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Drifter #1
Drifter, Vol. 1: Out of the Night
Abram Pollux barely survives a crash landing on Ouro, a lawless backwater planet, only to end up on the wrong end of a bullet. What starts as a struggle for survival quickly becomes a journey to the very edges of what it means to be human, as Pollux searches for answers among the ruins of this forgotten world. And if he can’t have answers, he’ll at least have his revenge.
Collecting: Drifter 1-5
Collecting: Drifter 1-5
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2015
12 people are currently reading
251 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 114 reviews
August 25, 2015
Abraham Pollux crash lands on a mining planet, he runs into an alien and is promptly shot by some guy wearing a mask and cloak. A promising, if somewhat vaguely familiar beginning, no?
One would think so, but here, let’s introduce an axiom which sums up the whole volume:
As unanswered questions and confusion pile up the fun factor goes down.
Purty, ain’t it, but you see, there’s that inverse relationship between basic expectations and the given reality here, one that will drive the reader crazy. New characters and plotlines are mashed into the continuing story, but you’ll be treading water rather quickly as narratives with potential interest go nowhere and situation after situation defies any sort of logic or resolution or connection to the main Western/Scifi mash-up storyline.
Dude, you can run and run and run, but you’ll never catch up to a plot thread that makes a lick of sense.
Bottom line: Pretty and guaranteed to leave the reader scratching his or her head.
One would think so, but here, let’s introduce an axiom which sums up the whole volume:
As unanswered questions and confusion pile up the fun factor goes down.
Purty, ain’t it, but you see, there’s that inverse relationship between basic expectations and the given reality here, one that will drive the reader crazy. New characters and plotlines are mashed into the continuing story, but you’ll be treading water rather quickly as narratives with potential interest go nowhere and situation after situation defies any sort of logic or resolution or connection to the main Western/Scifi mash-up storyline.
Dude, you can run and run and run, but you’ll never catch up to a plot thread that makes a lick of sense.
Bottom line: Pretty and guaranteed to leave the reader scratching his or her head.
February 12, 2016
Gorgeous, fascinating, ambitious, mysterious, trippy, disjointed, confusing, alienating - not sure whether I just read the beginning of a complex, poetic sci-fi epic or that of a wilfully obscure, pretentious, shallow nuisance of a series. My indecisiveness may be a good sign, as pretentious garbage is usually not all that difficult to detect. Still, neither characters nor plot have been particularly engaging so far, and I suspect the story is at the very least more cryptic and difficult than it needs to be. Too bad, because I really like the style of this one.
August 7, 2015
Hmm...well. Free on NetGalley!
I think this is another piggyback on the space western idea.
There's no explanation which is a double edged sword...I like not being spoon fed, but a little context might help
This wants to be cerebral like the Prisoner or something, and I'm not quite sure...it could be potentially fun, or terrible.
Time will tell...
Art is a highlight for sure.
I think this is another piggyback on the space western idea.
There's no explanation which is a double edged sword...I like not being spoon fed, but a little context might help
This wants to be cerebral like the Prisoner or something, and I'm not quite sure...it could be potentially fun, or terrible.
Time will tell...
Art is a highlight for sure.
August 1, 2017
The art to this is amazing. I was familiar with Nic Klein already from DANCER (which is a very good spy comic and worth checking out), and he's done some marvel stuff on Thor and Captain America, so that was what mainly made this appeal to me. But the story is so bad. It's difficult to follow and I'm not entirely sure what even happened. And I don't think that's due to me not being smart enough to understand it (which is how I feel sometimes with Jonathan Hickmans books), it's more down to bad writing.
But the art is gorgeous. Such a talented artist and this is a science fiction comic so he can be really creative, but the story is bad.
But the art is gorgeous. Such a talented artist and this is a science fiction comic so he can be really creative, but the story is bad.
July 19, 2020
SUPER FAST REVIEW:
At first I wasn’t gonna type a review but I wanna recommend this and don’t want the shocking amount of negative reviews and lack of positive reviews to put friends off a book I think is great.
So my short pitch on why you should read this book is this: Drifter is a bad-ass sci-fi western with stunning art, interesting characters, a very intense tone and piles of suspense. I can’t say much other than that without spoilers but trust me: this is really fuckin’ good!
5/5
At first I wasn’t gonna type a review but I wanna recommend this and don’t want the shocking amount of negative reviews and lack of positive reviews to put friends off a book I think is great.
