The Specialists

At a glance, Erin Mehlos’ Next Town Over is a western, but on closer inspection it’s much more than that. There’s a little steampunk, a little of the supernatural… Let’s just put it this way, it’s a comic in which a seemingly undead woman rides her steam-powered cyberhorse as she hunts down a pyrokinetic gambler. In short, it’s awesome.

The genre-mashing story is great, with lots of action and and interesting characters. It’s a classic story of revenge, with the back story teased out through cryptic flashbacks. There’s clearly some unresolved business between the two main characters, but we haven’t yet been shown exactly what happened.

The NTO site is one of the prettiest and most polished webcomic sites I’ve seen. Check out the cool hover effects on the menu. The comic’s artwork is gorgeous. The beautiful illustrations are accented by intricate borders that enforce the steampunky setting. Erin also does some really cool tricks with flashbacks.

Next Town Over updates every Saturday. There are only about 65 pages so far, and it’s a quick read, so go get caught up and add it to your feed. It’s a must-read.