priest and finds it besieged by Civil War deserters who mistakenly believe that a lavish treasure awaits them inside. You can probably roughly guess what happens next, and I will spoil no further.

The story is greatly decompressed, and for the book’s first half, not much happens. There’s some nice shiny art on nice, shiny pages, but even there, I have a minor complaint. Those shiny pages tended to stick together, causing me to sometimes miss two pages at a time. Sometimes, I didn’t realize this for a while, since – as noted – the story didn’t move much. Page numbers would have helped, but since that shiny art bleeds all over those shiny pages, there was no room for them. This probably makes me sound like a grumpy old man, and I’m guilty as charged there, I guess, but…ah, well.

The good news is that the story DOES pick up, and I mostly enjoyed the second half. The Man With No Name, who was an anti-hero in the movies, is more heroic here, but writer Christos Gage still manages to convey some of that hard, cynical tone. I was skeptical about his inclusion of Tuco’s brother (from THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY), but Gage gave the character some more depth, making him interesting in a way that fits with that aforementioned tone. Naturally, there’s also plenty of spaghetti-Western style violence.

The back cover copy tells us that “THE MAN WITH NO NAME follows in the powerful wake of such Dynamite titles as The Lone Ranger and Zorro in its faithful and successful genre-defining Western comics!” Unlike the Lone Ranger and Zorro, the Man With No Name is associated with only one actor and only one medium. For some reason, however, there’s no attempt to evoke Eastwood’s likeness in the art. That makes it a little more difficult to see this as the character from the films, although the trademark poncho is very much on display.

Overall, I’d say that this was enjoyable enough, but not worth the $19.99 (U.S.) cover price. I won’t seek out the next volume, but if I happen across it at a cheaper price (at least half off, I'd say), then maybe I’ll bite.

[Terry Collins · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a colossal disappointment this was ... mediocre artwork and a story that amounted to little more than a sketch. No sense of style in a project that screamed for clever layouts and pacing. Also, I understand Eastwood's likeness apparently wasn't on the table, but a skilled artist could still have evoked the flavor of the films (not that the script was of any help whatsoever). I mean, how can you take the movies of Sergio Leone and produce something this DULL? Instantly forgettable. Even the color was murky. Awful, awful, awful and NOT recommended.

[Bill Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick and fun little read. The script by Christos Gage had our hero, El Hombre Sin Nombre, going back and forth from gunfight to gunfight. Artist Wellington Diaz drew the holy men, the bags of gold, the military deserters, the charging horses and the sweeping vistas that make any good western. The plot was a little predictable and it could have used another surprise or two.