So my short pitch on why you should read this book is this: Drifter is a bad-ass sci-fi western with stunning art, interesting characters, a very intense tone and piles of suspense. I can’t say much other than that without spoilers but trust me: this is really fuckin’ good!
5/5
January 18, 2017
This series has potential. I like the western meets scifi mixup of this.
July 9, 2015
Not a bad book. The real winner is the artwork in this. That's what stood out to me most.
I recieved a copy from Netgalley.com and Image comics
I recieved a copy from Netgalley.com and Image comics
February 9, 2016
The artwork on this is nice, and there seem to be some decent ideas, but everything is buried in deliberately cryptic writing that left me irritated even after a second reading. I value clarity in writing, even when the world is fantastical, and I have little patience for authors who attempt to make their work seem mysterious through obfuscation, rather than creating truly puzzling scenarios with sharp, insightful prose. For me this book fell into the former category. For example "Not air, but my lungs give it a shot." ok, well if it's not air, and all of the artwork depicted a person transitioning from a liquid that seems to be primarily water, into what appears to be an atmosphere, then what the fuck is it? But there is no answer, because the writer is either lazy, or wants to create a false sense of mystery that might be spoiled by clarity.
I found a lot of the dialog to be awkward, aiming for some kind of cleverness or depth, but mostly missing. For example: "Another dark cloud in boots. Poppin' up like weeds these days." Ugh. Just bad.
I found a lot of the dialog to be awkward, aiming for some kind of cleverness or depth, but mostly missing. For example: "Another dark cloud in boots. Poppin' up like weeds these days." Ugh. Just bad.
May 19, 2019
The Wild West in Space, upon a new planet, this brilliant concept works fine, the story begins when an spaceship crashes onto a unknown planet. Excellent artwork, throughout the novel. No negatives. Fresh storyline.
May 16, 2018
Does this series get better? I liked the art, to be honest the art is amazing but the story is a little messy. I had hoped this would be a series that would be worth the time to invest but I'm a little underwhelmed by the characters and overall arc.
I was looking at purchasing the remaining books but this first book was a 2.5 for me, it just lacked ambition and clear direction. Not a terrible book but one that doesn't make enough out of the interesting concept.
I was looking at purchasing the remaining books but this first book was a 2.5 for me, it just lacked ambition and clear direction. Not a terrible book but one that doesn't make enough out of the interesting concept.
August 25, 2015
An odd duck, this one. The chunky, often sumptuous painted sci-fi art, married to an infuriatingly gnomic script, reminded me very much of 2000AD. The least-loved phase of 2000AD, unfortunately: its wayward adolescence in the 1990s. Squint and Ivan Brandon could be John Smith, Nic Klein could be Colin MacNeil, slightly stiff figurework and all.
On the other hand, a Smith/MacNeil strip would have been a fondly-remembered - if baffling - high point of that 2000AD era. and this comic isn't without its charms. Drifter is coming out of an Image Comics at the height of its powers and confidence, so no wonder it gets lost in the pack. But compare it to the far more straightforward - and duller - 'space western' Copperhead, and I think Drifter has something. The first issue is deceptively tight, and the plot spirals frustratingly away from you midway through, but in the strange planet and the hero's amnesiac predicament there's a sense of the uncanny and eerie that reminds me of Gene Wolfe's identity-shifting SF. It keeps me reading this, slightly against my better judgement.
On the other hand, a Smith/MacNeil strip would have been a fondly-remembered - if baffling - high point of that 2000AD era. and this comic isn't without its charms. Drifter is coming out of an Image Comics at the height of its powers and confidence, so no wonder it gets lost in the pack. But compare it to the far more straightforward - and duller - 'space western' Copperhead, and I think Drifter has something. The first issue is deceptively tight, and the plot spirals frustratingly away from you midway through, but in the strange planet and the hero's amnesiac predicament there's a sense of the uncanny and eerie that reminds me of Gene Wolfe's identity-shifting SF. It keeps me reading this, slightly against my better judgement.
January 10, 2016
Drifter reminds me of the strips you'll find in the average issue of Heavy Metal: fantastic art, nearly incomprehensible plot, with dialog and narration that feels like a series of disjointed nonsequiturs. The story is straightforward enough to follow most of it just from the action in the panels, but other important things - such as who the characters are, what's their motivation, and exactly what the hell they're talking about in any given conversation - well, I think the author is holding a little too much close to the chest. Which is too bad, since this is a very, very pretty comic.
