Dark Spaces: The Hollywood Special #4 Review

 

Writer: Jeremy Lambert

Artist: Claire Roe

Colorist: Jordie Bellaire

Letterer: Becca Carey

Cover Artists: Claire Roe & Jordie Bellaire; Dani & Tamra Bonvillain; Jacob Edgar; Gabriel Walta

Publisher: IDW

Price: $3.99

Release Date: December 6, 2023

 

Vivian Drake is safe on the train, but her young fan Molly is missing. Molly’s father pleads with Vivian, begging the actress to return to the mine and rescue his daughter. Can a faded Hollywood starlet promoting WWII war bonds accomplish more than the experienced workers of Minerstown, Pennsylvania? Let’s leap into Dark Spaces: The Hollywood Special #4 and find out!

 

Story

After Vivian’s encounter with the Mismatch Man, she woke up in the rubble near the entrance to the mine. Yet Molly remained behind. The young girl walks through tunnels with the nightmarish creature. It follows as she skirts the underground lake and enters Viv's Diner. Inside, Molly meets Vivian, or rather her favorite heroine: Sally Steel.

 

The star of The Adventures of Sally Steel believes she’s a visitor to the diner. Vivian might have owned it once, but now it belongs to Molly. The girl's strength falters when she glimpses a familiar shadow. She runs away. But can Molly escape the Mismatch Man?

 

 

 

Vivian regrets some of her choices in Dark Spaces: The Hollywood Special #4. Alcohol dampened the pain, but the damage she suffered remained untreated. Her misery drew the Mismatch Man to her. It feasted on her pain. Vivian's neuroses made the creature stronger than ever before.

 

No one invited Vivian Drake and Lou Gaines to help rescue people from the mine. A local discouraged her from visiting the bar where Sally’s father worked. Yet Vivian insisted upon becoming involved. With her career on the wane, did Vivian yearn to be the heroine that inspired Molly? 

 

 

 

Art

Assembled from a collection of body parts, the Mismatch Man adopts the head of its latest victim and wears it upside down. In Dark Spaces: The Hollywood Special #4, we see through its eyes. The underground lake mirrors the action, helping us watch Molly enter the diner. As the Mismatch Man pursues the brave girl, the creature views Vivian’s past. Events seem to take place in Hell amid the Lake Of Fire.

 

A beautifully composed page leads readers from rescuers entering the mine to the monster standing outside the diner beside the underground lake. Claire Roe shows Molly's father pleading for Vivian to intervene. Images resembling photographic negatives surround Vivian and the handbill Molly asked her to sign: a mini poster advertising The Adventures Of Sally Steel. 

 

 

 

Jordie Bellaire changes palettes by scene and location in Dark Spaces: The Hollywood Special #4. Molly and the Mismatch Man evoke yellowed photographs, while bright, wild colors heighten lakeside scenes. The diner’s harsh overhead light makes Sally Steel glow while graying all else. Vivian’s painful memories burn in orange and red. Yet Bellaire's most haunting contribution remains the beige and blue-gray scenes in which Vivian gazes out the window as rain pummels the sitting train.

 

Prone to shrink when voices lower, uppercase letters in white dialogue balloons are big, black, and beautiful. Smaller lowercase letters reveal reviewers' remarks regarding the actors' recent performances. While no sound effects heighten the horrific events, Becca Carey helps us read newspaper titles and magazine covers. Her artistry makes the poster for The Adventures Of Sally Steel more enticing.

 

Thanks to IDW for providing a copy for review.

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

While cherishing relationships that influence us in countless ways, we believe we are masters of our fates. A work of ineffable beauty, Dark Spaces: The Hollywood Special #4 invites us to examine those relationships and how they impact our mental health.

 

Rating 9.2/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

Phantom Road #1 Review

 

Phantom Road #1 Review

Writer: Jeff Lemire

Artist: Gabriel H. Walta

Colorist: Jordie Bellaire

Letterer: Steve Wands

Cover Artists: Gabriel H. Walta; Jeff Lemire; Javier Fernandez; Andrea Sorrentino; & Christian Ward

Publisher: Image

Price: $3.99

Release Date: March 1, 2023

 

We see them on our streets. They line our highways. They transport goods to stores, warehouses, and storage depots. They are the most visible of our neighbors. Yet do we ever wonder what strange situations long-haul truckers might encounter? Let's climb aboard Phantom Road #1 and find out!

 

Story

He drives through the night with only his radio for company. He sees only a lined strip of asphalt and his reflection on the windshield. When he pulls into a truck stop, those he meets seem more like ghosts: they inhabit the present but only look toward the future. There is only his delivery and a short reprieve before the next endurance test begins.

 

We don't learn his name until halfway through Phantom Road #1. Dom tries to help a frightened woman. She points to a strange object in the road near a dead body and her overturned car. When he touches it, everything changes.

 

The minimal dialogue and familiar storyline drew me in. A flashback gave insight into Dom's past. He's no Snowman from Smokey And The Bandit. Nor does he have much to look forward to, unlike Lincoln Hawk in Over The Top. Yet I felt I knew him. While the woman remains a stranger, I can understand the fear that threatens to overwhelm her.

 

 

Art

The gauges on Dom's dashboard may not form perfect circles. The interior of his cabin looks scribbled. Darkened areas of the road are lined or blacked out. The truck stop waitress wears a blank expression. A drug pusher’s features are squiggly lines. A fellow trucker looks carved from clay. Walta’s hand-drawn art ushers us into Phantom Road #1 and keeps us turning the pages.

 

The most vibrant scenes are when Dom enters the Truck stop café and the one-page flashback. As for the rest, Jordie Bellaire's minimal coloring matches the blandness of Dom's life. Yet the strange events in the second half, in which Dom's life changes—perhaps forever—offer even less color. Harsh lighting bleaches the barren plain, a radical change from the nighttime Dom so recently inhabited.

 

The computer-designed dialogue balloons merge uneasily with Walta’s squiggles and lines. Yet the uppercase lettering makes for easy reading. Italicized and bold words suggest intonation. Words fade for lowered voices. Squiggly yellow notes overlay one man's white dialogue balloons as he sings the tune locked in his head. Radio messages get relayed through starbursts. Computer-generated sound effects in the first half give way to hand-drawn ones in the second. It's an intriguing mix that never slows or halts us on this long, strange journey.

 

 

Final Thoughts

Phantom Road #1's familiar premise, identifiable characters, and fast-moving story caught me in its draft and carried me along. It evokes The Twilight Zone and The Walking Dead. Edvard Munch's painting The Scream also comes to mind. As a passenger on this strange journey, I wonder where the series will take me next.

 

Rating: 7/10  

To view the preview art for this issue see my review at Comic Book Dispatch