Ryder On The Storm, a new series from Radical Comics publishing. A mature title indeed, readers will follow a Private Eye detective named Ryder chasing a case that he fully doesn’t understand. When a homicide is filed from Michael Hudson’s girlfriend, Katrina Petruska, Ryder begins thinking that this is more of a murder than a suicide case. However, murder or suicide Ryder is trying to protect Katrina from something that isn’t of our world. As the story unravels Ryder might not even be human. The twisted and sick story of Ryder on the Storm will give you chills yourself! However, what lies in store for our good friend Mr. Ryder is unknown because something is waiting for them!
Short Version
If you like Murder and/or suicide cases with Private Eye detectives then buy the series!
Long Version
Okay reading this book I was like “oh great a boring Private Eye story”, but when I continued to go through this I was saying to myself “oh crap, I’ve got no idea what is going to happen next!” As the story opens up, we see a dead rich guy named Michael Hudson with a drill in his hand and random pills on the floor. With eleven drill holes in his head this case is already tense. Coming to the homicide scene Ryder is asking himself why he’s still in the game, but it always leads to the same answer – no answer at all. While Ryder has problems of his own, readers will find out more about his dark past.
With every quaking breath, Ryder knows that this case could be his last. Revealing more about a pill named the “godpill”, Ryder sees crazier things then normal private eyes would see in an entire career! When the story enters the club that Ryder attends to follow Katrina it gets a lot crazier from that point forward. To jump to a conclusion Ryder encounters a Daemon, however he gets “special” help to kill this Daemon.
When reading this story you can know that writer David Hine and artist Wayne Nichols are really trying to make this as believable as possible. If anything to say the least Ryder On The Storm is one of the closest things I’ve seen to a comic trying to really interact with real world issues. Yes they try to make it as real, however when they add the strangeness of the Daemons and also with a strange protagonist that no one really knows any info about him it adds that much more interest in the series.
This is really a mature title. Most titles today say “mature”, but really are on the moderate comic level. I like how Ryder must not be a human at all (big spoiler by the way). Also the fight scene with Ryder against a Daemon was interesting especially when he did a certain hand gesture (which was totally comedic). His hand being cut off then starts to re-grow is just well, awesome! There is a whole bunch of crazy in this comic. I don’t want to spoil everything, but if you ask me consider buying this series.
Writer David Hine is a terrific writer on this book. His work on digging into Greek Myth with the Daemons is pretty good. I haven’t read anything in the past or present that touched on certain things like that. While the old days of comics didn’t touch on anything like that maybe because of the people and the generation, but comic age of today can handle anything. As we’ve already entered 2011, more-and-more comics are getting realistic.
Artist Wayne Nichols is an excellent artist for this series. His drawings are really cool and slick, which goes great with David’s writing. His drawings for each of the characters are just outstanding. I like how he drew the re-growing of Ryder’s hand – totally believable. Also with the fight with the Daemon and his henchman, I like how Wayne made Ryder’s eyes light up in the fight. The red color made it look just so evil and awesome at the same time.
Ryder on the Storm is a three-issue story with a private eye detective that knows little about his real history. The first and second issues of the story are released, and the third will be coming out in spring of 2011. Expect a review for the second issue as we find out what Ryder will be doing to stop the Daemons and find out what if Michael Hudson’s death was a suicide or a murder!
Story – 10
Artwork – 9.5
Writing 9.2
Overall – 9.6
