Streets of Glory #1 – 2007 marks the gritty, violent, and unflinchingly raw return of Garth Ennis to the Western genre, brought to life under the banner of Avatar Press. Known for his dark, subversive takes on war, crime, and anti-heroes, Ennis turns his sights to the mythos of the Old West, stripping away romance and nostalgia in favour of something far more brutal and grounded.
In this debut issue, we’re introduced to Joseph R. Dunn, an ageing gunfighter and Civil War veteran navigating the twilight of the 19th century. The American frontier is changing—railroads are replacing trails, law is replacing vigilante justice, and men like Dunn are becoming relics of a blood-soaked past. Ennis uses Dunn not as a romantic cowboy, but as a living critique of the Western myth: a deeply flawed survivor shaped by decades of violence and moral compromise.
The story opens with an unfiltered glimpse into frontier life, setting the tone with stark imagery and the promise of a larger, bloodier conflict. What’s immediately clear is that this isn’t a tale of honour and heroism, but one of corruption, cruelty, and the slow death of the frontier spirit. As always, Ennis’s dialogue is sharp and unsentimental—characters speak plainly, sometimes cruelly, and always with purpose.
Artist Mike Wolfer brings the world of Streets of Glory to life with rugged, expressive line work and a visual style that favours realism over stylisation. The raw physicality of the action and the weathered, authentic look of the characters and settings give the book an immediate weight. The violence is depicted graphically, but not gratuitously—every bullet wound and bloodstained street serves the story’s themes of decay, legacy, and retribution.
There’s a grim beauty in the bleakness, as Ennis and Wolfer collaborate to deconstruct the Western while still delivering the genre’s classic hallmarks—gunfights, dusty towns, lone riders, and moral ambiguity. This isn’t just another shoot-’em-up; it’s a reflection on the end of an era and the cost of survival in a world that’s moving on.
Available from a reliable UK-based online comic book shop, this issue comes with fast shipping & secure packaging. Each copy is bagged and boarded with an acid-free bag and board and sent to you in a sturdy book wrap/mailer, ensuring it reaches collectors and readers in excellent condition.
Streets of Glory #1 (2007) is a bold, uncompromising Western from a master of hard-edged storytelling—perfect for fans of revisionist frontier tales, gritty historical fiction, and comics that don’t flinch from the harsh truths of their setting.
Tags: Comicbook, Streets of Glory, 2007, Avatar Press, Joseph R. Dunn, Garth Ennis, Mike Wolfer, Greg Waller, William Christensen