In this conclusion to a tense two-parter, John Chinaman reaches Tucano with two friends by his side and a gang of outlaws on their heels who'll stop at nothing to recover the cash from a bungled robbery. John's hopes of keeping a low profile go up in smoke as Zed continues his cheating streak, and Horace hides out at a brothel, trying to start a new life as a bouncer. Meanwhile, John's boss, Mr. Byrne, is going out of business, and has one last delivery for John to make: a prize Longhorn bull. Life sure can get complicated when you have friends!
In this second and concluding volume, Sadakyo finds herself working
as a servant in the Takedo castle where she attracts the attention of
the prince, hoping to get close to the coveted mask. Meanwhile,
Masamura has become the feared right-hand man of crime boss Mizuchi
Mon, quietly keeping a vigil for Sadakyo. Soon, their lives will be
brought back together for the violent and surprising conclusion of
this tale.
When an old colonel informs Jonas Crow that the so-called "Ogre of Sutter Camp" is still alive and well, he's not exactly pleased, to say the least. His troubled past from his fighting days in the American Civil War comes back to the surface, forcing Jonas into a man-hunt, and to face his own regrets...
Dr. Jeronimus Quint has an unusual business model that Hippocrates would frown upon: he creates his own patients by injuring people whose lives then depend on him. His latest victims are Jonas Crow, Undertaker, and Rose, his English companion. Without the best medical attention-i.e. Quint's-each might lose a limb, or even die, from gangrene. He's kidnapped Rose and is withholding his sado-surgical skills while Jonas and his cohort Lin pursue him and his captive. With ferrymen and lumberjacks in front, angry lawmen behind, and a leg killing him from within, the Undertaker hopes to survive long enough to make Jeronimus Quint his next customer.
From the very first moment he meets "Sentence" Sykes, young Jim Starret instantly recognizes a legend of the Old West, just like in the comic books he learned to read with. But his new hero is nowhere to be seen when the fearsome Clayton gang murders his mother before his very eyes. From that moment on, the now-orphaned Jim becomes obsessed with a sole objective: joining Sykes to track down his mother's killers. But what he doesn't yet realize is that legends of the Old West are forged by their demons.
Lin and Rose have gone their separate ways, so Jonas Crow is left alone with his hearse and Jed, his pet vulture. Winter has set in and there's plenty of work to do-plenty of bodies to bury. When a childhood friend, Sid, looks him up and offers him a dangerous job, Jonas eventually agrees to it. Time, however, changes all things, loyalties included. Sid may not be trustworthy, but he was right about one thing-Jonas is the only undertaker in the Old West crazy enough to go after a corpse in Apache territory.
After Rose Prairie leaves him, Jonas Crow sinks deep into a hole. That's when he's brought on for a special assignment by Sid Beauchamp, a friend in misfortune from his youth and now the sheriff of Tucson: to recover the corpse of Caleb Barclay, enslaved and tortured by the Indians. But things get complicated when it turns out that Caleb wasn't a slave at all, but had married into the Apache tribe, and he was killed by none other than Sid himself. With Sid and his well-heeled bride-to-be at the helm, Tucson seems on the verge of great things... But as a blizzard hits, so do Jonas and Caleb's widow, the fierce Salvaje, and bullets and vengeance storm the winter skies of the Arizona desert.
Markham, the murderous preacher, is dead at last. And yet, for the lone rider who tracked him down and killed him, the hunt goes on. Now he must find the person behind the preacher's campaign of terror. He knows his target: Senator Dawson of New York. But it won't be easy getting to his quarry-a rich and powerful man engaged in a conspiracy against the government of the United States, who may just hold supernatural capabilities...
Five women from various backgrounds are brought together by fate to fight as allies for their survival. A retired schoolteacher, an Indian who's handy with a bow, a young, immigrant widow from London, a brothel worker who's made off with the till and a fourteen-year-old slave who's been put in a cage. This unlikely band of adventurers must fight off the violence men resort to when caught in greed's ubiquitous grip. They'll do it with arrows, pies, brooms, pots, knitting-needles, and a lethal revolver that becomes even more dangerous in the hands of the sharpest-shooter of them all: a teenager who's been whipped, locked in a cage and freed only to fall victim to pneumonia. These women have got each other's backs and don't take kindly to the worst mankind has to offer.
Undertaker Jonas Crow is charged with transporting the coffin of an ex-miner become millionaire back to the mining vein that made his fortune. The funeral should have been a calm affair, but there's an unexpected turn of events: on the eve of his death, Joe Cusco swallowed all his gold, so as to carry it with him for all eternity. Unfortunately, the secret was leaked, provoking the fury of all the miners of Anoki City. They can't just leave such a fortune to be buried while they're sweating their souls away in the mining shafts! As Jonas says, "death never comes alone..."
Our story starts in Washington, 1870. Matthew Montgomery has an important post at the Ministry of Defense. He's rather an inflexible man who always respects the rules, which is why he warned his daughter, Helen, not to leave with that idiot, Glover. Of course, she did it anyway, and now she wants to come back and expects to be pardoned. But when Matthew arrives home the night of his Helen's return, he opens the door to find his wife and daughter slaughtered in the hallway, and a strange star engraved on his daughter's breast. His whole life is turned upside down. Traumatized, he starts out on the trail of the killers, with just one clue to help him on his way: a name - Jason Cauldry, from Topeka. Matthew wants to know why some stranger came such a long way just to etch that damn star onto his daughter's body, so he sets off on a long journey, crossing the Appalachian mountains and the Mid-West, all the way to Topeka. But what will he find there?
Undertaker Jonas Crow, along with the English governess Rose and her Chinese maid Lin, have to get the gold-filled corps of old Mr. Cusco back to the mining vein they call 'Red Chance'. They have three days. Three days, a hearse, 50 miles ahead of them, and an entire town of discontented miners to deal with!
