Dust to Dust #1 // Review
Russel’s mom is calling for him. He’s busy, though. Wants to make sure that he’s finished wuth what he’s doing out there on the farm, but. he DOES want to head iun to go home before his mome gets a switch. He’s burning centipedes. They ahve been crawling out of the drilling pipes like crazy. Of course, he’s reminded of why that’s not really his problem anymore in Dust to Dust #1. The writing team of J.G. Jones and Phil Bram open a dustbowl era tale. Jones’ delivers the drama to the page with suitably serious earthbound visuals in a promising opening issue.
Russel is going to be moving off to California with his family. Their farm is long dead. No need to burn the centipedes because there isn’t any actual farming going on anymore. The dust has claimed it. The desert has claimed it. there isn’t going to b e anything left for anyone. It’s time to head out. It’s going to be a long journey, but anything is better than dust farming in Oklahoma. There’s a chance for survival closer to the setting sun. It’s going to be a big journey, but they’re going to have to make it if they’re going to survive.
Jones and Bram deliver a solid earthbound reality to the page in historic drama. The overall momentum of the story seems respectively realized in an issue that doesn’t try to do too much in the first outing of a new series. THere’s no sense of fantasy here...it’s all very dark and dismal as the family gets ready to leave in what should be a very tense adventure once things get going a little bit later-on as things progress. The dry destitution of life in the dustbowl seems firmly established at the end of the first issue.
Jones’ artwork cleverly renders the artwork in the style of an old photograph from the 1930s. THe sepia of the color is occasionally met with a splash of color, but for the most part it’s all faded white into yellow with greys and blacks that might have come from silver salts in some ancient camera nearly 100 years ago. It’s all very sharp stuff that carries a heaviness to page and panel in a way that feels suitably intense from beginning to end. The vapid vacancy of life in the southwestern American desert feels firmly established as the series takes hold.
There's an inescapable feeling of the first issue that feels like it might be drawing in some sort of a fantastic direction with vague references to fantasy occasionally peering out of the edges of the script here and there. Though the visuals are compelling, there isn’t quite enough in the heart of it all to deliver much of any deep embrace of the comic book art form as witness in the movements and motions of the first issue. It’ll be interesting to see where it all moves to as thins progress, but at the outset it feels like there’s a major plot twist coming that isn’t quite there.
