Law of the Desert Born

Louis L’Amour, Charles Santino, Beau L’Amour, Katherine Nolan, and Thomas Yeates. Bantam, $25 (160p) ISBN 978-0-345-52812-4

Revered western writer L’Amour finally gets the graphic novel treatment. At the opening of this engaging tale, a lone rider shoots down two men at a ranch house, then flees into the desert. Flashbacks reveal the killer’s motivations, as a posse follows him and civilized notions of right and wrong are left far behind. L’Amour dashed off the original yarn for a pulp magazine in the mid-1940s, and it has passed through several versions—an audio play, a screenplay, and comics.

This actually may be the story’s ideal form, since the author’s son Beau came to realize that the core of the tale was the tense relationship between the murderer, Shad Marone, and Lopez, the Mexican-Apache tracker pursuing him; the graphic novel version provides room to develop this theme. Yeates’s black-and-white depiction of the rugged landscape and the hard-bitten characters is superb. The result is stunning and richly textured. (Sept.)

Reviewed on: 05/27/2013

Law of the Desert Born

Louis L’Amour, Charles Santino, Beau L’Amour, Katherine Nolan, and Thomas Yeates. Bantam, $25 (160p) ISBN 978-0-345-52812-4

Law of the Desert Born is a beautifully illustrated retelling of one of L'Amour's short stories - based more upon an audio version by L'amour's son Beau and Katherine Nolan. This is the first graphic novelization of a L'Amour novel and the attention to detail really shows. . . .

To say the artwork is breathtaking would be an understatement. This is one of the most beautifully illustrated black and white graphic novels I've read in a long time. The panels are clean and the artist/authors were judicious in avoiding making the story too wordy. Surprisingly so considering this came from an audio version.

This is a new way to enjoy L'Amour's work. Not a retread of the short story but a new perspective that is interesting, fresh, full of dimension, but still paying homage to the original.

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Reviewed by Andrea J. - July 15th, 2013

Law of the Desert Born

Louis L’Amour, Charles Santino, Beau L’Amour, Katherine Nolan, and Thomas Yeates. Bantam, $25 (160p) ISBN 978-0-345-52812-4

By Anna Russell - October 4th, 2013

Law of the Desert Born

Louis L’Amour, Charles Santino, Beau L’Amour, Katherine Nolan, and Thomas Yeates. Bantam, $25 (160p) ISBN 978-0-345-52812-4

VERDICT The action favorites of pulp-Western megascribe L’Amour (1908–88) make ready fodder for comics. Here, the richer plot and characters from L’Amour’s son Beau and collaborator Kathy Nolan add appeal and value in addition to the finely crafted visuals.

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Reviewed by M.C. - September 15th, 2013

With each turn of the page, Law of the Desert Born takes you on a journey deeper into those incredible desert vistas, and deeper into the conflict between its characters. Thanks to Yeates’ elegant black-and-white drawings and the superb pacing of Charles Santino’s adaptation, readers are in for a real treat -- with an amazing level of detail and ambience that breathes new life into Louis L’Amour’s already stunning story. 

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by Steven Phelps. - October 2013