Dead Irons #1 by James Kohuric and Jason Alexander, Dynamite Entertainment, $3.50.

As a seasoned comics reader (I cake Adobo All-Purpose Seasoning into my nooks and crannies to avoid chafing) I have come to enjoy more challenging material. I appreciate it when the work encourages thought on my part, eschewing spoon-feeding or over-simplified story-telling. This is only a success, though, when the creators’ intent is to create mystery. It’s not so so great when I can’t tell the characters apart or I have to go back and reread prior pages because of weak scene transitions.  The jury’s still out on which kind of book DEAD IRONS will be, mystifying for good or bad reasons. It’s the kind of genre mash-up toward which I veer, but it’s frankly a bit of a mess. In the debut issue just released, I THINK we are introduced to protagonist Silas, a man on the run in the Old West who isn’t quite a man anymore – dude’s a zombie! Some of the bounty hunters might be monsters, too, but I couldn’t tell if those monsters were chasing the lead guy or if that was a cutaway scene. As beautiful as Jason Alexander’s pages are, his panel-to-panel storytelling lacks clarity. Unfortunately James Kohuric’s sparse dialogue does little to aid. But the team knocks the somber atmosphere of creeping dread out of the park, which will keep me interested for a few more issues. I’m hoping things gel together a bit more as we go deeper. Can I give you a “let’s wait and see” on this one? Too soon to recommend, too pretty to ignore.