Reviews

By Alan M Rogers

DRIVER FOR THE DEAD #1 (of 3) BY RADICAL PUBLISHING

WRITER/CREATOR: John Heffernan
PENCILS/INKS: Leonardo Manco
PAINTS: Kinsun Loh & Jerry Choo
EDITOR: Renae Geerlings
COVER: Leonardo Manco

56p FC $4.99

Radical introduces a new supernatural horror set in the heart of Louisiana, from John Heffernan(screenwriter for Snakes on a Plane) and illustrator Leonardo Manco (Hellblazer).

Alabaster Graves is a driver for the dead. As a twenty-year veteran of funeral homes, mortuaries, and coroners’ offices across the Deep South, he has chauffeured hundreds of bodies to their final resting places, although the trip isn’t always so restful. Graves is a “specialty driver”, one who’s called in for the more unusual assignments that come down the pike, and if unusual equals dangerous, well, that’s just a job that pays more. Matter of fact, that’s just what Alabaster is about to get when the assignment to transport the body of renowned voodoo priest, Mose Freeman, drops in his lap. With Freeman’s sultry granddaughter riding shotgun, Alabaster must cover the distance from Shreveport to New Orleans to retrieve the remains. What he doesn’t know is that he’s being pursued by a resurrectionist named Fallow – a necromancer who gets his power from stealing body parts… and for whom the corpse of Mose Freeman would be the ultimate prize.

Don’t worry.

There’s a good chance you don’t know what’s really going on around you. There’s a good chance you think the real monsters are thugs; the real villains are drug dealers or baby snatchers.

Don’t worry.

There’s a good chance your mortal remains won’t be stolen, mutilated, dissected, sold for spare parts, used in dark rituals or used by the local necromancer.

That is, if your friends and relatives have his card.

Alabaster Graves. The driver for the dead.

Dramatic enough intro? I hope so, because Driver for the Dead by Radical Publishing is just that: dramatic. In the best possible ways. Writer John Heffernan takes his big screen experience (Snakes on a Plane, anyone?) and delivers supernatural suspense with a hollywood flourish.

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By Alan M Rogers

TIME BOMB #1 BY RADICAL PUBLISHING

CREATORS & WRITERS: Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray
ARTIST: Paul Gulacy
ADDITIONAL INKS: Charles Yoakum
COLORIST: Rain Beredo
LETTERER: John J Hill
EDITOR: Rob Levin
COVER: Paul Gulacy & Rain Beredo

56 pg FC $4.99

After the Omega Bomb of Nazi Germany is accidentally launched, giving the human race 72 hours to live, four specialists are sent back in time to prevent the disaster. Unfortunately, instead of getting send back two dys, our heroes find themselves 67 years in the past, landing right in the middle of a German POW camp.

As the four time-displaced heroes hurry to ground zero, they take careful steps not to alter the past. However, their presence has alerted a sinister and evil enemy to their mission, the creator of the Omega Bomb himself, Axel Von Metzger, The Butcher!

Everyone I know – comic book reader or not – loves to imagine the world is a more mysterious place than they think it is. Everyone wants there to be places we haven’t found. Everyone wants a little magic, a lost civilization or a corner of the planet with ancient, unexplained ruins.

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