Dead Run #1

Writer: Andrew Cosby / Michael Alan Nelson
Artist: Francesco Biagini
Dead Run is basically Mad Max in comic form...Mad Max 2 mind you, none of that Mad Max 1 bullshit. The main character, a Nick Masters, is a driver courier looking to make a buck whilest trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic looking world. Along the way his brother in law gets the shit beat out of him and his sister is kidnapped by a crimelord of sorts asking Nick to make a courier run to San Francisco, and in exchange he'll let Nick's sister live. The road to San Francisco is anything but safe, nicknamed "The Dead Run", Nick goes to see the only man ever known to make the Dead Run and come back alive. The guy (who looks to have lost an arm) pretty much tells Nick he's insane and to fuck off. As Nick leaves the driver's daughter stops Masters' saying she knows the way but will only tell him if she can ride along with him to San Francisco. As they drive past the gates you get the feeling the road ahead is not gonna be an easy one.
OK, so the writing. The writing in this sucker is manageable. Parts of the dialogue flow pretty well but there are eh.. moments... "Son, I've had kidney stones with bigger balls then you". First off...really...kidney stones...the things that are created in your balls, have balls bigger then...*sigh*..in a literal sense or any other sense...ehhh yeah no, not a good piece of dialogue. Maybe "Son, I've had pieces of shit with bigger balls then you" or something else...maybe I can get behind that. ANYWAY, overall the story/writing for this first issue is alright, the thing with the old driver's daughter you can see set up even before he talks to the father and you know its coming but again, first issue so not putting expectations up too high here.
The artwork in this first issue has it's highs and lows. The cover art by Jason Shawn Alexander for Cover B I think was awesome, giving a nice grittiness to Nick Masters reminding one of a cover of Constantine: Hellblazer. As for the inside of the actual issue Francesco Biagini's art style feels a lot like Stuart Immonen's style from Nextwave only with more grit. Some panels come off great some not so great, page 15 where it's a huge panel trying to convey the massiveness of one of the walls around Los Angeles, the panel is penciled pretty well but it's in contrast to stuff that feels off like in page 1, where you have that same massive wall and this barely illustrated city behind it. I don't know how to explain it accurately other then to say I feel like Biagini will be in the middle of penciling and then try a ever so slight change in style and then go "Oh...well...no...I'll go back to what I was doing earlier". I haven't seen any prior work he has done though, so maybe I am being overly harsh.
Overall this first issue is ok. It's not bad but it's not great. I will say however that the story is interesting enough to keep with it for at least another issue, as I get the feeling things will really pick up as they head further out on the road. B+
(Note: If you want a free peak at the issue, comic book resources has a couple pages up for free here: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=2491))





