Rock Candy Mountain: The Collected Edition

Jackson is a hobo on a mission.  He’s looking to find the titular place, long thought to be the mythical subject of a song, and be reunited with his family.  There are just a few things standing in his way.  Like the Hobo Mafia.  Getting his hands on a mythical spear – that the FBI also wants – he threw into a building’s foundation a while back.  And not get killed by The Devil Himself along the way.  Because Jackson made a deal with Ol’ Scratch and now he’s come to collect.  Fortunately our hobo protagonist has got some very specific fighting prowess to back him up, along with his good friends Pomona Slim, Hundred Cat, and Big Sis to bring the pain and/or crippling anxiety.

“Rock Candy Mountain” was originally published as eight issues and collected into two volumes that went right under my radar when they came out.  That’s because back then its creator, Kyle Starks, was a complete unknown to me and I felt safe in letting them pass me by.  Fast-forward to today and picking up this one-volume collection was practically a no-brainer on my part as a result of all the good comics I’ve read from him in recent years.  Of course, this is one of his earlier works, so does that mean I’m getting something where he’s still finding his feet, or has he always been a good storyteller?

The latter is true here, thankfully.  These eight issues are a very entertaining blend of comedy, drama, fantasy, and silliness that shouldn’t work as well as it does.  Yet there’s something special about a series that has the Devil tearing people apart on its opening pages, and still has his presence come off as fun rather than objectively terrifying.  Starks also finds a way to make nearly all of the cast generally likeable, to the point where you wish that there was more of this story to go around so you could see what they get up to next.  It’s disappointing that there isn’t, yet what’s here is still a complete and satisfying story to behold.