Phantom Road Vol. 1
Jeff Lemire, writer; Gabriel Hernández Walta, artist; Jordie Bellaire, colorist
Image Comics, 2023
Long-haul trucker Dom encounters Birdie on the road at night after she has been in a massive car crash. When they retrieve a strange artifact from the wreckage everything shifts and they find themselves in a surreal new world. It is suddenly daylight, and they encounter a gaunt, faceless figure who attacks Dom. After taking out a whole crowd of the creatures they continue driving through an unfamiliar bleak, barren landscape. Entering a truck stop, they turn around and see the real world through the windows. A man in the diner explains that they are in a place between places, or a place that leads to other places; and their goal is to deliver their cargo (the artifact) to a place called Golgotha. Outside everything looks normal, but they find that they cannot leave the truck. An FBI agent named Theresa Weaver has been investigating the situation, and appears to have a connection from her youth that she barely remembers. Birdie tries to escape the situation by hitting the artifact with a hammer, which only reveals that it is an egg. Agent Weaver finds her contact reassigned, and the man from the diner gives instructions to her new superior officer. This story looked like it could be done in a single collection (like the Sentient series from these creators), but clearly the story has only begun.
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