By Brandy Dykhuizen. Our Week In Review sums up our weekly comic book coverage while taking time for a new review or two before it’s all over. Did we miss your favorite books this week? Well. This is where you need to be.
Cover to ‘Gasolina’ #1. Art by Niko Walter and Mat Lopes/Image Comics
Gasolina #1
Image Comics/$3.99
Written by Sean Mackiewicz.
Art by Niko Walter.
Colors by Mat Lopes.
Letters by Rus Wooton.
BD: Right off the bat, Gasolina gives the impression that there will be serious scores to settle. The cover sees the two main characters looking out into the unknown, braced against the yellow desert heat with piles of bones scattered under their feet. It’s just the beginning of their journey, but we can already tell this isn’t going to be your run-of-the-mill cartel tale.
Sean Mackiewicz strikes up a perfect balance between exposition and getting right down to it. The mystery and horror rear their severed heads early on, but they are approached in a way that demonstrates the dynamics of Amalia’s and Randy’s complex yet seemingly steadfast relationship.
Niko Walter and Mat Lopes form a fantastic art team, with Walter devoting a large percentage of panel space to eyes (both living and dead) and Lopes keeping the world cloaked in just the right amount of shadow. What we glean from the end result is that everybody has a secret, even the desert itself.
It’s hard to take a stab at exactly where this book is headed. Surely the cartel will come more into play, and the Alien-like creature that’s been ripping through torsos will up the stakes of the oncoming drug war. But Mackiewicz is careful not to give too much away, and keeps the pacing deliberate and measured. We don’t know much, but we certainly have enough to be enticed to read more.
I found the ending to be a bit abrupt – so much so that I scrolled up and down a few times, wondering if the PDF I was reading had been truncated. Call me a sucker for resolution, but I would have like to see the final scene play out over more than one page. Aside from a final page that felt like it somehow interrupted itself, Gasolina is compelling cartel story that will likely continue to become even more gripping, somehow.
8 out of 10
From earlier this week —
10 things concerning Lights, her first comics series, and her fourth album, ‘Skin & Earth’
Undercover, or: Six covers from this week that we won’t live without
Desert Island Picks, Part 2 — CASUAL WEDNESDAYS WITH DOOMROCKET
BOOKS FOR BABES: ‘Little Red Wolf’ a sumptuous spin on an immortal fairy tale
Preview: Reggie Mantle is up to no darn good in ‘Your Pal Archie’ #3
Staff Picks: To read Image’s ‘Savage Town’ is to mainline pure comics bliss
AfterShock strikes gold with new horror epic ‘Dark Ark’ from Bunn and Doe
We have such sights to show you in this preview of BOOM’s ‘Hellraiser’ omnibus
IMAGERY: ‘Glitterbomb: The Fame Game’ dives deeper into the lurid world of celebrity culture
What books did YOU read this week? We want to know! Tell us about those feelings of yours in the comments section below.
