Hunter Black - The Best Noir Fantasy Samurai Jack-Looking Comic On The Webs

[motorfirebox]

You should be reading Hunter Black because it is completely awesome. It's a cool mix between fantasy and pulp noir, with stylized art that looks like it came straight out of Samurai Jack.

 

 

The concept starts out simple, but it doesn't stay that way. Hunter Black starts the story out as a betrayed, left for dead assassin who wants revenge. He gets his shot in the form of a cursed sword, the Revenger. Problem 1: the sword is really, really cursed; he has to wet it frequently with betrayers' blood or waste away and die. Problem 2: Hunter Black, formerly one of the world's most feared assassins, doesn't know how to use a sword. He's a globally-renowned sniper. 

 

From there he gets involved in samurai politics, the machinations of wizards, the daughter of his dead best friend... dead because Hunter killed him, yet still around because the Revenger gets a little pissy when it's used to kill someone who isn't guilty of betrayal. What really makes the story good is that Hunter himself is not a nice guy, and he doesn't always make the best decisions. He's a classic noir protagonist—deeply flawed, extremely dangerous, and viewed as a pawn by every other player in the game (of which there are many).

 

The art is straight up fantastic. Greyscale, mostly, except that blood is rendered in red and magic is rendered in gold. Honestly, I can't do it justice with words, so I'll just put up another page from the comic:

 

 

They've got a Kickstarter going to get the first book printed. I freely admit that's the main reason I'm shilling this comic here; I want my print version and I'm hoping I can get other people addicted so they'll help it get printed. (To be clear, I'm not involved in the comic in any way; my only connection is that one time the author sent me a free poster because I posted a funny edit of one of the comics.)

 

The comic updates MWF. Out of 523 pages, not a single one has been late. Not a single hiatus or guest comic filler. Anyway, one last piece to close it out: