Advance Review — ‘The Last Driver’ #1 Is Murphy’s Love Letter To Cars
by Tom Smithyman
Overview
Sure, a lot of the setup and storyline are silly and even stilted, but if you lean into it, it’s a lot of fun. Add to that some great car imagery, and you can practically feel the wind whipping through your hair as you turn the pages.
Overall
9/10The Last Driver is the kind of comic that you knew Sean Gordon Murphy would make sooner or later.
Murphy, after all, is the ultimate gearhead. His bestselling sketchbook is called Under the Hood and he even has a clutch’s shift pattern tattooed on his hand. So writing a love letter to the automobile and the art of driving feels like a no-brainer — particularly in a world where driving may eventually become obsolete thanks to autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence.
So the writer and illustrator took a break from his version of Batman, Zorro, and Punk Rock Jesus to tell the story of Clutch (yes, that’s really what they call him) and his quest to save his granddaughter’s life by driving her to a doctor. Driving, of course, is forbidden in this near-term future. Instead, only the computer-run Grid may operate vehicles.
But when Clutch has the opportunity to secure a life-saving transplant for his granddaughter Cuda, he jumps into the driver’s seat and races against the clock.
If all that sounds a trifle cheesy, that’s because it is. The setup is cliched. The dialogue is stilted. The characters’ names are silly. (Trans Am is Clutch’s partner in crime.) Yet it all works pretty well. If you are able see all of that for the love letter it is, the story is fun. If, however, you have a (gear)stick up your butt, you’ll be rolling your eyes through the story.
But this being Murphy and cars, we’re really here for the illustrations of cars. Not surprisingly, he doesn’t disappoint. Murphy gives us a Corvette Stingray as well as a Mustang Mach 1, juxtaposed against the Grid’s boxy vehicles. (The refuse to even call them cars; instead they are “pods.”
The rest of the issue’s visuals are vintage Murphy – distinguishable characters rendered with heavy line work. Interestingly enough, he uses a horizontal layout to capture more sprawling imagery — and he does so quite effectively.
Murphy starts this road trip off with a bang. Where he drives it from here is anyone’s guess.
The Last Driver #1 — written and illustrated by Sean Gordon Murphy, colored by Simon Gough, and lettered by Crank — will be available August 19 in comic book stores and on digital platforms from Image Comics.
