Preview of American Wasteland: Blood and Diesel #1
By Brian Matus
filmfreek@gmail.com
American Wasteland is a four issue mini-series being published by Arcana
Studio starting in February ($3.95, for mature readers).
Written by R. D. Hall
Pencils by Mark Kidwell,
Inks by Tony Bledsoe,
Colors by Jay Fotos
Letters by Thomas White
Synopsis: Truck Driver Cletus McCoy only wants one thing: to get back
home and save his Mama from a fate worse than death. But, in a world
crumbling into a vampire apocalypse, that's easier said than done. Cletus
will have to truck his way through an emerging nation of bloodthirsty
monsters hell-bent on making him supper. Guns, guts, and a boy named
Sumbitch are our hero's only hope!
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Finally, a horror comic!
Seriously, I've been losing my faith in horror comics lately, but Hallelujah
brothers and sisters, my faith has been restored!
R. D. Hall e-mailed me a PDF of the first issue for review because he
knows, as any pusher will tell you, the first times free, but once you're
hooked, you're buyin'.
First off, if you include the silhouette on page 1, the "vampires" (more
on that in a minute) are on 15 out of 22 pages.
This is not a comic featuring people talking about monsters, or philosophizing
about monsters, or about the aftermath of a monster epidemic. This is
a comic about monsters, and people fighting monsters.
That's not to say that R. D. Hall skimped on characterization. Cletus's
personality is shown as much through his dialogue with his mother and
Sully (his mentor he meets on his journey), as his actions. His willingness
to put himself in harm's way to save a stranger speaks volumes about
his character.
Not that's he's Rambo Jr or anything. If he's outnumbered, he'll just
jump in a car & mow down some monsters.
Sully lays down the law, for Cletus and the readers, pretty quickly.
According to what we're told (and what we see) in this first issue, these "vampires" are
more into eating flesh than drinking blood, sunlight has no effect, and
we've no indication that there's any supernatural element, or that religious
symbols or holy water would affect them either. Of course, this may not
be the case, this is only based upon what's been revealed in the first
issue.
When a pack of them descend upon a herd of cattle like a school of piranha,
we find out that they gorge themselves until they get "drunk" which
is when they're easiest to attack - with a bullet to the head, giving
this interpretation of vampires a little bit of zombie in it.
Fast, strong zombies, with a mouthful of razor sharp teeth!
At least some of them can talk, and one of them appears to be the leader,
with a definite agenda involving a boy named Sumbitch, which I imagine
will be fully revealed over the course of the mini-series.
Mark Kidwell's pencils remind me of a less exaggerated Kelly Jones or
Kyle Holtz (two of my favorite horror comic artists), and Tony Bledsoe's
inks add weight and depth to the scenes without losing any detail, unlike
some lazy inkers who shall remain nameless. Jay Fotos' colors add a sense
of realism to the book that would be lost in lesser hands, and while
I'm not usually a fan of "sound fx", Thomas White's letters
prove to be the exception to the rule. The best compliment I can give
this art team is that none of them were obtrusive, distracting from the
enjoyment of the story.
By the way, as this is a mature readers title, they don't shy away from
sheding blood on the page. In other words, NFTS (Not For The Squeamish).
If it's not already obvious, I enthusiastically recommend AMERICAN WASTELAND:
BLOOD AND DIESEL, and suggest that you pre-order it using Diamond code
(DEC063298), found on page 216 of this month's Previews (if that doesn't
make sense, just give the info to your shopowner), because you know how
hard it is to find mature readers horror comics from smaller publishers
on the shelves these days.
And if you like horror comics (why else are you reading this anyway?),
you shouldn't miss this book.
If $3.95 feels a little steep, don't buy two comics that suck for $2.95
and buy this instead, and you'll be saving two bucks!
Talk about the American
Wasteland Review.
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