Road Rage

Road Rage is a collected graphic-novel adaptation of two similarly themed storiesThrottle, written by Stephen King and his son Joe Hill; and Richard Matheson\’s Duel. Long, desolate strips of desert road are the featured landscapes of both stories, and in both situations isolation mixes with the unlikely actions of complete strangers and spins out of control, resulting in intense, fast-paced dilemmaswith fatal consequences (naturally). Throttle is an uncompromising roadside drama of a biker tribe, led by a veteran father Vince and his impulsive son Race. When Race manipulates the tribe into following up on a botched meth deal, causing the deaths of the dealers and his young girlfriend. As chance and plotting would have it, the murdered girls father, a trucker, discovers her killers and follows the tribe in his 18-wheeler. Its not long before the faceless trucker begins killing the bikers one by one, pancaking them into asphalt with his big truck. Familial ties between father and son are put to the test in this grimy, pulse-pounding race for survival. The biker culture is well-depicted well, and King/Hill utilize the threat of the killer trucker to illuminate the strained relationships between the anti-hero characters. Nelson Daniel\’s classical, comic-style artwork lends itself to the fulsome mayhem. Duel is essentially a primal tale of cat-and-mouse in which a traveling salesman gets caught up in an increasingly reckless game of aggressive driving with a menacing trucker. The artwork is by far the most startling aspect of this story. Artist Rafa Garres creates a stark and oppressive atmosphere, twisting roadways and faces, bleakly distorting the human form, which works incredibly well in this perilous tale. I could genuinely feel the desperation and paranoia of the driver, Mann, amidst the tightly-packed panels. On the downside, though, the ending felt a bit rushed, the deadly chase ending too abruptly for my tastes. In fact, if I remember the prose story correctly, a significant chuck of Mathesons story is omitted from this graphic adaptation. What\’s more, the staging of the climax was somewhat mismanaged and presented in a very unclear manner that I couldnt really discern what was happening on the page. Im altogether pleased with this venture and would recommend it to Joyride fans or connoisseurs of King, Hill, or Matheson. Both stories present a terrifying premise of a looming death machine that\’s brimming with terrific visuals. Murder-by-truckhow can you go wrong?

NO SPOILERS Two short stories in one graphic novel. In \”Throttle,\” Hill and King pull together a short but exciting tale of another, and very different, son and father. As the description provides, their biker gang is pitted against a murderous trucker who mysteriously wishes them ill. Father and son\’s personalities and relationship are well drawn and believable. The comic is based on their short story Throttle (Kindle Single) . A short story needs to be lean and tightly written, with no elements useless to the plot and character development. Hill and King are both sharp writers who know how to make a character feel real and relatable. Matheson\’s \”Duel\” main character is also well defined, but with less background or final explanation. Matheson\’s story Duel inspired Hill and King\’s. The book includes a comics version \”Throttle\” and one of \”Duel\” as well. I have never read \”Duel\” as a short story but, based on the perfect adaptation of the \”Throttle\” half by Ryall, I\’m guessing it\’s true to Matheson\’s original. I bought the short story version of \”Throttle\” first, but after reading the comic I didn\’t feel the comic was necessary. It felt superfluous, and I\’m a big comics fan. Not that it\’s poorly done; it\’s well illustrated and true to the short story. Ryall and Daniel adapt and illustrate it well, with, IMHO, two caveats. The style used in \”Duel\” was not really to my liking. Not poorly done – just not my cup of tea. I loved the illustrations for Throttle, except the use of Ben-Day dots. I found them a little distracting. If they\’d been a little smaller I would have liked them better. However, these opinions are just about my personal taste and you may disagree. In addition, the two stories are so similar that it felt like a bit of a repeat reading them as the only things in the book. It also included a prologue by Joe Hill explaining how and why they wrote the story. I enjoyed reading that. The kindle edition of the \”Throttle\” short story also includes a couple of illustrations from the comic.

I\’m a long time fan of Stephen King since my high school days reading Desperation and Nightmare and Dreamscapes. Well I only purchased this book to add to my King library because it\’s a Stephen King comic book. Since I\’m not a fan of comic books this book will stay on my book shelf with the other 60 hard back books I own for King. I have also ordered Stephen Kings N as well even though it\’s a comic book as well. I guess I\’m more a fan of his meatier books like The Stand and Under the Dome that have more depth to the characters and their surroundings. Road Rage and N are very small short stories in comic book form. He should have written Road Rage like his E-Book Mile 81 although a short story it had meat and wasn\’t in comic book form.

Very pleased with purchase

Great book. Typical Stephen King.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member