Twenty years after the first volume of "Desert Star," with which Marini first made a name for himself, Desberg collaborates with Labiano for the prequel! In classic Western style, this time the story plays out in Indian territories. The conflicts between cowboys with neither faith nor morals and the God-fearing colonies will put an end to the peaceful existence of the Indian tribes. This marks the starting point of the tragedy of Desert Star, not yet a symbol of vengeance, but a feisty young Indian girl...
Matthew Montgomery's quest to solve the mystery behind his wife and daughter's brutal murder has led him as far as the train tracks go: Topeka. This cautious, law-abiding man has come to this hub of sex, violence and alcohol in search of a man who goes by the name of Jason Cauldry, from whom he intends to get some answers about the death of his loved ones. And find him he does. Turns out Cauldry is lord and master of the town's brothels, enrolling all the Indian women unfortunate enough to cross his path. Desert Star was one of them. She's dead. Wakita is another, and she decides to help Montgomery find out why an assassin would trek all the way down to Washington to kill two women he'd never laid eyes upon, leaving a strange star engraved on his victim's body...
Brown Bear is dead. Desert Star has vanished. When the tribe seeks revenge and captures a white settler's daughter, Maria, Morning Breeze decides to use her to track down the man responsible for their fate-little knowing that his adversary is himself pursuing Maria ... The trail leads Breeze to Finsbury, the official in charge of "Indian Affairs," who believes that ends justify means. The white man's ends, that is. Can Breeze salvage anything of his people's honor in the face of advancing "civilization"? And will he ever be reunited with his beloved Desert Star?
In the second half of the 19th century, a Chinese man wanders the plains of the American West. In the first volume, John Chinaman lands in San Francisco, tasked by the Elders of Canton with disciplining the local Triads. But this mission will be his last. From now on, his fate will be irrevocably tied to America's westward expansion.
1880. Kansas. Elijah Stern, the local undertaker, leads a calm and solitary life, until one day he is asked to carry out an autopsy on a man found dead in a brothel. Taking on the role of forensic pathologist, he discovers that the man had not died of natural causes and finds himself involved, against his better wishes, in the middle of a bonafide investigation. But Stern has no idea that the key to this case lies in his own past...
Fleeing his old life after killing his former master, John Chinaman is exploring the ways of the new world. When he falls in with a wagon train of pioneers headed north, his new traveling companions include a fire-and-brimstone preacher, a family of Chinese immigrants, and a marshal escorting a dangerous criminal to trial. But Chow, once his best friend and now his sworn enemy, is hot on John's trail. And with him are a crew of cutthroat bounty hunters who share a mysterious past with the marshal's prisoner. A bloody confrontation between brothers-in-arms is inevitable, but who will be left standing?
A lone cowboy rides into town and all hell breaks loose... Sound familiar? Here is yet another take on the beloved Wild West trope, complete with corrupt law enforcement officers, a town drunk, guns for hire, a brave young woman trying to hold on to her failing ranch, vicious people with wealth and power trying to take it from her, a couple of cow-herders, and a colorful cast of characters with names like Red Dust, Ten Gallons, and of course... Comanche.
Months of roaming the wilderness have left John Chinaman homesick and lonely. His bitter experiences have left him wary of white men, but longing for human contact leads him to the small town of Oakridge. There he meets Amos and Millie, old, independent-minded homesteaders looking after their niece Rose, recently orphaned by the fever. But Rose's rich grandfather has designs on the only child of his estranged daughter. When he enlists lawyers, the local sheriff, and a hired gun to help him, John is forced to make a choice: stay out of it, or take up arms once more.
Just when the Triple Six Ranch is finally back up and running, disaster strikes in the form of a potential Indian uprising: the local Cheyenne tribe has not been receiving the food supplies promised by the U.S. government, and decides to steal Comanche's cattle. As Red Dust goes searching for answers to try to prevent a violent war, Comanche is held hostage, the men from the railroad get fidgety waiting for their meat, and the boys from the ranch make a reckless decision.
When Chinaman saves Li, a young cook, from a pair of drunken Irishmen, little does he realize he's about to become embroiled in much a larger struggle. For Li is one of a group of Chinese laborers brought in to help build the transcontinental railroad-much to the resentment of the Irish who preceded them. And they aren't the only ones after Chinaman: Sing, whom he dishonors and displaces as headman of the Chinese group, also nurses a grudge. These tensions come to a head in a fiery, balletic battle as a young Samuel Clemens looks on, witness to history.
When the notorious Dobbs brothers are foiled in their attempt to attack the stagecoach and ride off with the ranchers' gold, they vow to get the money at all cost. Before long, both the gang of brothers and the entire Triple Ranch crew, accompanied by a mysterious preacher who's awfully good with a six-shooter, are on the trail of one man... the mule-riding, whiskey-drinking Pharaoh Colorado, whose saddlebags are filled with gold and whose flask is tragically empty. Maybe he can just make a quick stop at the cabin of Trapper Hans for a swig of hooch.... Little does he know, that cabin is about to become the scene of much more than a few rounds between friends, as darkness descends and a deadly showdown grows imminent.
At Kinney Trading Post, John Chinaman gets accosted by a pair of bounty hunters when a good deed from his past returns to haunt him. But soon, all three of them have bigger troubles on their hands: the Yagger brothers have waylaid a would-be schoolmarm and her wagon driver in the woods. When the trunk they believed full of gold turns out to be full of books, Chinaman leaps in to save the schoolmarm's life. Their perilous escape through Paiute territory involves running rapids on a raft, dodging vengeful bandits, and hardest of all-learning to trust each other.