June 22, 2015
Some very neat artwork on hand in this one, reminiscent of Heavy Metal-style science fiction. But like others have commented, I really can't make heads or tails out of what exactly is going on in this comic. The writing is about as inscrutable as any I've come across in a comic in some time. Maybe it will get clearer in future issues, but if you haven't hooked us in by now, well, that's a problem.
June 16, 2015
This was such a disjointed story. I couldn't follow it, and furthermore I wasn't interested in what was happening either. I hated the main character, and most of the supporting characters fell short for me as well. I just... I don't know. This one sounded so good (premise-wise) but turned out to be a mess.
Won't be recc'ing or reading more of this one. That's to be sure.
Won't be recc'ing or reading more of this one. That's to be sure.
May 25, 2019
Arte: 5 estrellas
Historia: 3 estrellas
Concepto: 3.5 estrellas
Aunque los vaqueros espaciales ya son algo que se ha usado hasta el cansancio, y aunque este cómic le debe muchísimo a John Carter, la historia es buena, y los giros en ella son inesperados.
La colección en sí no es de lo más cohesiva porque Drifter parece ser de más largo aliento. Es otro caso de un cómic serializado que, leído en formato de TP, SE siente inconcluso, pero las pinturas de Nic Klein hacen que te detengas por un buen tiempo en cada viñeta. El final del volumen, sin embargo, es buenísimo. Reboza con las mejores cualidades del Western y de la ciencia ficción al mismo tiempo, y cierra en una hoja bellísima y aterradora.
Si nada más, me quedé con muchas ganas de seguir la historia
Historia: 3 estrellas
Concepto: 3.5 estrellas
Aunque los vaqueros espaciales ya son algo que se ha usado hasta el cansancio, y aunque este cómic le debe muchísimo a John Carter, la historia es buena, y los giros en ella son inesperados.
La colección en sí no es de lo más cohesiva porque Drifter parece ser de más largo aliento. Es otro caso de un cómic serializado que, leído en formato de TP, SE siente inconcluso, pero las pinturas de Nic Klein hacen que te detengas por un buen tiempo en cada viñeta. El final del volumen, sin embargo, es buenísimo. Reboza con las mejores cualidades del Western y de la ciencia ficción al mismo tiempo, y cierra en una hoja bellísima y aterradora.
Si nada más, me quedé con muchas ganas de seguir la historia
February 2, 2022
Podle coveru, zajímavě vypadající scifi, co slibuje trochu ártovej zážitek! Realita ? Rádoby Scifi western plný dialogů co nedávají smysl, děj co nikam neplyne a nezajímavé postavy. Tohle se mi dlouho nestalo, hlavně abych souhlasil u nějakého komiksu se špatným hodnocením.
Dvě hvězdy za top kresbu, SRAČKA!!!
Dvě hvězdy za top kresbu, SRAČKA!!!
August 27, 2018
Voilà un premier tome bien intriguant. Suffisamment pour susciter l'envie de connaître la suite de ce western futuriste post apocalyptique. Mais également suffisamment pour perdre son lecteur avec un scénario qui semble un peu pour l'instant partir dans tous les sens. A voir dans la continuité.
January 12, 2018
A little too hard to follow. Not terrible, just a bit too confusing for me.
January 25, 2018
Very nice artwork and creatures, but the story and the main character didn't quite do it for me.
January 19, 2017
Drifter is cool as hell. The art is gorgeous, the setting is great, and the creature designs are simply breathtaking. There are some very cool and well scripted scenes in here too. The only problem is that I have no idea what's going on, and I absolutely hate the main character. Seriously, it's such a confusing mess. I don't know who half the characters are or how they're related, or why Abram is where he is half the time. The dialogue is intentionally obtuse, and not exactly buttery to read. The captions are confusing, and this volume just throws so much at you without resolving a single narrative thread. Volume 2 is cheap, and on a slow comic book day, curiosity might get the best of me, and maybe I'll see where this all goes, but this volume at least is not a particularly satisfying story.
But again, it is pretty damn cool.
But again, it is pretty damn cool.
July 24, 2015
Well I got surprisingly far through – almost two-thirds, before giving up on this impenetrable nonsense. Yes, it looks fine, yes there's a mystery with an amnesiac space pilot ending up Riddick-like in an outpost town, but the bonkers lack of coherence is just too much. There are aliens with a hive mind, but suddenly things break into pretentious narrative from a waffly religious type, and you have no idea where you are, or, more importantly, why. Something about a dead woman, and a guy stuck in a bar with animosity towards the stranger, whose own mystery just gets forgotten… Sheesh, life's not that long you know.
