Grindhouse: Drive In, Bleed Out #1

Written by: Alex de Campi

Art by: R.M. Guera

Publisher: Dark Horse

When I found out Alex de Campi was doing another Grindhouse series I knew I was in for a treat. Her previous “Doors Open at Midnight” miniseries was nothing short of great, and she’s one of the few writers that I feel really nails the grindhouse feel. And with the the release of her first issue in her Grindhouse: Drive In, Bleed Out series, I’m happy to say she somehow exceeded my expectations.

Grindhouse features, at their core, are essentially just titillating stories with a gigantic focus on sex, guts, and gore. And boy does de Campi nail it. This first issue the first part of a story called “Slay Ride” which is a wonderful pun to immediately set the scene. Basically, an elderly mother discovers that the majority of her family has been killed and calls in her step-daughter to save the rest of the families in town. As the bodies pile up, however, it becomes apparent that they aren’t dealing with a simple serial killer and that something else may be up to no good.

De Campi somehow manages to gives the slasher genre a gigantically refreshing spin and I was frantically flipping the pages to discover what’s next. From the moment the mother (called Mother Wolf) mentions that the killers can sense her impending death by disease and decided to let her go I was hooked. On top of that, the cast they give us is interesting enough to capture most people’s attention. Mother Wolf is a sort of tough, no-nonsense elder who seems to think her step-daughter Shayla can save the day despite the fact that Shayla has habitually had problems with her family and seemingly doesn’t care much about them, let alone any of these other families. It’s an interesting concept, especially when it starts digging into some of the odd reasons as to why these fiends are attacking. There’s a brief mention of them taking advantage of people’s vices and it becomes somewhat funny to see that the killers seem to resemble certain fast food mascots, which R.M. Guera has designed perfectly.

Words don’t do Guera’s art justice

And to be honest, Guera’s art is such a perfect fit here. There’s a ton of small details in panels that were by no means necessary but by all means enhance the story and the spookiness. Tree branches twist into fences, footprints on fresh snow tell us enough of a story to make our own guesses, and shadows are dark and foreboding. As far as his handling of gore goes, let’s just say that the opening set of pages will delight anyone who was looking for a grindhouse comic to go all the way and fully submit to its grindhouse aesthetic. Guera also uses a mostly blue palette for this comic which does great at evoking both night and that glow of freshly fallen snow. It’s beautiful to look at which makes the splashes of blood, gore, and overall horror even more hard hitting.

This first issue ends with a great cliffhanger which is perfect for the series and I can’t wait until the next issue to finish out the story of “Slay Ride”. And to know that this is simply the start of what’s sure to be a fantastic series should be enough to get anyone to pick it up.