Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Alex Link
Artist: Riley Rossmo
Release Date: 18th June 2014

Drumhellar is like a rollercoaster through the mind of a strung-out detective and yet, as confusing as it may be at times, you find yourself unable to stop reading. You’ve got Drum, the aforementioned strung-out detective, who is a magnet for all things supernatural. If that wasn’t strange enough, in order to see what paths to take or how to help others, he needs to take a hallucinogenic of some kind in order to induce visions that will show him the way. Add to that an invisible cat-like friend Harold and a diverse cast of truly unique characters and you have a fascinating story where you really aren’t sure if you are confused or if Rossmo snuck something onto the pages to induce these visions while you read.

This issue is the beginning to a new story arc and it looks to be another good “trip.” There are three mysterious killers roaming the streets of Whitlock Washington, but they are no ordinary killers. In order to find where to go, Drum, Padma and Lupe the she-wolf perform what Lupe refers to as “a prayer” and it successfully sends Drum the vision he needs to see his next path, figure out how to help the town of Whitlock, and to keep himself from the cops.

Riley Rossmo and Alex Link have created a truly unique and vivid story with a very uncommon cast of characters. I almost found myself question his state of mind while writing but if that were true I’d also have to question my own state of mind while reading because I found myself being sucked right in to the madness along with him You have these characters and stories unlike anything out there and the artwork is, while not highly detailed, very much alive on the page. The colors are vibrant and the “trips” are all over the place but not to the point where you are pulled from the story, and In those panels alone you can learn a lot about the storylines and where they may be heading. It’s almost like the longer you stay on with the series the more your mind begins to understand Drum and how he sees the world around him.

On a side-note, It wasn’t until this issue that I figured out the waitress at the ‘neutral ground diner’, Wanda. I found myself confused every time Drum spoke to her and she would end the conversation with “I’m not Wanda ________.” Each time it was involved with whatever she was talking about (for example, in this latest issues it was about information that she didn’t necessarily have all the details to she and it was “not Wanda Speculate”) I’m not sure quite why it took six issues to connect that it was like reading “one to” instead of Wanda. So yeah, the more you read the more you connect with the world of Drum Hellar, and for such a unique story to do this it says a lot about the creators. For Rossmo and Link to take this strange world and strange cast of characters and create stories that are new and confusing, yet literary magic, is no easy feat. Well done sirs, well done!

Rating: 5/5.

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The writer of this piece was: Shane Hoffman (aka “Hoff”)
You can also find Hoff on Twitter.