- DVSM (Dinosaurs vs Marsbots)
- Created, written, & illustrated by Gary Hodges
Early one autumn morning in 1975, two “men in black” set off for a sleepy little town in rural Arizona to collect yet another routine account of a UFO sighting. It should’ve been a routine task. What they found was not.
This is the story of the first salvo of a secret war – one you were never meant to know about. Learn the Truth.
And so our journey begins… A journey into the past, with eyes full of hope looking to the future. Oh, and along the way there’s gonna be a lotta blood.
I’ve had many creatives reach out to me over the years I’ve been working on ThePullbox, asking if I’d be interested or able to look at their work. Most of the time, I get comics (so many comics) in pdf form. Now and then, someone offers to ship me a floppy, which is always something I feel a little uncomfortable with.
All you independent comic people out there, I know you’re working hard to get your work out into the world, usually with a day job on top of it. Asking someone to look at your work with the eye of a critic takes guts. Doubling down on that by offering to forego any form of compensation in return for your hard work… and paying shipping, ta boot!… That’s not an offer I take most up on.
And then along comes Gary Hodges. This is a guy who does his homework and asks around online for people who are actively reviewing indie comics. I don’t know who put my name out there as a potential contact, but I owe you a heartfelt thank you because Dinosaurs Vs Marsbots is that damn good.
Gary’s script reads like the very best movies, with dialogue that sings on the page (if you’ve read any of my reviews, you know good dialogue is the Holy Grail for me). Let’s put aside a gift for creating natural-sounding conversations, written the way people actually talk. Let’s put aside a pace that weaves seamlessly from pages of dialogue into HOLY CRAP WHERE THE HELL DID THAT COME FROM action. We’re also putting aside that Gary can start an issue off in the middle of a story, often in the middle of a conversation, and roll right into his setup without missing a beat.
Gary has come up with a beautiful little gimmick that works to sell a reader on the idea that the characters in his story have lives off the page. It might seem like a very small thing, but I don’t think that makes it any less brilliant. He will walk characters off-panel as they continue whatever it was they were saying, chopping their word-balloon off at the panel’s edge to give the impression that their lives and conversations continue even after they’re gone. It comes down to characters being as close to living, breathing people as creatively possible, without summoning an Elder Being with a penchant for human sacrifice.
Seriously, writers… if it comes to that, it just isn’t worth all the tentacles and mayhem.
I’ve inflated Gary the Writer’s ego enough, so it’s time to move on to DVSM’s art. Which is also done by Gary Hodges, so Gary, you just let me know when you’ve had enough, okay?
Done in a pure black and white style that leans as close into realism as a story about Martians, dinosaurs and giant robots can get, DVSM hit all my buttons. I’m a big fan of black and white when the artist finds the balance between too much and not enough. Some artists believe that if you’re working without color, you need to compensate by rendering every minute detail. That can work to a point, but beyond that those important details become lost in the clutter. Hodges works in stark contrasts. It’s either black or white, and he hits just about a perfect balance. Where he really nails that attention to detail is in the gorgeous realism of his figures, a feat aided by a group of dedicated friends and colleagues posing for photographic reference material.
Look, I could sit here all day, heaping praise on this comic. It is, no exaggeration, one of the best titles I’ve laid my eyes on in a very long while. The single choking point I can think of is the cost per issue, however there’s a lot going into these books. The physical materials used are top-notch, no corners cut, and the length of each issue runs a bit longer than the average 24 pages for most comics. Maybe an option for digital would tempt more readers but I can’t say for sure. What I will say is I got my review copies for free, and having read them I’ve ordered another set and plan on donating the issues Gary sent me for free to my local library.
My money and my mouth are united; my conscience is clear on this journey through an alternate history of deliciously pulpy science fiction. So the only question I have left for you, my dear readers…
Final Score: 13/13
