A guy in a gas mask and a trench coat, a sniper with a metal plate where half his face used to be, and a burning junkyard of wrecked war machines behind them. Broken Gargoyles #1 from Source Point Press sells itself with the cover, and the story inside is heavier than the action-movie look suggests.
The basics
- Title: Broken Gargoyles #1
- Publisher: Source Point Press
- Released: 2020
- Cover price: $3.99
- Writer: Bob Salley
- Art: Stan Yak
- Colors: Robert Nugent and Marco Pagnotta
- Letters: Justin Birch
What it’s about
The book is set in an alternate 1925, after World War I, in a dieselpunk America full of art deco skylines and heavy war machines. The war is over, the parades are done, and the men who came home damaged have been forgotten.
Two of those men served together in the 117th Infantry Regiment:
- William Manco came home with half his face rebuilt in metal. In this issue his wife and son leave him, he can’t find work, and he’s drinking hard while the city celebrates a victory he isn’t part of.
- Douglass Prescott is never seen without his gas mask. He leads an attack on a military convoy in the Arizona desert, claiming its cargo for the forgotten men of the 117th.
There’s also a circus sequence with a freak show that hits hard given what these men look like now. Pop Culture Podium’s advance review hints that one of the two old friends is about to betray the other, so this first issue is mostly setting the pieces in place.
Where the title comes from
“Broken gargoyles” was a term used after World War I for soldiers who came home with disfigured faces. The French called them gueules cassées, or “broken faces.” Salley has said he stumbled on the term and spent days reading about those men before building the book around them. That history is why Manco’s face plate and Prescott’s mask aren’t just costume design. They’re the point.
How it reads
Reviewers were kind to it. But Why Tho?’s review says it turned out far better than expected and doesn’t flinch from what war does to people. They liked that the art keeps the focus on emotion instead of gore, and called out a nice lettering touch: Prescott’s word balloons are designed to sound filtered through the mask. Heads up that it deals with military trauma and doesn’t go easy on it.
That cover
The cover art is by Raymond Gay and Jeremy Clark, with colors by Juan Fernandez. Manco stands on the left with a rifle over his shoulder and a bottle in his bandaged hand, the steel plate covering one side of his face. Prescott towers next to him in his trench coat, the gas mask’s lenses glowing orange. Behind them everything is on fire, and at their feet is the wreck of a giant robot, a broken gatling gun and a shot-up sign that reads “No Man’s Land.” The logo works the theme in too, with rusty gears standing in for the O’s.
Is it worth anything?
It’s a recent small-press book, and I couldn’t find any tracked sales for it. The one sale I turned up was issues #1 through #3 together on eBay for $12.99. Buy it to read, not to flip.
Where to read more
The first story was collected as Broken Gargoyles Vol. 1: Of Wrath, and Source Point followed it with Broken Gargoyles: Sin and Virtue in 2021, with new characters.
If you like your pulp with some weight to it, this one’s worth a look.