October 19, 2016
Nice art and an interesting set up for the story. The main character crash lands on an alien planet, manages to just barely survive the crash, and then is gut shot and left for dead. He wakes up three days later (or is it much longer?) in a ramshackle somewhat western sci-fi town in the wastelands of this backwards planet with no way off-world. There are so many questions the main character (and you) have, what was he running from, why was someone trying to kill him, who shot him, why are all these other people stuck on the planet, who are the aliens on the planet... and more. It's good opening arc because it makes you curious as to what happens next.
November 23, 2016
Well, the art is good. But that's all the positives I have for this. It's attempt at storytelling is apparently dark grunts and truncated sentences as it throws new characters in at random, giving them little if any introduction, and 'exploring' a strange world with basic rules that are never explained, just alluded to. I don't know, everything about this book rubbed me the wrong way. I felt the entire book was a waste of time, with special hatred to the pastor's storyline. Maybe I missed the point of the book. Or maybe it's just a rubbish volume of wandering angst and pretty pictures posing as depth.
December 19, 2017
BCDER: 68
I felt somewhat confused after reading this first arc of "Drifter", but that's ok. I think it's the first Ivan Brandon book I have read and I'm intrigued. I'll definitely read the next volume and my guess is some of the confusion will be cleared up.
I love the style and overall plot hints. I always have a bit of problem with disjointed time periods but that's mostly a me thing. The glimpse of world building thus far makes me think I'll really enjoy the subsequent volumes.
I loved the Nic Klein covers in particular! I think they'd make great wall posters.
I felt somewhat confused after reading this first arc of "Drifter", but that's ok. I think it's the first Ivan Brandon book I have read and I'm intrigued. I'll definitely read the next volume and my guess is some of the confusion will be cleared up.
I love the style and overall plot hints. I always have a bit of problem with disjointed time periods but that's mostly a me thing. The glimpse of world building thus far makes me think I'll really enjoy the subsequent volumes.
I loved the Nic Klein covers in particular! I think they'd make great wall posters.
July 14, 2021
Great art, unfortunately the story just doesn’t flow and is convoluted and confusing. Sci-fi westerns aren’t anything new, but this doesn’t add anything or is even entertaining enough to exist. Seems like the writer just throws in a bunch of things in a pot and hopes for the best, with no story structure or direction. The ending was a big letdown, doesn’t anything even get resolved? Any questions answered? What’s the point?! If it wasn’t for the artwork I wouldn’t have even tried to get through the first couple chapters.
April 15, 2016
Bullet Review:
This is one of those comics that tells Deep and Dark and Meaningful stories that no one understands, but hey, the art is pretty, amirite?
Dude has amnesia (don't they all?), goes into town (check), meets up with sheriff (check), gets into trouble (double check). Cue lots of Deep and Meaningful narration from Amnesia Dude.
But hey, it could be worse.
This is one of those comics that tells Deep and Dark and Meaningful stories that no one understands, but hey, the art is pretty, amirite?
Dude has amnesia (don't they all?), goes into town (check), meets up with sheriff (check), gets into trouble (double check). Cue lots of Deep and Meaningful narration from Amnesia Dude.
But hey, it could be worse.
July 14, 2015
Absolutely gorgeous artwork, but the story felt extremely disjointed to me.
April 11, 2019
Drifter is an intriguing blend of two very unique genres: Science fiction and Western. Both of these genres (despite their overt differences) share a number of tropes and narrative structures, and Drifter effectively uses these commonalities to create a story that could arguably be described as the best of both worlds. The meat of the narrative is mostly western in tone, but much of the settings and technology have a clear basis in the realm of Sci-fi. As the name implies, the main character of our story is the eponymous Drifter Abram Pollux; a man who is marooned after his star ship unexpectedly crashes on the unfamiliar alien world of Ouro. While this world seems remote in location and sparse on resources, Abram quickly finds that it is far from uninhabited. Humans, Ouro Natives, and various deadly flora and fauna bring more and more dangers (and questions) into Abram's path, and he must try his best to make something resembling a life on this unforgiving world until he can find the answers he seeks.
Drifter leans very heavily into the concept of 'a lone stranger rolling into town', with an injured Abram initially finding himself bandaged and in the care of the local doctor and sheriff, who introduces the wounded spacefarer to their backwoods outpost. This outpost has all the hallmarks of a town straight out of a spaghetti western; the rowdy (yet always dimly light) saloon, the full of religious fervor Pastor, the wheeling and dealing local merchant, and even the wind swept sand road that runs straight through town. While town maintains the old west ascetic, the technology that makes up it's (and the larger world's) trappings are clearly based in the far flung future.
