Review: Scout Comics’ ‘Count Dante’ #1 Is Solid Gold

Welcome to the table,

My buddy Jim loved action movies. Jim loved comics and toys and music and pop culture. He loved cooking, and his kids and his wife, and his friends. My buddy Jim had a lot of love to give. The last time I talked to him we were musing about getting back to our 1970’s inspired game set in the fictional Sea Side City, a homebrew I had created based on the Spirit of 77 TTRPG.

Before I get too deep and make myself emotional I am going to pull it together and review this book, but I can assure you,  my buddy Jim would have loved this book, from the Cary Nord cover to the martial arts sequences, to the fight in the disco hall… he would have been a fan.

Count Dante: The Unauthorized (But Sort of True) Story of the Deadliest Man Who Ever Lived from Scout Comics is a bombastic, exploitative action thrill ride through fictional Chicago, filled with larger-than-life characters and pulse-pounding action beats that will leave you delighted and throwing hands at whatever comes next!

The story revolves around the enigmatic John Timothy Keehan. John is a Vietnam War veteran who returns to Chicago with a burning desire to make a name for himself. Trained by various martial masters in a sequence that gave me Samurai Jack vibes, Keehan and his war buddy (and our narrator) Sidney Brown set out to make a name for themselves in the Martial Arts world.

They may also topple a criminal syndicate known as The Outfit (yes, Capone’s Outfit) and their associated gangs, using nothing but wits, charm, and fists of fury. Along the way, they create a myth of a man who will go down in history as “The most vicious hairdressing, car-selling, cape-wearing karate master to ever live.”

The book is solid gold. The artwork is fluid and fun, with halftones used like punctuations in all the right places. The characters leap off the page with the kind of action economy you’d expect from a Shaw Brothers film. The dialog is steeped in a cinematic style that evokes the 1970s, but not the real 1970s by any stretch. It’s a 1970s that we, at least those of us born after that era, learned about from old disco queens and album covers.

This book, written by J.C. Barbour with art by Wes Watson and colors by Paula Goulart, is loosely grounded in reality, and honestly, that totally works for it. Too often, when books have crime and military moments and are set in reality-based city settings there is a tone that is gritty and gray. It feels somber and hard-nosed and that weight makes things feel like an albatross dragging down a story into a melancholic drudge of sorrow and despair.

Count Dante: The Unauthorized (But Sort of True) Story of the Deadliest Man Who Ever Lived is not that. It’s a book that is full of wild moments, larger-than-life characters, and fun action sequences that just feel… good.

Have you ever been in a public place and a classic comes on? Like you’re somewhere with a lot of people, everyone is up to their own thing, and then Sugar Hill Gang‘s Rapper’s Delight starts playing out and you look around and old heads, soccer moms, kids on skateboards, garbage men, like everyone is sorta bobbing their head along to the beat? This comic feels like that… and it has karate!

One of the highlights of the book are the fun fake ads like the ones you used to see in older comics, offering random stuff like sea monkeys and X-ray specs. One ad featuring a wheelchair caught my attention as a guy who uses a wheelchair all the time. I was almost offended, but I realized it was done in good fun and not intended to be a slight against disabled people. At this moment, filled with love and fond memories of my friend who’s no longer with us, and thinking about how much he would have really loved this crazy comic, I’m willing to give it a pass.

So, go read Count Dante: The Unauthorized (But Sort of True) Story of the Deadliest Man Who Ever Lived. It’s a really good time, and sometimes… we need that.

Count Dante: The Unauthorized (But Sort of True) Story of the Deadliest Man Who Ever Lived will be available for sale next Wednesday.

Until next time, we never know how long we have on this Earth… tell the people you love that you love them every chance you get.