DRY COUNTY #1 - REVIEW
Writer/Artist: Rich Tommaso
Publisher: Image Comics
Dry County (still haven’t figured out where that title comes from, unless it’s just a reference to the protagonist Lou Rossi having a dry spell in his romantic life) follows a typical story line. Boy meets girl. Boy chases girl. Girl has baggage. Will boy and girl ever get together? Actually, as I am writing this it sounds like every generic chick flick. But it’s not! I promise! It is actually an interesting and intriguing story. It reads much more like a pulp fiction detective story than chick lit.
Some readers might be turned off by how much of the narrative is told in narration instead of through dialogue, but I like it. It kept the pages turning. One thing that did leave me scratching my head was the fact that the narration was written on what appeared to be lined, yellow, legal pad pages. I am all for stylistic choices, but, they have to have a reason, right? Maybe that will be explained in later issues.
Speaking of stylistic choices (wow, what a lazy transition), the whole thing was drawn to look like an old newspaper comic strip. I was kind of questioning that decision as well until it was revealed that Rossi worked as a newspaper cartoonist. A comic about a newspaper cartoonist drawn like a newspaper cartoon. I can dig that. And while we’re on the subject (man, I’ve GOT to get better at my transitions), the Miami Vice color scheme, yeah, it can be cliché, but honestly, if you are writing a comic book set in Miami in the 1980s, you have to use it, right?
There were a couple of consistency things I noticed. First, the aforementioned girl being chased described driving from El Paso to Florida, and this is shown in a flashback of her driving by a saguaro cactus. I’ve lived in West Texas my entire life, and I can, with 100% confidence, tell you there aren’t saguaro here. I’ve even driven to Florida a couple times. None on the way. Unless there is another El Paso in Arizona that she was talking about, that wouldn’t happen. Also, there was a scene with a guy in a Nine Inch Nails shirt. I know Trent Reznor founded the band in 1988, so technically it could work, but, can anyone honestly tell me that they ever saw anyone wearing that NIN shirt before 1994?
All that being said, the book was good. It did something that a first issue hasn’t done in a long time. Made me excited about the second issue. Tommaso not only gave us an entertaining story, but he also made us care about the characters and what happens to them in the storyline, and I can’t wait to see.
Publisher: Image Comics
Dry County (still haven’t figured out where that title comes from, unless it’s just a reference to the protagonist Lou Rossi having a dry spell in his romantic life) follows a typical story line. Boy meets girl. Boy chases girl. Girl has baggage. Will boy and girl ever get together? Actually, as I am writing this it sounds like every generic chick flick. But it’s not! I promise! It is actually an interesting and intriguing story. It reads much more like a pulp fiction detective story than chick lit.
Some readers might be turned off by how much of the narrative is told in narration instead of through dialogue, but I like it. It kept the pages turning. One thing that did leave me scratching my head was the fact that the narration was written on what appeared to be lined, yellow, legal pad pages. I am all for stylistic choices, but, they have to have a reason, right? Maybe that will be explained in later issues.
Speaking of stylistic choices (wow, what a lazy transition), the whole thing was drawn to look like an old newspaper comic strip. I was kind of questioning that decision as well until it was revealed that Rossi worked as a newspaper cartoonist. A comic about a newspaper cartoonist drawn like a newspaper cartoon. I can dig that. And while we’re on the subject (man, I’ve GOT to get better at my transitions), the Miami Vice color scheme, yeah, it can be cliché, but honestly, if you are writing a comic book set in Miami in the 1980s, you have to use it, right?
There were a couple of consistency things I noticed. First, the aforementioned girl being chased described driving from El Paso to Florida, and this is shown in a flashback of her driving by a saguaro cactus. I’ve lived in West Texas my entire life, and I can, with 100% confidence, tell you there aren’t saguaro here. I’ve even driven to Florida a couple times. None on the way. Unless there is another El Paso in Arizona that she was talking about, that wouldn’t happen. Also, there was a scene with a guy in a Nine Inch Nails shirt. I know Trent Reznor founded the band in 1988, so technically it could work, but, can anyone honestly tell me that they ever saw anyone wearing that NIN shirt before 1994?
All that being said, the book was good. It did something that a first issue hasn’t done in a long time. Made me excited about the second issue. Tommaso not only gave us an entertaining story, but he also made us care about the characters and what happens to them in the storyline, and I can’t wait to see.
A Look Inside
