Road Rage, by Chris Ryall. A.K.A “Stephen King and Joe Hill pay homage to Richard Matheson”
A COMIC BOOK REVIEW
Today I want to talk about something different. Today we won’t be talking about short movies based upon a short tale by Stephen King, cause today we will talk about a comic book based upon 2 short tales written by 3 masters of storytelling (one of them, of course, Stephen King): today, for the first time at SKSM, we will talk about a comic book. “Road Rage” , a comic book from IDW Publishing.
Writing reviews is always fun for me, but I already told you guys that it kind of bugs me when talking about short movies that most of you won’t be able to watch. That is why sometimes I write a review about a short movie that is available on YouTube. I do intend to keep doing this and more: sometimes I will write about an episode of a TV show like Creepshow or any other Stephen King material that you can find on your own. And this time I want to start talking about comic books based upon Stephen King’s work. Believe me, there are some great ones.
This first one is kind of special, because not only we have a comic book based upon a Stephen King short tale, but also this tale was written by Stephen King and his son Joe Hill. And it is a tale inspired by another great author’s work, Richard Matheson!
We all know King’s work, right? (that is why we are here, right?) But if you don’t know Joe Hill’s work, man, you should and it won’t take you too long, because he does not write as his father (19 books a year), so he has 10 or 8 books so far. And they are really good books. The best thing about Joe Hill is that he does not write like his father, he does not try to, but if you do know Hill’s work you probably know that he is a hell of a writer too.I have already read 2 novel of his and another book with short tales, so believe me when I say that he is really good at telling a story. It is not so difficult to believe if you think about it: imagine being a kid and the stories that you hear at bed time are told by Stephen King.
You will probably grow up knowing at least how to tell a story to your friends. I have never read Tabitha‘s work or Owen‘s, but let’s face it: there is something different about that family in Maine, maybe it is in their blood.
And I do say these things with all due respect to Joe Hill, because not only I love his books (I have all that were translated into Portuguese and one audiobook in English) but I also do recognize that it must be really hard to be a professional and have to face always being compared to your father’s work and talent. But if you have never read one of his books, maybe you had the chance to watch some movies/TV shows based upon his stories. If you did watch those you probably already know that Joe’s work speaks for itself.
That being said, let me ask now if you guys know Richard Matheson’s work. Do you? Well, you must! Let’s just say that King himself loves it and used to read Matheson when he was a kid. Maybe you do know some of his work, but you don’t know that you know haha.
There are some works of his that became great movies, such as “Somewhere in Time“, “Hell House“, “What Dreams May Come” (one of my personal favorites of Matheson’s work, the movie and the book) and the most famous one: “I am legend“. I confess that I only started to look for Matheson’s books after I saw “I am legend”, but I was really surprised that some movies that I already knew were also based upon books of his. Even now, when I was looking at the names in English for the movies based upon his stories , I had just found out that another movie that I love is based upon his work: “Stir of Echoes“.
But what really amazes me at Matheson’s stories is the way he changes genres from one book to another in such a fluid way. And they are all well written stories. For instance: he wrote a damn good vampire story like “I am the legend”, but also wrote beautiful love stories such as “Somewhere in time” and “What dreams may come”. A great sci-fi story like “The Shrinking Man” and later a horror story like “Hell House“. He goes from one genre from to the other so easy and that is because he is a fucking great storyteller and, who else do we know that writes stories from different genres and it keeps good at every single one of them? That father of that family from Maine!!!
When I first read the introduction of this comic book called “Road Rage” I understood why Hill and King wrote a short tale called “The Tribe”: King grew up reading Richard Matheson and later as a father, he watched some Steven Spielberg movies with his kids. One in particular they saw a lot of times, one called “The Duel“, based upon a short tale by Richard Matheson and Matheson also wrote the screenplay for it.
