Prepare your jacket and weapons, we go on a campaign in pursuit of demons with Hillbilly, Eric Powell's new comic published by Delcourt.
A wanderer with a powerful chopper
A hillbilly is a wanderer who wanders from town to town in search of a job or a roof over his head. Here we follow Rondel, a blind tramp who seems very good at using a chopper given by the devil. Indeed, this vagabond turns out to be a fearsome demon and witch hunter.
The story is told and illustrated by Eric Powell who was previously the author of the Goon series, a little-known masterpiece of comics. Powell is a specialist in parody horror stories as with Big Man Plans. He never mocks but really loves the genre while can't help but include black humor. However, the tone is slightly different here. The humor is less present and the atmosphere is darker. Publishing independently, Powell allows himself to go much further.
Rural tales
Fans of crypt tales or horror movies will be delighted by this series. Each volume contains five chapters in the series. Even if there is a common thread, each chapter contains a complete story about Rondel's past or his interventions to fight demons. Each chapter ends with a short story with a guest cartoonist. Powell sometimes uses folktales as inspiration. All the action takes place in the forests or American villages in the nineteenth century. We will meet here a bear who wants to take revenge on men, a gigantic wolf in 3D, witches …
Heroes are never pure in Powell but each has a dark side. Rondel can be a liar to get what he wants. More generally, apart from a few children, there are few innocent people. All these characters have distorted faces in the image of their dark soul.
A splendid drawing
The faces and scenery may initially look like cartoons but we are very far from Walt Disney. His drawing mixes tag and horror stories like Creepie. Powell manages to have a very identifiable style – brown and green dominate, square faces, the background is often plain and the inking quite thick – but he is also a real experimenter who modifies his drawing a lot according to his purpose. In this volume, there are 3D parts to represent a delirious passage, sketches for memories, a ghost in luminescent blue.
Delcourt continues the edition of this very beautiful series and includes different sketches with Powell's comments on his work.
If you are a fan of horror films or more generally of a quality and original comic, Hillbilly is for you. You will shudder at some stories sometimes smile but especially attach yourself to this vagabond. All of Powell's other indispensable series are published by Delcourt.
