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Released by: Dynamite Entertainment
Released on: January 21st, 2015.
Writer: Mark Rahner
Artist: Edu Menna
Looks like Dynamite are at it again with a new Zone series. This one is penned by Mark Rahner with art by Edu Menna and while it isn't quite up to Straczynski standards, it's still a gripping and fun read.
Immediately echoing William Shatner's ill fated plane ride in "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet" we kick off with writer William Gaunt headed back to his childhood home in Scoville (a variation of Jerkwater USA) for a book reading. He's getting sloshed and popping pills on this flight for some solid reasons. Gaunt grew up in Scoville with an alcoholic and promiscuous mother who belittled and beat him. The writer's plan is simple. Get in, have a few chuckles at the hellhole he escaped and get the hell out of Dodge.
But in a classic Zone twist, Gaunt's plane seems to have landed in an alternate reality. Everybody around the town looks they stepped out of an earlier decade and he starts seeng people who look like his mother and even HIMSELF as a child! Clearly, Rahner is working his own variation on Serling's "Walking Distance" script. A quick glance at this issue's cover is a dead giveaway - it is adorned with images and figures from the original TV show.
The writing does a good job of setting up both the characters and the situation in this first chapter. Gaunt may be a wiseass but he's sympathetic. The themes aren't all that original (you can't go home again/should the past be inviolate, etc) but Rahner has a good handle on pacing and narrative drive and doling out just enough info to keep the reader's interest piqued.
Art and production values are top shelf with some neat skewed framing and garish colors on display to let you know you are, indeed, in the Zone. Another quality effort from Dynamite worth checking out and it's great to see the company so dedicated to Rod Serlng's baby.
Recommended.
