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Oni Press Saddles Up for Grit and Grime with CAVE GRAVE: WILD WEST TALES by Shawn Kuruneru

The Curator
May 29
3 min read

Saddle Up for Blood, Betrayal, and Psychological Horror in CAVE GRAVE: WILD WEST TALES

Oni Press, the comic book house that brought the thunder to the Eisners and carved its name into the Harvey Awards, just dropped a grimy, gunslinging bombshell. Say hello to CAVE GRAVE: WILD WEST TALES, a two-fisted, dust-caked collection of Western psychological horror written and illustrated by breakout cartoonist and one-man storytelling dynamo Shawn Kuruneru.

Making waves recently as the artist behind THE GODDAMN TRAGEDY (alongside Chris Condon), Kuruneru’s name is quickly becoming synonymous with sharp-lined grit and dark narrative gold. Hailing from Montreal and previously seen slinging ink on Fishflies (Jeff Lemire) and Black Hammer: Colonel Weird & Little Andromeda (Tate Brombal), Kuruneru’s finally getting his moment in the blood-soaked spotlight with this hardcover drop—set to blaze into comic shops and bookstores in March 2026.

This ain't your grandpappy's Western. This is CAVE GRAVE: WILD WEST TALES—where the frontier is godless, the motives are murky, and the monsters might not all be human.

Cave Grave: Wild West Tales by Shawn Kuruneru

What’s in the Saddlebag?

This hardcover fever dream collects two previously self-published graphic novellas —“Cave Grave” and “Poor Moon”—and packs them tighter than a six-shooter under a gambler's vest.

In Cave Grave, three outlaws—brothers Jimmy and Harv, and their wildcard cohort Jacky Boy—land themselves a mysterious satchel during what should’ve been a straightforward heist. Naturally, things go to hell in a handbasket when they hole up in a cave and find something waiting in the dark. Something not interested in splitting the loot.

Flip the page and we’re riding into Poor Moon, where ex-soldier Held has swapped the battlefield for bounty hunting. One last score. One last job. It’s always “one last,” isn’t it? When Held sets his sights on Cassie the Killer, he’s forced to navigate a landscape where violence doesn’t just exist—it festers. The deeper he hunts, the more he realizes he’s not chasing a bounty—he’s chasing the ghost of peace in a world built on blood.

“CAVE GRAVE starts out like a classic heist flick with cowboy hats, but quickly dives into paranoia, horror, and brotherly betrayal,” says Kuruneru. “POOR MOON is a quieter storm—until it isn’t. It’s about redemption, violence, and the psychological shrapnel left behind in a lawless world.”

High Noon Meets Hitchcock

If you’re thinking this is your standard rootin’-tootin’ shoot ‘em up, think again. Kuruneru doesn’t just write Westerns—he surgically dissects them. Imagine if Alfred Hitchcock rode into Deadwood with a sketchbook and a death wish. You’d get these stories—psychologically charged, morally complex, and soaked in the kind of paranoia that turns dusty plains into pressure cookers.

“I wanted to channel that classic noir energy—twists, tension, and a look into the darker corners of the mind,” Kuruneru explains. “The Western backdrop just makes it that much more raw, that much more lonely.”

Editor Megan Brown puts it even better:

“Shawn’s art grabs you by the collar and throws you face-first into the bleak beauty of the Wild West—desperate people, dangerous motives, and environments so vast they might swallow you whole.”

Preview Pages

A New Star Rises on the Horizon

Kuruneru’s solo outing with CAVE GRAVE: WILD WEST TALES isn’t just a milestone for him — it’s a red-hot signal flare for what comics can be when creators lean all the way in. Stripped down, sharpened up, and inked with a steady hand full of fire and dread, this is the kind of debut that sticks with you. Not just for the body count, but for the quiet moments before the blood spills.

So mark your calendars, oil your six-shooters, and prep your minds for a little psychological torment in sepia tone. CAVE GRAVE: WILD WEST TALES hits shelves March 2026, loaded with despair, desperation, and the kind of dread that doesn’t just ride into town-it never leaves.

Keep your ears to the ground and your trigger finger ready. This one’s going to burn.