Are you a fan of David Lynch’s work, primarily Twin Peaks? Do you like your stories filled with bizarre characters and a dash of Lovecraftian ooze? If yes, congratulations, because you’re going to love Barstow!
Barstow #3, written by David Ian McKendry and Rebekah McKendry with art by Tyler Jenkins, starts with a flashback before picking up in the present, as FBI Agent Miranda Diaz continues trying to uncover the disappearance of fellow agent Lima. Meanwhile Pria, the local queen of the underworld, seeks to bind herself to a demon to cement her power. Elsewhere in town, redneck and perpetual loser Eli has been possessed by a powerful demon and is worshipped as a god by a religious family, much to the annoyance of his girlfriend.
The joy of Barstow is the vast assortment of quirky characters that populate the book. I’m especially fond of Sheriff Papa Dodd and Starr, an old couple who look like they could have wandered off a Grateful Dead tour bus and just decided to stay in Barstow. Starr is an old hippie from head to toe and she’s incredibly observant. She’s Barstow’s only Crime Scene Investigator, her gift for painting and creating art only exceeded by her ability to notice the most minute detail.
Then there’s Pria, who loves ballet and enjoys nothing more than feeding people to the demon that inhabits her son. She’s refined (well, as refined as anyone can be in a grungy desert town) and obsessed with grabbing more power any way she can get it.
Barstow itself is the most fascinating character in the book, a lonesome town sitting in the middle of the Mojave Desert. With the surrounding dusty landscape and brown mountains rising over the parched terrain, Barstow feels like it’s a town living on borrowed time, as if any moment the arid Earth could open up and devour it whole.
The art makes the book more intense. Admittedly but fittingly, Tyler Jenkins’ work is off-putting. It’s a unique style for sure and occasionally the characters seem fuzzy, composed of geometric squiggles that seem almost impressionistic, reminiscent of Bill Sienkiewicz’s later work. It suits the story though, it makes the humans a bit more monstrous and the monsters a bit more human.
There are allusions to false gods and idols everywhere this issue. I especially loved when Miranda Diaz, who took a head injury last issue, is dressed up with a bandage and healing vines by Starr. Miranda walks around the rest of the issue looking like she’s wearing a crown of thorns. It’s lowkey hilarious and cheekily blasphemous too.
Barstow is wonderfully quirky, mixing oddball characters, dark humor and gore in a delightful fashion.
