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December 08, 2005
Subway Reading: Off Road
Off Road - Published by Oni Press, Off Road is Sean Murphy's first graphic novel. He has apparently done work for DC and Dark Horse in the past, but blissfully ignorant me overlooked him entirely. After reading this book, I'm not going to make that mistake again.
Murphy's art leapt off the page, grabbed me by the throat, and performed all sorts of other metaphoric acts of dynamic violence. Each panel is laid out with impeccably tight design, and they come together to guide the reader's eye on a smooth and easy trip through each page. His stylish drawing style is cartoonily reductive, but his line work is remarkably sensitive and varied. Thick strokes are deployed next to scratchy, dry hatching, and lines sometimes gets so delicate that they fade away to nothing. Pickier critics than me (ha ha, as if!) might complain about the lack of blacks or the occasional hard-to-read panels, but there are way too many visual highs to worry about the rare lows.
The story is a tale of three guys who take their new Jeep on an Off Road adventure, and in the process learn a little bit about themselves. War and Peace it ain't, but it's got enough snappy humor, fully-realized characters, and dramatic progression to consistently entertain. The backup material, including the college-era strips that eventually morphed into this novel, seem to indicate the presence of at least some autobiographical elements. Something about the believable, well-rounded characters led me to the same conclusion.
Don't take my word for the high level of craft and quality in this book; CBR ran a monstrous 50-page preview on their site. You may have overlooked this when it was released a couple of weeks ago. Do yourself a favor and track it down. The story may be a bit slight, but the skillful mastery with which it's presented is easily worth the price of admission.
Is there anything better than Evan Dorkin's blog? I suppose there are a couple of things, like peace on earth and maybe beer, but his too-infrequent updates always crack me up. A new comic book or two from the guy would be nice, but it the meantime at least we have:
Dork #11 should be out at some point in 2006. For good or bad. I am still aiming for at least 200 purported gags. I'm at about 146 right now. Law of averages says some of it will be funny. Might be funny? Will be legible and drawn in ink.
Posted by jdonelson_nyc at December 8, 2005 05:03 PM