A Thousand Miles

Blazin’ Barrels

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Blazin Barrels is an action-comedy manhwa by Min-Seo Park. Also known as “Western Shotgun”, it was published in the west by Tokyopop between June 2005 and April 2008 before they closed down, having published 10 of the series’ 18 volume run.

Cover Appeal

Color Pallete – The manhwaga uses a deliberately limited color palette consisting of orange, yellow, tan and black with some purple for accents. The whole thing creates this “sandy, sunset in the desert” effect that telegraphs its setting well.

Action Shots – The cover is full of action shots of our titular protagonist, Sting, jumping over things, riding an ATV and whipping his gun around. If anything, we’re given the impression that Sting is a capable fighter and adventurer

The Gist

The cover makes the conceit of the story out to be pretty simple – a comedic adventure about a naive newcomer and all their hijinks in the wild west. And what you see is pretty much what you get.

Sting is an unassuming fresh face in town who fancies himself something of a bounty hunter. Problem is, he kinda comes across as a bumbling idiot. He falls asleep at the wheel, gets lost and lets his guard down at the worst of times. However, there resides a genuinely competent fighter under that rough exterior. So, having no money to his name and failing to ingratiate himself to the few locals he’s met, Sting sets his sights on the high bounty on the Gold Romany Gang’s heads. Will he be able to reel this gang in?

The Cast

HOO BOY, here we go….

Sting – Main character. Competent fighter, good shot with his shotgun and …… not much else. Doesn’t have a penny to his name and is currently chasing the Gold Romany Gang.

Chuck Black – Famous bounty hunter. He starts the story pinned down by four criminals, one of which he’s looking to turn in for a bounty. Sting wanders into the conflict and is captured, but ultimately helps him subdue and apprehended the criminals. Not that he’s all that thankful – he rebuffs Sting’s demands for 10% of the bounty and just kinda wants nothing to do with him.

Maria Lopez – Federal Marshal that comes to town to protect a shipment of gold they suspect Gold Romany will try to steal. Her reaction to Sting is similar to everyone else’s – chagrin over his absent mindedness and awe at his unexpected skill. They don’t start their relationship on the best foot either, with him mistaking her for Chuck Black’s girlfriend and all….

Leanne McDuff – Also known as “Fast Sword” McDuff, she carries a civil war era rapier she puts to handy use in apprehending her bounties. In an introduction that rivals Stings, we meet Leanne passed out and run over by our protagonist out in the desert. He gives her water, she points him in the right direction to the town of Ganverg.

Romy, Crembel, Tammy and Amita – a group of friends that Sting meets after being ceremoniously dumped by Chuck Black. Romy gets robbed by a couple of guys for her groceries. Sting dispatches the two, retrieves the goods, then invites himself back to her place. He gets a shiner for his troubles, but also dinner and some conversation. They, much like everyone else, don’t believe he’s cut out to be a bounty hunter. Funny, considering they are……

Otherwise known as……

Gold Romany – The infamous gang of outlaws known for their heists. They presently have a 70,000,000 gold bounty on their heads. Understandable, considering the fact that they are willing to attempt to steal a whole shipment of gold protected by federal marshals.

The Rub

Like stated earlier, this is an action comedy and tonally, it reads like a marginally more violent saturday morning cartoon.

A lot of that, I’d posit, has to do with Sting. Everyone has to play straight man to his goofiness. However, they also have to be surprised by his competence in fighting. In practice, this looks like Sting being skilled enough to put up an entertaining fight or thwart the bad guys but then being too unfocused to be able to follow through on the advantage him and his comrade now have.

Fair enough, but when you compare him to the other characters like Chuck Black or Maria Lopez, it becomes readily apparent that he’s practically the only reason this is an action comedy instead of a cheeky action romp like Gunsmith Cats. Sting is a comedic character dropped into the mix with other, more serious characters. He’s essentially a plot device – a low key chaotic neutral acting as a spanner in the works for and against everyone. That’s not to say that Sting is a bad character, per se – just that no one else exhibits the extremes that he does.

That aside, I really do like the artstyle and what it brings us. It’s a highly stylized cartoony look. You could slap some shades on the first bounty and he wouldn’t look out of place in a late 80’s, early 90’s Capcom game such as Forgotten Worlds or Captain Commando. If there’s one thing that’s off though, it’s that the “futuristic” part of the setting is an informed attribute as the most futuristic part of the setting are….reliable 20th century guns and cars. No FTL travel or magic like Outlaw Star. Chuck Black does call Amita a “smoke caster”, but smoke bombs aren’t any more advanced than the guns and automobiles (even if the smoke comes out of an ATV) Maybe I’m just being pedantic here, but those anachronism don’t scream “futuristic” as much as “western flavored alternate universe”

The Verdict

I’m at a lost here, folks. I would read a story with everyone other than Sting in it because they seem like they have their shit together and take their jobs seriously enough to support one. However, despite how together they may seem to have it, none of them have given us anywhere as interesting a fight as Romy and Sting did. While I’m entirely willing to engage with a work on account of its aesthetics alone, Blazin Barrels’ artstyle, while nice, doesn’t offer anything that makes me want to keep reading. Gold Romany and Maria Lopez ARE cute, but that alone isn’t enough to make me stick around. What I’m saying is that everything about Blazin Barrels just comes across as “alright”. And, truthfully, I don’t know what to say to that, other than “I don’t know”

Continue?: *shrugs*