By the Time I Get to Dallas (review)

Story: Colin Devonshire
Inks: Dario Fas Marin
Pencils: Juanfrancisco Moyano
Colors: Jacinto Moyano
Letters: Jaymes Reed
Book 1
Comic book, 34 pages.
Published by Pitdoc Press

(Buy it here)

Hey there ,

As promised a quick review of a comic book created by the sheer drive and imagination from a friend of mine:

By the Time I Get to Dallas tells the story of Rudy Deckart, a young intern at a Boston hospital witnessing the collapse of civilization... ... which consists for the most part everyone dropping what they're doing and walking to a spot on the earth near Dallas, Texas. Colin Devonshire is wise to frame the story around Rudy (his girlfriend apparently succumbed early and left for Dallas days earlier) and his experience. Wise because no doubt this will be compared to The Walking Dead or World War Z, which have much more scary and compelling antagonists: shuffling rotting corpses that want to get to you and rip you apart. Had Colin focused on his 'sick people' instead of Rudy you would've seen BTTIGTD's biggest liability story-wise exposed. Namely, that watching blank-faced people walk across the land would've been less dramatically compelling than Kirkman or Brook's efforts.

This is the first outing for writing and creating a comic book for Colin and company. It starts out with a kind of hum-drum suburban neighborhood scene depicted in a fussy high-detailed style that's a bit distracting. It improves a few pages later.

As for starting the story with the suburban scene, I didn't think that there was much of a 'hook' there. People drop what they're doing and start walking... to Dallas. Interesting, maybe. But more on the level of something from Forrest Gump ("and then I just ran") rather than a nail-biting intro for a world falling apart. Luckily, the story moves away from that set up and into the personal life of Medical Intern Rudy. He's kind of a jerk with a tragic past, reminiscing about the day he wanted to be a doctor and his typical experiences in the ER.

But they come from someone fascinated with performing risky complicated procedures rather than healing the sick. Whether or not BTTIGTD shows his transformation to a more empathetic Doctor remains to be seen.

The improvement in story and art -dropping the fussines- to where Rudy and his girlfriend interact is a very pleasant surprise. I was quickly transported into their worlds and their relationship issues as they had their back-and-forth. Colin has a real ear for dialogue (and it helps that he too has a medicine background) and when the characters interact it's very readable and relatable.

It's obvious Colin Devonshire and his artist team have poured themselves into making this story come to life 100%. Seeing how quickly they were able to hone the writing and art into a Marvel/DC caliber of quality in just 8 to 10 pages is a good sign. I am definitely looking forward to what happens the next few issues. The fact that there is massive flames in the background mean some shit's really going to be going down very soon!

By the Time I Get to Dallas

Published by Pitdoc Press

(Buy it here)

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