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Fragmenta 7: Dan Callahan book review

By Leroy Douresseaux
April 12, 2015 - 20:43

Fragmenta 7: Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates cover image

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Fragmenta 7: Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates is the seventh entry in Candle Light Press' Fragmenta publications.  This is a series of paperback and hardcover books, picture books, and pamphlets.  Each edition collects essays, scripts, art, and/or comics produced by the writers and artists of Candle Light Press.  Some of this material concerns early or uncompleted projects, while other material represents developmental words and pictures for completed projects.

Apparently, back in the old days, several of the creators who would eventually form Candle Light Press produced an anthology comic book entitled, ED.  One of the projects that would be serialized in ED was a weird western adventure entitled, Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates.  Written by John Ira Thomas and drawn by Will Beard, this comic was never finished.  Everything that exists of Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates is three finished chapters, one chapter in pencil form, and a script for a fifth (and evidently, final) chapter.

Fragmenta 7: Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates is a hardcover book that collects the five chapters of the Dan Callahan serial.  This book also includes a nine-page history written by John Ira Thomas that details both ill-fated projects – the Dan Callahan comic and the ED anthology.

THE LOWDOWN:  So, dear reader, you probably want to know something about the actual Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates comic.  It is set sometime in the latter half of the 19th century.  The title character, Dan Callahan, is a 20-something young man who is studying engineering at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO.  He is also eagerly awaiting his wife-to-be, Miss Dolores O'Riordan, whom he has never met in person, having only seen a picture of her.

Dolores is presumed dead or, at least, missing after the train by which she was traveling is attacked (obviously, as far as white people are concerned) by those reliable savages, Indians!  Determined to find her, Dan heads towards Arizona on a misadventure that nearly costs him his life.  A half-Chinese, half-Apache woman who calls herself “The Painted Lady” rescues Dan.  Although she thinks that he is stupid and crazy, she decides to help Dan find his betrothed, who happens to be prisoner,  She is held captive by a band of pirates wreaking havoc aboard a ship that sails through sand as if it were water.

Although Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates is an early and primitive work by the exceptionally talented John Ira Thomas and the imaginative Will Beard, it is entertaining... at least to me.  I don't think that Dan Callahan should be an abandoned project.  When one considers all the weird Westerns that American comics creators have given their readers, a spiffed-up Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates could be a standout comic book.

So Fragmenta 7: Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates is probably the best Fragmenta so far, because of the potential of its contents.  Also, this book has a Val Mayerik cover that is hard to resist.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Fans of earlier Fragmenta and also fans of Western comic books will want Fragmenta 7: Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates.


To get more information about and/or to purchase Fragment 7: Dan Callahan and the Sand Pirates, visit the following links:

www.candlelightpress.com
http://www.candlelightpress.com/ordering.htm
candlelightpress.tumblr.com

Rating: B+ /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12