Comic Review: Dead Body Road: Bad Blood #1

Dead Body Road: Bad Blood #1

Image Comics

Writer: Justin Jordan

Art: Benjamin Tiesma, Mat Lopes and Pat Brosseau

As anyone who’s a fan of comics like 100 Bullets or Criminal can tell you crime stories make for quality comic books whenever approached right, just like any other genre. Dead Body Road had its first iteration around seven years ago this week, we get a brand new start for a brand new story.

This new title’s story starts off with a man presenting himself as Monk. He starts this series’ plot similar to the first one. A crime has happened, somebody got played and Monk – a.k.a Mr. Sinclair – is beating answers out of people. Now he needs to find Bree Hale’s, our protagonist, brother. The comic then cuts to Bree at a normal night at her bar. Stopping drunkards from driving themselves to death and fights from wrecking the place. Bree is inquired about her brother by Detective Marshall, with whom she appears to share some intimacy. Later one of Sinclair’s men comes over asking the same question. It is then that wheels start turning.

Justin Jordan did an incredible work on the first series of DBR but this single first issue got me more excited than the entire 2013’s comic. The pacing in this chapter is astonishingly precise about creating suspense and giving hints on who knows who in this crime-filled setting we’re presented. The writer himself states, crime fiction is one of his favorite reading genres and it shows. The amount of mastery Jordan displays with this first chapter is unbelievable. How would you hype up a character without constantly mentioning their past deeds in passing like we get a lot in John Wick? Well, the writer schooled me on that one, that’s for sure. When I reached the twist so cleverly set I was hooked.

To be honest, on the first few pages I wasn’t really sold on Benjamin Tiesma’s line art. Some close-ups look a bit weird and didn’t exactly fit the character presented to us before. I’m guessing, a bit overdone on light/shades on some of the characters might not have helped. Towards the end of the first chapter, we get these darker scenes which worked best with Tiesmas’ lines greatly similar to Giuseppe Camuncoli’s work except with much more texture and details applied. The artist’s facial expressions and motions are on point in every single panel really bringing the action to life.

Although I did mention some misalignment between colors and lines at the first few pages I have to commend Mat Lopes’ work. Ever since I found out about him his work has mesmerized me at every turn. Not only his choice of colors is impeccable to portray the rural town this comic is set on, but the way he applies the lighting onto the scenes’ elements is amazingly accurate. Despite the skin glowing too much, in my opinion, it starts happening less often towards the end of the issue where it starts to go for precision rather than denoting the characters’ expressions.

Pat Brosseau’s lettering is discreet meaning it does its job well. He did, however, add some nice wriggly dialogue balloons which serve to convey the fainting voice of a beat-up man. I could use some more onomatopoeia, especially since this should be an action drive comic, and I, personally, think the sound effects can help tons with the immersion.

Overall this was a fantastic read. I hadn’t read a crime story since last year so it’s refreshing to have a go after all this time and get this much quality. If you’re a fan of crime comics then you’re definitely picking this up for it is even better than the first iteration and I’m expecting it to maintain that standard.