Lone Ranger #11

This comic has me torn "like when half a rag will do" (to get the daily Starman reference out of the way). Why is that? 1) I really love the direction that book has taken. Brett Matthews has kept the reverence of the character in check while also making it dark and brooding when it needs to be. Cassady's art direction and Sergio Cariello art is brilliant, modern and pulpy al at the same time. John Reid should be a tragic character and both the writing and art direction reflect this. 2) Its a late book REALLY LATE. My local comic book store retailer tried to say that "The Lone Ranger and Tonto" book is part of this arc which defuses its lateness which I disagree with. If its part of the story and part of this universe, then that issue should have been Lone Ranger #11, and this issue #12 (which I wonder why that didn't happen). I also believe that the story has suffered from the fact that this issue is so late. I didn't even realise that the person getting hanged in this issue was related to the events of the previous issue (until I reread it). I can't help thinking that the momentum has been affected because of this (and this also would answer my own question about the one shot-as that does not provide any increase in the development of this story as a whole). Now after my lateness rant onto the issue. There isn't very much new going on. The Lone Ranger confronts crooked sherifs, Tonto is mysterious around the Lone ranger and the main villain seems to be moving across country but to where? And how are we supposed to view the story that Tonto tells the young boy? Is it Tonto telling his own history in the form of a narrative? On the third reading it may even be John's history up until now. I doubt we are supposed to view it at face value. The story that Tonto tells is supposed to sum up the story arc from 7-10, and once again maybe this would have been relevant if it was out on time. Onto the art. One word stunning. My only gripe is that one of my pet hates shows up: namely the signature of the artist on random pages. There is a credit page for a reason. We do not need to have signatures on random pages which in the case of this issue actually took away from the page it was on. That being said it will only lose 1 star because of that (I am not so harsh). The only other thing I had to say was what is Dynamite doing with their letters column. It seems to just be PR for the company (which lets face it is what most letters pages are in the first place). I would have preferred to have seen perhaps an apology for the lateness or a disclaimer saying that it is on track. Rest assured I will be getting the next issue. But if it takes nearly 6 months like this time it may be my last. Not because I don't like the story but mainly because the story suffers this way so I'll switch to trades.