Vulture Sanctuary, based on the story by Robert E. Howard, is a Western Pulp adventure, published by cARTEm comics, with Ángel García Nieto and Benito Gallego as authors.
Vulture Sanctuary is a story of the Wild West, a topic very well covered in other cARTEm works, set on the border between Mexico and Texas in 1880 and based on a Pulp report From Robert E. Howarda prolific author who would have written more stories had he not died in 1936, as numerous characters emerged from his typewriter, such as Conan, Everything is fine, Solomon Kane or Bran Mak Mornjust to name a few. Although he is best remembered today for his heroic fantasy, Howard wrote dozens of Western stories, some realistic and others mixed with adventure, humor or even horror.
The Wild (near in your case) West by Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard was born on January 22, 1906 In Peaster, Texas and spent much of his life in the Lone Star State, with family roots in that region; Therefore, he had direct contact with the rural, ranch, and border culture of Texas, which provided him with knowledge of the Western environment, cowboys, ranches, border conflicts, etc.
He took advantage of this knowledge to write his short stories, where he expressed themes of honor, revenge, informal law, the harshness of rural life, isolation, the cowboy tradition and the ranch border, factional fights, land disputes, rifles, duels). His vision of the West is neither romantic nor idyllic.; but rather reflects the harshness, natural danger, human and legal tensions, as well as that often violent perspective that can be associated with internal or external borders in the cultural context of Texas, especially in the transition periods between the 19th and 20th centuries.
Among the stories of the West the following can be highlighted: The last lap (1931), a tragic, twilight Western about an old outlaw on his last adventure; A gentleman from Bear Creek (1937) starring Breckinridge Elkins; and what inspires the comics of Nieto and Gallego The Wahpeton Vultures (1936), published in the book Vulture Sanctuary and Other Stories of the Old West Of The Labyrinth Library (2010).
The plot of Vulture Sanctuary
In the middle of the border desert, where the dust erases the roads and the sun burns the souls, Bill McClanahanknown as “Big Mac”, he heads towards San Francisco, goes to the big city and rests, but on the border peace is a mirage.
Judith Ellis He travels with his father, the elder Ellis, to California, dreaming of a life of peaceful harvests and sunsets. However, his carriage is driven by Checotah Kidtowards the lair of the feared Garth Bissettnicknamed “El Bravo”. Bissett leads a band of ruthless outlaws wanted by federal authorities —Slip Ratner, Stark Campbell, Wolf Wilson, John Garrison Yes Emmet Red– who control a part of the desert as if it were their kingdom of sand and blood, where the law does not reach.
Judith is kidnapped and taken to an old, ruined ranch, a hideout known to the bandits as the Vulture Sanctuary, where they take refuge from the heat and the law. There, vultures fly overhead waiting for new corpses, and men rot before the bodies.
The authors
Him screenplay is responsible for Angelo Garcia Nietowho, as Pako Domínguez states in the book’s prologue, “an author who, among his many works, already had another linked” to the Texan author. In Santuario de Buitres knows how to adapt Howard’s Pulp perfectly and transmit it with all its essence and strength in the volume.
Ángel García Nieto uses minimal dialogue, with short, direct sentences and few explanations; where the reader feels the weight of silence more than of exposition. This ensures that the pace does not slacken, giving way to the different scenes with a fluidity and liveliness that maintains the tension.
THE structure of the history established by García Nieto is strongwith a quick introduction and beginning, which brings out the conflict almost immediately, focused on the main plot with a importance of the actionof comparison, of a past that is not completely revealed but rather intuited in some aspects, but which clearly identifies the internal composition of the characters. Here the antagonist doesn’t need soliloquies His presence is enough to understand his nature and his apprehension for the Big Mac, because he is his true nemesis.
It is found on pencils Benito Gallegowho knows how to give to visual tone austere, without unnecessary ornamentssuggested setting rather than overly detailed; the desert, the border, the heat, the dust as latent characters. His style is a example of classical strength, narrative drama and anatomical masterywith a sign that combines realism, energy and elegance.
