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.

Dead Ahead #2

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

I don't normally buy books just for their art - I need a good strong story to draw me in, and find myself following writers much more than artists from title to title. But occasionally, the main draw of a book for me is going to be the art, and that's the case with Dead Ahead.

The story has potential - it's about a group of people that are stuck at sea because the mainland has been overrun by zombies. It takes the claustrophobia of a movie like Alien, and adds all the excitement of a good zombie movie. The problem is that the writing (despite the pair of credited writers and the 'Additional Wordsmith' - whatever that means) is predictable and flat. Characters behave like archetypes, and the plot lacks surprise.

The art is the draw. Alex Nino is a horror comics master, setting pages up with unorthodox panel layouts and creepy looking zombie bits. There is a fluidity to his art that is hard to describe and to match. Some pages in this issue look rushed though - and at times the action is hard to follow. Other pages more than make up for any shortfall in their beauty though.

I'm also glad that they fixed the problem the first issue had with the text being written onto the artwork in such a way that it was sometimes hard to read - in this issue, the words are enclosed in small, form-fitting speech bubbles.

Dead Ahead #1

Written by Clark Castillo and Mel Smith
Art by Alex Nino

This is a pretty standard zombie story, with a nautical twist. The plot is decent, focusing on a group of people stuck at sea, since land has become overrun by zombies. The script is serviceable, although the characters aren't particularly individualized or developed, and I'm not sure I care about any of them all that much.

The strength of this book lies in the art (and the colours). Nino has done some fantastic work, playing with panel borders and double-page spreads; and the colouring of Moose Baumann makes the pages come alive.

This is one of those random Image books that just appears out of nowhere with little fanfare, but makes you glad that Image is around. I hope the second issue comes out soon.