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Driver for the Dead #1-3
Driver for the Dead
Alabaster Graves is a driver for the dead. As a twenty-year veteran of funeral homes, mortuaries, and coroners' offices across the deep South, he has chauffeured hundreds of bodies to their final resting places, although the trip isn't always so restful. Graves is a "specialty driver", one who's called in for the more unusual assignments that come down the pike, and if unusual equals dangerous, well, that's just a job that pays more. Matter of fact, that's just what Alabaster is about to get when the assignment to transport the body of renowned voodoo priest, Mose Freeman, drops in his lap. With Freeman's sultry granddaughter riding shotgun, Alabaster must cover the distance from Shreveport to New Orleans to retrieve the remains. What he doesn't know is that he's being pursued by a resurrectionist named Fallow - a necromancer who gets his power from stealing body parts... and for whom the corpse of Mose Freeman would be the ultimate prize.
160 pages, Paperback
First published July 28, 2010
About the author
John Heffernan
29 books5 followersJohn Heffernan grew up in Connecticut and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Cornell. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Los Angeles where he worked at USC Film School for three years as a Production Coordinator for student films. After working as a development assistant for Davis Entertainment and Dreamworks-based Patchwork Productions, John sold his first script, A Chance for Both Barrels. This was followed by numerous writing jobs including a development deal with MTV Films and the New Line release Snakes on a Plane in 2006. Since then he has continued to write extensively for film and TV and has expanded into multiple forms of graphic literary media, including Driver For The Dead, his first comic book series.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 21, 2016
Just finished the German (Splitter Verlag) version of this graphic novel. Which Goodreads doesn't have listed for some reason, I have added it, but despite having an ISBN it's not on their database, yet Amazon Germany and UK both list it, weird. This version is a single band containing all three of the English language versions. The artwork is off the hook - photo real almost - Leonardo Manco did a fantastic job with this. You soon get immersed in the sweaty cauldron of the southern states. As a fan of the first series of True Blood I really liked this, it's like a world within a world so it works well with the story. John Heffernan's writing is top drawer. The characters, pacing and plot work really well and there are some nice twists like fact that Moses Freeman looks like Morgan Freeman - the explanation for which was a nice new fact for me. You learn something every day. I read it in one sitting, but am sure I will come back to this one again. My only bone of contention would be that the final showdown felt a bit rushed. I don't think Graves would have had it that easy. Still worth five stars though.
January 17, 2014
Eccellente! Personaggio e ambientazione meritano assolutamente uno o più seguiti. Una gran bella sorpresa.
September 7, 2013
Excellent book, the storytelling and characterization were great. I am still hoping that they will do more with this character as he is interesting and has a lot of potential.
August 8, 2020
The main character has moments when he is even cooler that John Constantine. The lore is welcome too. I was never very familiar with voodoo and the real-life black magic. This story delves into that fantastic world, providing us with a unique story that some might consider marred by the gun-toting protagonist. He doesn't need detailed tactics, only his vast arsenal, to defeat the monsters that regular people ignore. Still, this time he will need to resort to a better plan to win in the end.
The well-known healer Moses Freeman uses his intimate knowledge of magic to reverse curses. The story starts with him saving a young boy from several magical tokens that threatened his well-being. Though successful, he is killed by an apparition. With his last words he has the Connors call on Alabaster Graves, the self-titled driver for the dead.
The story switches over to Alabaster, the true main character and new narrator. He is a skilled monster hunter with vast experience in the occult. He is no healer, instead focusing on removing threats with a gun. His is tasked with transporting Moses's dead body to its final resting place. If having an object of such great value to the black magic practitioners wasn't enough, he has to take Moses' great-granddaughter Marissa along.
The well-known healer Moses Freeman uses his intimate knowledge of magic to reverse curses. The story starts with him saving a young boy from several magical tokens that threatened his well-being. Though successful, he is killed by an apparition. With his last words he has the Connors call on Alabaster Graves, the self-titled driver for the dead.
The story switches over to Alabaster, the true main character and new narrator. He is a skilled monster hunter with vast experience in the occult. He is no healer, instead focusing on removing threats with a gun. His is tasked with transporting Moses's dead body to its final resting place. If having an object of such great value to the black magic practitioners wasn't enough, he has to take Moses' great-granddaughter Marissa along.
