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Sometimes you just decide to give a comic a go, and that’s what happened here, as Redemption (from AWA Studios) wasn’t recommended by anyone, nor am I a fan of writer Christa Faust or a particular follower of artist Mike Deodato Jr. I like sci fi westerns, though, so that was enough to dip a toe in.

If you haven’t heard of Christa Faust yourself I’m not at all surprised. She’s best known for a handful of fun looking pulp crime novels, and way too many film adaptation novels and tie ins (Snakes On A Plane – the book anyone? No? yeah… me, too). This is actually only her third comic, so it’s essentialy a new venture as the previous two issues she wrote were in 2017 and of little note.

So, to Redemption. It’s set in the titular town, after some apolcalypse or other, and this town is ruled by the obligatory corrupt sheriff and controlling preacher, wonderfully evil characters from the off. The troublemaking female doctor is beaten and imprisoned for helping a very young girl abort her baby after being raped (did I say this wasn’t a kids comic? Well, it ain’t), because God says so, right? Her daughter, Rose, escapes the compound to try and find legendary murder specialist Cat Tanner, AKA The Butcher, hoping she will help free her mother and no doubt sort the bad guys out in general.

Okay, so this isn’t horribly original, just a typical western type story futured up, but that’s ALL THAT WE NEED from something like this. I have to say it’s written very well, and once you get into it (takes a few pages) you’ll devour it. Mike Deodato Jr is a safe pair of hands on art duties, and he turns in some really good work here as usual, but kudos must go to Faust for creating an immediately believable world and pacing this first issue perfectly. I’ll definitely be following this five issue series to it’s conclusion, and so should you (just don’t let the kids read it).