The Army of Darkness 1979 #1

The Army of Darkness 1979 #1

Dynamite Entertainment 2021

Written by Rodney Barnes

Illustrated by Tom Garcia

Coloured by Dinei Ribero

Lettered by Troy Peteri

After his most recent appearance in Die!namite Lives, Ashley Williams is retired. Settled down. Haunted by the Deadites and the Necronomicon no more- wait, no, that ain’t right… None of that is true! In fact, not only is Ash still haunted by Deadites and the Necronomicon, but he’s haunted by the both of them in the 1970s (kids, ask your parents. Parents, ask yourselves!)! And what does he find in the South Bronx of the late 70s? Gangs! And what have those gangs found? The Necronomicon. So, what does that make the gangs? Bad-Ass Mxxxerfxxxers.

Dynamite has this uncanny ability to really find the right creators to tell stories about the characters they have and make the reader a huge fan of what they are experiencing. I like Ash, I think he’s great and funny and the television programme was a hoot an a holler to me. So I get a little excited when I see he’s got a new appearance going on but that couldn’t have prepared me for this first issue. What we see here is utterly amazing, incredibly fun and it harkens back to the Evil Dead film that was kitschy as well as terrifying and it has all those elements here ready for us.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter is marvellous. This does such a magnificent job in bringing all these personalities to the forefront and giving us this first look at who they are. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the page revealing the story, introducing the characters and the world they live in we’re gripped by what we see.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge, grow and strengthen and we see this done exceptionally well. How we see these layers open avenues ready to be explored is fantastic and how they add depth, dimension and complexity to the story is superbly done. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is magnificently achieved.

The interiors here are phenomenal. The linework is clean, crisp and strong and how we see its varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality of detail work we see throughout the book is utterly bloody brilliant. The creativity and imagination that we see is also exceptionally rendered and it’s within the gangs and the mini cops that we see where that takes on its strongest appearances. Backgrounds are a mixed bag here, mixed because I really love what we see but we just don’t see enough of them. Aside from enhancing and expanding the moments they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a brilliant eye for how to use colour and how to maximise its effects.

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I am so very impressed with all the different elements that are familiar to Ash and the franchise. Rodney does a brilliant job with the writing here and the characterisation is sensational while the interiors are phenomenally rendered. All of this makes for one of the week's most delightful reads.