Joe tells in this introduction that his father and him used to talk a lot about this movie, especially when they were on the road. They used to talk a lot about what they would do if there was a truck trying to kill them on the road. Years later, Joe is invited to write a short story in the book “He is the legend – an anthology celebrating Richard Matheson”. In these books some famous writers were invited to write something based upon Matheson’s work. Joe Hill still loves “The duel”, so he not he accepted the invitation, but also he grabbed the phone and called his father to ask if he would like to finally write about what they used to talk about so many times on the road. And Mr. King said yes. Thank Ka for that.
I had never read “The Tribe” and “The Duel” before I bought “Road Rage”, but once I did have the comic book at my hands I knew I needed to read it before I started the comic book. And then I decided to also write this review. I saw that I did have the book “The shrinking man and other stories” here at home, but I did have to get an e-book in English so I could read “The Tribe”.
I started with Matheson and I was so amazed, man…It had been years since the last time I had read some of his work and I confess I had forgotten how good he is. This short tale in particular hit me hard, cause I also work as a taxi driver, so I do spend a lot of time on the road. I have never been in a big car crash, but I am always escaping from one. If you are on the road a lot, once in a while you will probably almost shit your pants because you were that close to die. Sometimes we forget how cars can be dangerous, in the “wrong” hands they can be a weapon and if you see things this way, buses are like missiles and trucks are like atomic bombs! That is what “The Duel” is about: a huge truck driven by a maniac who chooses someone on the road to kill. Simple as that. And such a true story! That is something that could really happen when Matheson wrote the short tale in the 70ths, but it can still happen nowadays!
I always say that to get a driver’s license you should at least talk to a psychologist. Someone should evaluate if you are sane enough to have a car at your hands. Here in Brazil, to drive a cab, I have to talk to a psychologist once a year just to keep my permission. But even with this rule there are some “Travis Bickles” in here. Now, imagine how many crazy people are driving a car on the streets right now. And buses, full with children. And trucks on the road.
“The Duel” is such a horrifying story because there are no vampires or demons, there is just a guy that was driving to another town and now is running away from a truck driver. Something like that can happen. Man, it probably happens once in a while. And, if you think about it, some of the most horrifying stories from any writer (King and Hill included) are the ones with normal guys in crazy situations that might happen. Our kids can cross roads with a “Grabber”, God forbid and we can cross roads with a crazy cop on a desert road. And crazy truck drivers!
The beauty of Matheson’s story is that we all know that when we are driving, things can really go wrong in a second (or less): a flat tire, a wrong turn, a wrong decision, a simple mistake can take a life or an asshole driving next to you. Now, Matheson showed us in his story that if someone decides to kill you on the road, man, you will have to run for your life. Literally. And the most awesome thing about the story (and most horrifying if you think about it) is that there is no reason. The main character, Mann, had no clue why this truck driver wanted to kill him. And he never finds out why. And that is so cool!!!
The best villains are the ones we don’t know why they do it. They just do it! We don’t know why Hannibal Lecter eats people at “Silence of the Lambs” (also a great book) and that scares us. Later, in the last movie/book we do understand why and it makes sense, but it also takes away some of the “charm” of this great villain.
Matheson’s villain in here is great: Keller (the truck driver) is mean, he is ruthless and sadistic, we never get to see his face and the comic book adapted this short tale with mastery!
Chris Ryall is the one who adapted both short tales into this comic book series. Now, I don’t know a thing about writing a comic book and I will not pretend that I do. But I do know something about adapting a story to another media, so I can assure you that Ryall really nailed adapting the original sources. He not only respected the original tales in a good way, but also knew when to ignore some scenes or “unnecessary passages” (most of the time).
