Dark Ride Volume 1: Hell Ticket
Joshua Williamson, writer; Andrei Bressan, artist; Adriano Lucas, colorist
Image Comics, 2023
The story begins in black and white. Arthur has just lost his job, and kills his wife in a rage. When he buries her in the desert outside of Las Vegas some unknown supernatural entity speaks to him from her open grave and offers him a deal that will be "the greatest ride of your life." Here the visuals shift to vibrant color, a kind of Wizard of Oz in reverse.
The first color image is a two-page splash of Devil Land, which has been the world’s premiere horror-themed amusement park, and is home to the scariest ride ever created: The Devil’s Due. New employee Owen Sessions has reported for his first day at work, thrilled to be an employee at his favorite place. Unfortunately, the poor kid doesn't last a day, killed under mysterious (and apparently supernatural) circumstances on The Devil's Due ride. Everyone at the park just thinks he disappeared, but his replacement Summer seems curious.
Family owned and operated by the reclusive creator, Arthur Dante (and his two children Samhain and Halloween) Devil Land is seeing some financial stress with low park attendance. Samhain wants Devil Land to expand its brand beyond the park gates, but gets no support from his father or sister. As this first arc concludes we learn more about the role his family, including his sister, has played in a myriad of unsolved deaths and disappearances at the park over the last 50 years. Owen's body is found, and the YouTube blogger investigating the park meets his own symbolic end. Quite a start for the series! The whole creative team is firing on all cylinders, and it will be fascinating to see where the story goes next.
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