(Warning from Greg Pak himself:  “Warning. Some Spoilers.)

“I’m a cartographer.  And I’m getting the hell out of here.”  That is how this first issue ends and it has me hooked for this entire series.

There is an incident in the world’s most dangerous and heavily fortified prison.  Sam and Juniper, siblings, both live in the prison’s nearby town and Sam works as the prison’s aforementioned cartographer.  They get into a car accident and Sam is dragged into prison.  Wait you might say, how and why is he dragged there?  You see, the prison is hell.

Captain Romero is trying to stop this prison riot and dies.  He needs to pay for the things he did while alive, and just descends into the hell prison he is already at.  Romero wants to get out, and as a military captain, he knows that he needs someone with certain gifts to get out.  Thus the accident and getting Sam into the prison.  Sam is the only one that can navigate the maze of hell and find the way out for Romero and himself.

Its amazing!  There are three thoughts while reading this comic.  “That’s cool.”  “That’s fucked up.”  and finally “I cant wait to find out more about this.”

That’s cool.  Sam being lowered down into hell on a gleaming monolith.  Sam and Juniper as kids, getting lost and getting out.  The ghost spirit that is ripped in half and has her soul eaten!  This is a two page character and fascinating.  This one idea on its own could be a series, but not in Dead Man’s Run.  Which only means one thing, this will be an expansive series and there will be lots of amazing ideas and characters throughout.  There is the possibility of not just a character, but of a world, a franchise.  A labyrinth of hell should be boundless, in size and in stories.

That’s fucked up.  An endless number of hands come out and drag Sam down.  It is frightening on so many levels.  Being touched, being in a closed space, suffocating, drowning, the unknown, darkness.  One panel hits on every major fear that humans have.  Its one of those pages that shows how great comics are.  This wouldn’t work as well as only text or only art.  It is the unique experience that is a comic book in which such a scene can have this kind of power.

I can’t wait to find out more about this.  Whether its Sam’s maps, which look simple but are deceptively complex.  Or the Warden (OMG the Warden!).  There are already volumes of questions that will hopefully be answered over years of story.  Where is Juniper?  More importantly, how is the Warden innocent?  She is chained to the… walls?  And yet she claims to be innocent.  This is one of the best first issues I’ve read in awhile.  Brilliant concept, but then so much going on that at least one if not all of these threads will be enough to hook you in for life.

I’m trying to remember where the quote came from, and what it originally was, but it went something like this, “how can I care about characters when they all look the same?”  Whether it be muscles on men or huge boobs on women, there are some comics artists that can only draw one body type.  Not in here.  Not Tony Parker.  Everyone looks different.  Every single character could be shown just in silhouette and you would immediately be able to identify him/her/it.  Its sad that that is such a rare thing in comics today, but because of that all the art pops even more.

Dead Man’s Run will be in everyone’s top series list at the end of the year.