Wyatt Earp: Hollywoodland is a horror graphic novel that uses real life characters within its story. There was an interesting forward to this that talks about how Hollywood has glamorised people in movies that were really not good people in real life. An example used is of all the cowboys that have appeared in Westerns who were based on real people, like Butch Cassidy, Billy the Kid, and Wyatt Earp. This graphic novel may well be fantastical, but it also makes an attempt to explain that these legendary people really were not as great as the legends of Hollywood would have you believe.
This takes place in America during the prohibition years, after three Hollywood stars end up dead in mysterious circumstances, a film bigwig decides to hire Wyatt Earp to investigate. While the man is now eighty years old, it is hoped that this icon's involvement will calm down investors. To assist him he is provided with an actuary named Eddie. At first Wyatt has no interest, but after an attempt on his life by a zombie assailant, he decides he needs to get to the bottom of what is happening. He discovers that many iconic historical people from the days of the Wild West have somehow been brought back to life as intelligent undead, and slowly but surely he shoots his way up the chain of command, hoping to find and stop the mastermind behind it all.
I like fiction that melds truth within the story, and that is what happens here. Learning afterwards that in real life that Earp died at the age of eighty, it was interesting to follow him around on what to be his final year alive. Of course the walking dead aren't real, but there insertion here perversely results in sowing the seeds of Hollywood's obsession with Westerns. While a detective investigation at its heart, mainly this story (written by Brian W. Donnelly) revolves around Earp as he follows a series of simple clues and gets in battles with lots of notable Wild West zombies. There wasn't much variation with this serving as a series of one on one gun fights, with the eventual revelation of who is behind it perfectly fine, if not that exciting. This may be because I'm not clued in to historical figures of the Wild West, heck, I didn't even realise Wyatt Earp himself was a real person before reading this!
This features pen, inks and art by J.C Grande and makes much uses of light and shadow, with characters constantly half in the shade. It leads to some expressive and moody artwork, but on occasion I did struggle to make out what was happening, especially during the more action packed scenes. There is a lot packed into this 94 page graphic novel, essentially commenting on what the forward was talking about. This goes for quality over quantity, and these undead may have a taste for flesh but are restrained in their needs, still leading to some fun scenes of violence. Wyatt Earp: Hollywoodland currently has a successful Kickstarter going, which can be found here.
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