Dead Ahead #3

Written by Mel Smith, Clark K. Castillo, and Paul H. Birch
Art by Alex Niño

Well, this is certainly a comic I never expected to see reach the store shelves. In the year since the last issue came out, I remember reading about there being some massive in-fighting among the creators (something to do with the colorist?). Also, I'm pretty sure I remember seeing this book get canceled by Diamond, although the fact that I now own it tells me maybe I just imagined that.

So, one year on, how is this title? It's a mess. The story is quite hard to follow in this issue. I'm not sure any more of who any of the characters are, and the layout, while being the best thing about the comic, contributes to the confusion more than anything.

Niño's art is fantastic, but it seems like he did not put any thought into the flow of the story. The book doesn't have panels really, but instead large spreads that look like they should move from left to right, but the placement of the text boxes and speech bubbles don't always feel intuitive.

Furthermore, the prose here is pretty over the top. It's like the three authors are trying to out-do each other and be more Jamie Delano than even the Jamie Delano who wrote Rawbone would think is wise.

But let's face it: the book is about zombies on the high seas, and has art by Alex Niño. That makes this book special and all kinds of awesome, even if you don't bother trying to read it.