The characters have impeccable anatomy, based on the study of the real body, but accentuated to reinforce the sensation of power and movement. Both McClanahan and the rest of the male characters have heroic, muscular bodies, but without the rigidity of bodybuilding; They appear to be bodies that move, not that they arise. For her part, Judith is slender, with fluid lines, endowed with a natural sensuality and classic elegance.
Every gesture and posture communicates tension, weight and gravity. Furthermore, Gallego in Vulture Sanctuary uses diagonals, glimpses and perspectives that break the rigidity of the framemaking the reader feel the hit or the jump. In action scenes, shootouts, hand-to-hand combat or chases have a cinematic fluidity, without losing clarity, where each line contributes to the sensation of rhythm and energy.
The result is a clean, vigorous and perfectly readable visual storytellingeven in chaotic scenes. On each page he knows how to balance the masses, the lights and the reading senses to guide the reader’s eye. He thus creates different shots, alternating intense close-ups with wide general shots that place the character in the environment. This mix of physical realism and moral epic fits García Nieto’s screenplay and Howard’s story perfectly.
The edition
Vulture Sanctuary From Angelo Garcia Nieto Yes Benito Gallego It’s the first book of the new one Pulp collection From Cartem comicswhich adapts classic genre stories, in an autonomous format, with a strong aesthetic and without filters. It is published with a binding in hard coverwith measurements of 29×21 centimetresA color and an extension of 64 pageswith the quality and excellent finish that distinguishes the publisher, accompanied by several pages of extra.
A story by Robert E. Howard reinvented in a dark western style
Robert E. Howard, famed creator of Conan the Barbarian, has explored numerous genres beyond heroic fantasy. In Buitres Sanctuary he left us a short, intense story full of symbolism: violence, betrayal and redemption in a hostile territory.
This adaptation, with a screenplay by Ángel García Nieto and art by Benito Gallego, captures the essence of the original story and transforms it into a powerful, visceral western. The visual narrative amplifies every tension, every silence and every explosion of violence. A tribute to the wildest pulp, in a contemporary perspective.
A border where death lurks
In the middle of the desert, a man seeks refuge. But there is no redemption for those who carry too many sins with them. The sanctuary he finds is a nest of scavengers. And vultures don’t always fly.
Vulture Sanctuary is a dry, direct story, where the border is not just a place: it is a moral line, a crack in the soul. A story about the weight of the past and the need, or impossibility, of redemption. One last chance under a scorching sun and a sky full of black wings.
A work with a cinematic rhythm
Benito Gallego’s writing transforms each page into a sequence full of tension. His drawing, expressive and agile, transfers the brutality of the story into a highly powerful visual language. The atmosphere is dense, dusty, full of shadows.
Ángel García Nieto’s screenplay maintains a steady pace, with dry dialogue and eloquent silences. He knows the cadence of good Westerns: tense, contained, relentless. Together they create a reading that gives no respite, which drags the reader along without concessions.
The birth of the Pulp Collection
Santuario de Buitres inaugurates the new Pulp Collection by Cartem Cómics, a line dedicated to the adaptation of classic genre stories – western, horror, adventure, fantasy – with a strong and unfiltered aesthetic. Direct and autonomous works, with the soul of a pulp magazine and the contemporary narrative force.
You will like it if…
An ideal read for those who love the stories of Robert E. Howard, the wild worlds of Conan or Solomon Kane and the crudeness of twilight westerns. Even for those who vibrate with the cinema of Leone, Peckinpah or Eastwood, and recognize in comics like Blueberry, Mac Coy, Covenants, Comanche or The Serpent and the Coyote that breath of dust, violence and impossible redemption. Sanctuary of Buitres is, ultimately, a work designed for lovers of classic pulp and direct, dirty comics without easy redemption. A story that doesn’t soften the edges. This refines them.
