"DUST TO DUST" – Not Sure If It’s Dead Or Alive (REVIEW)

Image: Image Comics

The latest release from Giant Generator and Image Comics, Dust to Dust, is a tale of depression, desperation, mystery, and murder. However, it is hard to feel much of the murder and mystery from this first issue.

Making their debut with Image Comics, as writers with this limited series, Phil Bram and JG Jones (who previously only had artist credits with series like Marvel Boy and Wanted) tell the tale of New Hope, a town struggling in the darkest days of the Great Depression which is beset by a serial killer and isolating dust storms.

We follow Sheriff Meadows, troubled by his own demons, as he tries to keep the peace in a town of farmers who are becoming increasingly desperate for their livelihood. Accompanying him is Sarah, a traveling photojournalist, who befriends the sheriff just as things escalate and the mysterious serial killer and pervasive dust storms threaten to shorten everyone’s future.

Being advertised as “Yellowstone” meets “Blood Meridian,” there is a lot of promise and hype for the fans of serial killer mysteries and Western-style dramas. However, it may take until they release their second issue before they hook their audience. The first issue is both too deep on character and too shallow on plot, where even the thought of a serial killer or a dust storm isn’t even established. Thus, the audience isn’t even given what was initially advertised in their synopsis, beyond the broad strokes of the setting.

This first issue is cover-to-cover character exposition, and in ways that don’t seem immediately necessary. For example, there is a traumatised war veteran who is given almost three full pages just to establish his gentle/easily terrified nature but is otherwise unimportant to anything immediately happening in the story. Details like this could have been drip-fed over several issues when the various characters become more significant with the ongoing drama. Numerous drawn-out conversations and events only exacerbate the fact that none of this first issue includes the primary hook in the synopsis. It’s the sort of oversight that makes people hesitate on whether they should get the next issue. At most there is a hint towards a murder when the sheriff silently discovers a weathered human jaw bone. But since he doesn’t discuss the discovery with anyone, there is no additional speculation or insight into what he thinks of it or intends to do about it.

Without having read the synopsis you’d be forgiven for thinking this is a comic about depression-era drama and political power plays. If you like that sort of thing, then this first issue will probably capture your attention. It is nicely written, the dialogue feels natural enough, and the pacing is decent. Even the characterisation of everyone is interesting, with a mixture of depth, cliche and quirk, that makes them all feel real and unique. It just wasn’t what was advertised, and the people coming for some sort of true crime or murder mystery vibe will probably finish the issue disappointed and more than a little bewildered. If they had cut out some of the characterisations, they could have had the sheriff at least making an effort to identify who the jawbone belonged to. They also could have ended the issue with an actual current murder (perhaps one only shown to the audience but yet to be discovered by the characters), then it would have been something establishing the advertised primary plot, and given a hook for reading the next issue.

The upshot is the artwork is phenomenal. Hand-painted in sepia tones, and pushing at the edges of photorealism. It’s the sort of style and skill that just becomes hypnotic as you take in the exceptional detail even if there is occasionally an ‘uncanny valley’ panel. Stylistically it is utterly perfect for the setting, both time-period and location. I can see it working well when the killer is actually stalking the inhabitants of New Hope and will truly caption the texture of the dust storms.

Generally speaking, this isn’t a bad comic, and it has lots of potential, it just might be moving a little slower than it needs to and risks shedding readers before it has a chance to prove where it’s going.

Dust to Dust will be hitting shelves, physically and digitally 26th of December.

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