June 25, 2024
The gist: Allabaster Graves is a hearse driver who transports 'special' people's dead bodies to their final resting place. Sort of like a 21st Century river Styx ferryman. Evil forces want the magical properties of one Moses Freeman's body (a very thinly veiled Morgan Freeman facsimile). Fallow must battle these forces until the dead can make it to their final resting place. Lots of voodoo references, but plenty of other Horror elements are featured, such as zombies/the undead, werewolves and vampires. Fun for the whole Addams Family.
Op/ed: This was originally released as a series of three 56-page prestige format comics, which are skinny, squarebound books. Kind of like graphic novelettes, if you will. They were compiled into this book. What annoys me is that, save for the cover gallery in the back of the book, they try to pass this off as a graphic novel. No mention anywhere of this being originally printed as three comic books first. The covers are saved for the back, rather than serving as chapter markers. The practice of putting covers in the back of the book instead of in their 'proper' place annoys the piss out of me. Like saying that these were originally comic books and not a 'graphic novel' is a bad thing.
I did enjoy reading this. The writing was decent and Leonardo Manco's artwork and Jerry Choo and Kinsun Loh's computer painting are beautiful. Radical Publishing always offers high quality writing and artwork. My biggest gripe is the whole Hollywood pitch angle, covered in the interview in the back.
Like all Radical Publishing books, this boasts super thick, high quality high gloss stock paper. The drawback to this is that it can be difficult to read in certain lighting, and it was difficult to photograph for my blog. The colors shown here look wrong when compared to the actual book. The book has heft and feels like something of value, though.
I dislike the uncoated cover, where certain sections of the image have a light coating and the rest does not. All of it is easily scuffed, even when handled gingerly. I cannot understand why publishers go for this 'fancier' production value, when the book would look like Hell if it were on a store shelf and handled a few times. Your mileage may vary. Indeed, some people probably prefer this look to the all-coated covers of Marvel trade paperbacks. I'm just not one of them.
Op/ed: This was originally released as a series of three 56-page prestige format comics, which are skinny, squarebound books. Kind of like graphic novelettes, if you will. They were compiled into this book. What annoys me is that, save for the cover gallery in the back of the book, they try to pass this off as a graphic novel. No mention anywhere of this being originally printed as three comic books first. The covers are saved for the back, rather than serving as chapter markers. The practice of putting covers in the back of the book instead of in their 'proper' place annoys the piss out of me. Like saying that these were originally comic books and not a 'graphic novel' is a bad thing.
I did enjoy reading this. The writing was decent and Leonardo Manco's artwork and Jerry Choo and Kinsun Loh's computer painting are beautiful. Radical Publishing always offers high quality writing and artwork. My biggest gripe is the whole Hollywood pitch angle, covered in the interview in the back.
Like all Radical Publishing books, this boasts super thick, high quality high gloss stock paper. The drawback to this is that it can be difficult to read in certain lighting, and it was difficult to photograph for my blog. The colors shown here look wrong when compared to the actual book. The book has heft and feels like something of value, though.
I dislike the uncoated cover, where certain sections of the image have a light coating and the rest does not. All of it is easily scuffed, even when handled gingerly. I cannot understand why publishers go for this 'fancier' production value, when the book would look like Hell if it were on a store shelf and handled a few times. Your mileage may vary. Indeed, some people probably prefer this look to the all-coated covers of Marvel trade paperbacks. I'm just not one of them.
March 13, 2016
A creepy and enjoyable introduction to Alabaster Graves, a man with the unique job of carrying the bodies of the dead safely to their final resting place. Unlike a traditional hearse driver, this is complicated in his case by a steady stream of supernatural encounters, often because of the nature of the remains he's been asked to carry. With that in mind, his vehicle has been equipped with a variety of weapons and defenses, as well as souped up and otherwise modified.
This volume provides a solid introduction, and is intriguing enough to make me interested in reading more.
This volume provides a solid introduction, and is intriguing enough to make me interested in reading more.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews