July
10 The Black Diamond #1-2

Creators: Larry Young, writer; Jon Proctor, artist

AiT-PlanetLar, 32 pages, color, $2.95 each

So? Larry Young is a guy who likes the high concept, and this one’s got the right combination of cool and goofy to be a small piece of unabashed nerdy goodness. The concept is that in the post-9/11 world, an eight-lane, elevated transcontinental highway called the Black Diamond was built, on which all the rules were lifted on speeding, drugs, etc., to give those people who wanted to do such things a place to do them far away from nice, normal everyday folks. Obviously, logic isn’t the point here, but it does offer an excuse for fast cars and explosions that would make Roger Corman or Michael Bay proud. This story kicks off with a dentist named Don McLaughlin whose wife — the daughter of the designer of the Black Diamond — is kidnapped by a group protesting government plans to clean up the roadway. So he borrows a cherry 1973 Cougar and sets off across the country to save her on the Black Diamond. One preview tale and two full issues in, Young is sort of playing around the edges of this concept with a lot of dialogue-heavy scenes involving the kind of chit-chat you’d expect in a Quentin Tarantino movie. Proctor’s art is lovingly colored in rich tones and helps pull it off, even as the reader starts to get a little impatient for the real action to start. As a bonus, there are back-up stories in each issue that involve some kind of cars and action sequence. Grade: B