Comic Review: The Rush #1

Comic Review: The Rush #1

Vault Comics

Writer: Simon Spurrier

Artist: Nathan Gooden

The Rush is a frontier-era horror comic. While its most obvious strength is the spectacular art, which is atmospheric, the epistolary form and writing deserve praise as well. These elements combine to make a beautiful and well-told first issue that holds plenty of promise.

The Rush title is in reference to gold found in the Yukon territory. Territory, that should be noted, was stolen from indigenous peoples. While portrayals of these First Nations people don’t feature in this #1, you can learn about them here: First Nations of the Yukon Territory. While the plot of this first issue does a lot of heavy lifting in terms of backstory, as well as some solid forward motion in plot, the absence of any indigenous peoples or acknowledgment of them is telling. Don’t get me wrong, I like this #1. It’s extremely well written and illustrated, but I also expect the historical truths of this region to be acknowledged in subsequent issues.

In terms of plot, The Rush gets off to an intriguing start. In the snow-covered landscape, prospectors look for gold, only to have one of them slice into his own arm and pull a nugget from under the skin. But then there is something that lurks in the cold-north. A figure of human shape that wears a suit and tie and a bolar hat, whose breath does not mist in the frigid air. It looks to be the embodiment of greed or capitalism or corpocracy. However, the creature does not reveal its face. While this is a setup for the plot, most of the story follows a mother’s quest to find her sixteen-year-old son. The boy’s father left him in the far north. Nobody knows what has become of the boy.

The art in this comic is perfect for the setting, tone, and atmosphere. The beginning of the issue is in epistolary form, as the mother writes a letter to her son. It strikes me that the images in this part of the issue are quite secondary. The captions of the letter read as much like a novel as a comic. I like that. The craft of the writing, the dialect, it all adds to the immersion of the art. These early panels are illustrated in a faint sepia, giving the whole backstory the feeling of an old memory, half-remembered. Lastly, the lettering is similarly on point, especially in those early backstory panels. The looping script evokes the experience of a letter from the turn of the century.