The American open road is haunted. We know this. Jeff Lemire and Gabriel H. Walta know this too. If you’ve spent any time on a highway late at night in the states, when the lamps and the headlights start to burn, you can’t help but feel something is with you out there. And it’s not just the other folks in the cars keeping you company, but that uncanny feeling that many others have passed this way and left some tangible mark. Lemire and Walta’s ongoing series Phantom Road takes up the challenge of crafting a new and fresh American road story that captures that chill of life of the night road, and so far, they’re off to a strong start.
Phantom Road #1
Jordie Bellaire (Colorist), Jeff Lemire (Writer), Gabriel H. Walta (Artist), Steve Wands (Letterer/Designer)
Image Comics
March 1, 2023
The story focuses on an American trucker, Dom, who’s hauling on a job one night when he stops to help Birdie, a young woman who’s just been in a car accident. The cause of the crash is a mysterious object sticking out of the road. Birdie is incoherent, trying to explain what she’s seen, but she’s cut off when Dom touches the object and out blasts a green glow. What happens next sends them on a journey to find answers and stay alive.
Phantom Road #1 features solid pacing that does well in setting up the status quo of Dom’s life as a trucker before plunging us straight into the dread and surreality of what he and Birdie encounter. The issue shows just enough of the antagonists to feel like a satisfying set-up but shrouds them in mystery, leaving room for future installments to expand.
In his newsletter, Lemire compares Phantom Road to Mad Max: Fury Road and The Sandman. While the bloody-crowbar action stays grounded in what the comic’s press release describes as a “grindhouse” style, the looming threat promises a more fantastical twist.
Lemire’s authorial direction, paired with Walta’s wiry art, builds texture for the truck driver’s world. Simple interactions with others at a gas station set up a lived-in reality for Dom, one that will soon be shattered by an inexplicable occurrence. Walta repeatedly employs a visual trick where it looks like Dom’s reflection (and for a moment, that of his son’s) in the glass is actually a phantom appearing in front of him on the road, adding a layer of meaning to the comic’s title.
Bellaire’s coloring paints the contrasts between the beige roadside landscape of daytime with the pulp-red brake-light night. The green glow the object emits cuts cleanly through this familiar color palette, alerting us that this thing–whatever it is–will not leave Dom and Birdie’s world the same way it was before.
It’s hard to write about this issue without spoiling too much, especially since the showdown with the issue’s main conflict takes up nearly half the page count. Lemire and Walta aren’t afraid to get into the moment-by-moment details of the struggle to layer the visual grit. Even at its length, the action sequence feels well-paced and immersive.
For fans of horror and Americana fiction, Phantom Road is one to watch this year. It showcases a steady control of narrative timing and keen eyes for visual focus and color. While there are not too many clear clues in this first issue about what specific direction the story might take, I’m looking forward to following where it goes.