Don’t get me wrong, but some things work at all medias and some others don’t. In comic books, too many lines/too long dialogues sometimes can make it less interesting. A comic book reader wants a good story, of course, but when we turn the page it is inevitable to see something drawn at the end of the next page and sometimes these things are spoilers. If we need to read big balloons of long dialogues to get there after we had a spoil, sometimes it spoils the fun. Please, don’t get me wrong, I am not lazy, nor a guy who does not like comic books. I love comic books! Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Brian Azzarello, man, they are like Gods of the 9th art. But these guys usually write original stuff, they are not adapting. And to adapt into a comic book must be so difficult, you know? Because you would need to respect the original source , but also knowing what is too much… A writer’s work is rich on a book page, but if the comic writer would respect every single aspect of it, the comic would be too big (more expensive) and maybe lose some of their readers. But we know how good a comic book writer is at adapting another work when he synthesizes 60 pages of a short tale into 20 pages of a comic book and it is still the same story and a good comic book. Chris Ryall nailed it at this point. Sometimes King/Hill took a lot of lines describing a scene, a room for instance. And Ryall synthesized it in a single “frame”. In this way, comic books are a lot similar to movies, but in an even better way because they do it without sound and movement.
At “Road Rage” we have that so well synthetized. At the original “The Duel” we don’t have too many dialogues, but we do have a lot of inner thoughts of the main character. Chris Ryall really nailed adapting this, we read only the necessary to tell the story and to understand the main character. He got the right rhythm to tell this story: slow when it is needed and damn fast when we have a crazy driver at our back.
But let me tell you what I really loved about this version of “The Duel”: the draws! Because of this comic book, now I know and want to see more of the work of a Spanish artist called Rafa Garres. Man, what an artist! He is responsible for the pencil in this part of the “Road Rage” and let me tell you that he drew unforgettable panels for this comic book. I just fell in love with the panels, they remind me of some works of great painters such as Caravaggio and also another Spanish artist, Goya.
Rafa’s panels are not meant to be nice to look at, quite the opposite: there are some ugly, dirty and disgusting things to look at in some panels. And that is why it is so cool! You know, I do like to see beautiful paintings and drawings, such as a draw of a small child smiling or a portrayal of a beautiful woman. But what I really like in some painter’s work is when they show me the ugly side of life. Because there are also ugly children and ugly women. People have scars and diseases, they are not well dressed all the time. Goya shows us that, Caravaggio shows us that (Caravaggio often used homeless people and prostitutes as models). And that is what I saw at Rafa’s draws. At his panels we can see an old and ugly waitress, ugly truck drivers, even the main character is damn ugly. The truck that chases him is dirty and rusty. And it is so cool! Gracias, Señor Garres.
If you guys want to know more about this Spanish artist and his work, please check it out his Instagram account: www.instagram.com/rafgarres/
I also love the colors in this story. There is a predominance of yellow in all the pages of “The Duel” and it makes sense: in the original story, one of the first things Matheson says is that it is a strangely hot day for an April morning. In the comic book, all that yellow makes us feel that. I can feel the heat, I can feel the sweat at Mann’s shirt and for me, there are so kinesthetic things in these comic books too, in the two stories: I look at those pages and I can hear the sound that they did not write in there, I can smell the coffee at that dinner, I can feel the heat inside that car. And that is something only the really great comic books make me feel. Ryall, Garres, thank you so much for this experience! You made a beautiful adaptation of “The Duel”. I have never watched the Spielberg movie, but I doubt that he captured the story so well, even with Matheson himself writing the screenplay.
Now, at least, let’s talk about the other story in this comic book , “The Tribe”, written by Joe Hill and his father, A.K.A Stephen King. (after all, this is a Stephen King page, right?). First of all, it is a good story, a good short story with a “Sons of Anarchy” vibe and most important and unique of all, it is a father/son story. No, not because a father and son wrote it, but at the same time yes, it is. I will explain: the story is about a motorcycle club (a Tribe, they call themselves “Tribe”) where all of them are kind of outlaws or at least have been in jail once or twice in their lives. The leader is an old Vietnam Veteran called Vince and now he is dealing with not only a recent crime they all committed but also one rebel member of the Tribe, his own son “Race” and, at the same time, the Tribe has to deal with a crazy truck driver that starts to play bowling using his truck as ball and the motorcycles as pins.
