About two weeks ago I ran over a squirrel. Had I seen him I would've swerved, believe me. I always slow down if there's a bird or animal in the middle of the road, or at least swerve out of the way. This time I couldn't swerve. I literally saw a tiny squirrel body in the corner of my eye a few feet to the left. A split second he bobbed, and then 'thump' something hard got shot up into the floor panel by the tire. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw a tiny furry lump. I felt bad.

Road Kill Du Jour, parts 1 - 4

Written by Kevin LaPorte and Shawn Harbin
Art by Shawn Harbin

Buy the comics HERE.

Road Kill Du Jour has a high degree of color and detail. It's well within the horror genre. And... there's a biker protagonist.

I couldn't find a way to like this.

Too many flaws in the comic. For one, the hero, Du Jour, is cursed by a Voodoo Witch, Mama Hoodoo, to only be able to survive by eating 'road kill,' animals who have been run over. When he eats a certain animal, he morphs into that creature's shape (a hybrid man/snake,armadillo,vulture etc). It's a concept that hobbles this revenge tale story from the get-go. Because Du Jour undergoes all these transformations he's drawn as a different creature almost page for page. It's really hard to keep track of where/who he is. Shawn Harbin's style, of messing panels and people in a general stew of bodies, only contributes to the confusion.

Another problem is the eating.

Du Jour needs to morph into a half-dozen animals through the course of these four parts -the better to showcase his 'curse' I suspect. But then the constant talk about his next meal, his need to eat, when he had his last meal... I found that very off putting. Story wise it reminded me of having a nagging aunt on a road trip who can't stop questioning you about your digestion. As a reader I don't care who what where when he eats his next meal.

Lastly, there's a lot of material surrounding Mama Hoodoo and her henchmen, and this strange... tree thing? The tree thing has pregnant women whose babies are ripped out of their bellies. I know that sounds horrible and gross, but there was so little room in the pages of this comic to depict this stuff that it actually looks benign in a cartoonish way. There was a lot of stuff that was depicted that way, cartoonish and blunt, forced in.

When I got to the fourth part I pretty much stopped reading. Roiling and contorting bodies, animals, ghosts, already-eaten animals popping out of animals, coupled with the final battle of Du Jour against Mama Hoodoo in a blood soaked stew... all of that just laid there on the page like -ironically- road kill.

I'm just one guy.

There's 93 other fans who probably have much more praise to sing to Road Kill Du Jour. Its composition is very attractive. The spread-page layout method was pulled off well (that's where you arrange the panels to be read left to right across the whole two pages you have open rather than keeping the panels on one page at a time).

Thinking back to the squirrel I hit, his judgement must have been clouded. A threat was coming fast! The moment to act, to run across the road, or retreat backwards into the tall grass behind him was fast approaching. He chose poorly.

Next three Tuesdays:

A 119 page anthology by the hugely talented team of Lynsey G and Jayel Draco of Oneshi press called 'Becoming'

Looks real cool, there's over 30 contributors, so a lot of ground to cover! I'm going to review this in three takes.

 

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