But let’s talk about the “father and son thing”: Yes, there is this sick game that the truck driver is playing, but the main theme of the story is how far we would go for a son. Vince has his own sins and mistakes, he knows that. He looks at his rebellious son and keeps thinking that maybe the kid’s tendency for violence has something to do with his own mistakes as a father. And I can relate with that.
I, as a father, have my own fears for my daughter and also I recognize my mistakes and faults as a father. One of my many fears is that because of my mistakes and faults she would grow up and put herself in dangerous situations and that is exactly what Vince is watching his son doing: Race is now facing someone as crazy as he is, maybe crazier and his father is willing to do whatever it takes to save him.
“An old guy, young kid, on the road trying to escape a crazy truck driver”… after reading Joe Hill’s introduction and later the comic book I kind of can see a younger Stephen King and his young kid Joe at their car imagining crazy situations where they would be involved, wondering if they could survivor or how would they die. Years later they sit down and play the same game again, but this time writing down the good ideas. It is a beautiful thing if you think about it, a beautiful father and son moment, that is why there are so many “father and son moments” in the story. This is the second short story I read that they wrote together. “In the Tall Grass” is pretty cool, but “The Tribe” has a soul.
Chris Ryall did a great job respecting and adapting this soul into the comic book. Although I did miss one scene from Vince and Race’s past when they were younger and the kid was testing his father just to receive the worst answer ever from his dad. This scene from the original short tale is very important, but for some reason the writer chose not to adapt it. Beside this scene, that I truly would love to see in the comic book, well, it is an almost perfect adaptation. Thank you for that, Chris.
Following the same criteria of choosing great artists to give life into the story, who deals with the draws this time is a Chilean artist called Nelson Daniel. And once again I get the chance to know the work of a great artist and I will look for more comic books drawn by him. Daniel and Ryall made a great team adapting “The Tribe”, there are great moments beautifully drawn and I bet that are pretty well written too. Like the flashback scene that shows us what was the crime the Tribe committed: man, in one single panel, they explain what happened in 3 beautiful `frames” (have no idea how to say the right term in English, would someone please teach me?). And Daniel’s style is so different from Rafa Garres, but I say this in a good way. The Hill/King story claims for a different way of drawing, a different style, something more modern. So Daniel shows us kind of a mix of old school and “New School”. Not so modern that would make the old school fan turn his nose, but also not so old school in a way the Generation Z would hate it.
And the details Daniel put at some points, like the biker’s patches on their Jackets: the symbol and the saying. The symbol was not described by King/Hill, but the saying is in the original short story and also the phrase on one of the motorcycles that we can only see half of it when the motorcycle explodes. See, these and a bunch of other small details are like easter eggs in a short movie. Things that someone that just wants to have good and fast entertainment would miss, but “trained eyes” of Constant Readers would definitely see. Nelson Daniel, gracias por eso, chico. If you guy want to know more about this so talented artist, check out his website: www.nelsondaniel.com
Man, I confess that I wish I knew more about the art of making a comic book the same way I know about making movies, so I could appreciate even more this beautiful comic book and also explain in a better way how awesome “Road Rage” is. I can only say as a reader, a guy that really loves comic books , that “Road Rage” will definitely be worth spending your money on. It was quite expensive for me, but it was worth it. Please, do yourself a favor and buy a copy of it. And after you read it, please let us know your own opinions about it.
The comic book’s grade? SKSM gives “Road Rage” 3 fingers from the dead guy’s hand. We would give it 4, but I have to confess that I lost one of them on the road last week. That is why I took so long to write a new review, Bernd and Óscar said I got to find the damned finger cause we only have a few of those. I am still looking, by the way, so if you find a loose finger on the road…
That is it for today, Constant Readers. I truly hope you guys liked the review. Please, let us know not only your opinion about it, but also if you guys want to New reviews for comic books. There are some good ones based upon King’s work.
See you next time, guys.
Leonardo Granado