This is a world where we find energy weapons in every holster, and even the most beaten down vehicle sports some form of anti-gravity technology. The real beauty of Drifter is how this technology is used to compliment (rather than distract from) the narrative's western influences. We have a world where energy weapons don't minimize the threats of blades, bullets, and bare knuckles. This is a world built on circuits and diodes, but maintained with sweat and blood.
The narrative is very sparse on clarity, instead portraying a number of smaller (sometimes seemingly disparate) events that in the moment only seem to deepn the mysteries of this remote world, it's people, and our protagonist. Abram is consistently hesitant to give out any information about himself or his motivations, which leaves the reader in a similar position to the outpost residents he meets; curious, but also skeptical. As the story unfolds Abram and the reader are slowly introduced to the ways of Ouro and it's residents, including the societal niceties (and not-so-niceties) between the humans, Native workers, and wasteland raiders. It is made clear at every step that Abram is, as the title implies, the drifter from outside of this world; he must learn the way of things quickly, lest he (or his allies) face the consequences.
Drifter is a story that is so hard to review, partly due to it's reliance on mystery and partly due to it's long form structure. You will undoubtedly finish this opening volume with far more questions then answers, and all clues seem to indicate that this is by design. The creative team have taken great care to build a world that begs to be explored, but also takes it's time to let the reader really take it what they are seeing and reading. This slower pace may leave the story feeling sparse at times, but when you consider the wider scope and style of the story being told it becomes much more understandable. If you want a story that will leave you wondering, in regard to both story and style, then I think Drifter would be well worth your time. It doesn't come out and show it's hand, but with each new card revealed the game gets get more and more intriguing.
Drifter leans very heavily into the concept of 'a lone stranger rolling into town', with an injured Abram initially finding himself bandaged and in the care of the local doctor and sheriff, who introduces the wounded spacefarer to their backwoods outpost. This outpost has all the hallmarks of a town straight out of a spaghetti western; the rowdy (yet always dimly light) saloon, the full of religious fervor Pastor, the wheeling and dealing local merchant, and even the wind swept sand road that runs straight through town. While town maintains the old west ascetic, the technology that makes up it's (and the larger world's) trappings are clearly based in the far flung future.
This is a world where we find energy weapons in every holster, and even the most beaten down vehicle sports some form of anti-gravity technology. The real beauty of Drifter is how this technology is used to compliment (rather than distract from) the narrative's western influences. We have a world where energy weapons don't minimize the threats of blades, bullets, and bare knuckles. This is a world built on circuits and diodes, but maintained with sweat and blood.
The narrative is very sparse on clarity, instead portraying a number of smaller (sometimes seemingly disparate) events that in the moment only seem to deepn the mysteries of this remote world, it's people, and our protagonist. Abram is consistently hesitant to give out any information about himself or his motivations, which leaves the reader in a similar position to the outpost residents he meets; curious, but also skeptical. As the story unfolds Abram and the reader are slowly introduced to the ways of Ouro and it's residents, including the societal niceties (and not-so-niceties) between the humans, Native workers, and wasteland raiders. It is made clear at every step that Abram is, as the title implies, the drifter from outside of this world; he must learn the way of things quickly, lest he (or his allies) face the consequences.
Drifter is a story that is so hard to review, partly due to it's reliance on mystery and partly due to it's long form structure. You will undoubtedly finish this opening volume with far more questions then answers, and all clues seem to indicate that this is by design. The creative team have taken great care to build a world that begs to be explored, but also takes it's time to let the reader really take it what they are seeing and reading. This slower pace may leave the story feeling sparse at times, but when you consider the wider scope and style of the story being told it becomes much more understandable. If you want a story that will leave you wondering, in regard to both story and style, then I think Drifter would be well worth your time. It doesn't come out and show it's hand, but with each new card revealed the game gets get more and more intriguing.
January 16, 2018
It starts off promising, and the character art is phenomenal, but it starts asking way too many disparate questions in a bid to create an atmosphere of unease, which might have worked if the pacing was any compelling. There don't appear to be any immediate stakes, and the passage of time (perhaps quite purposefully, mind you) seems to be quite loose. Events don't seem to happen with any immediacy; one subplot sees a serial killer priest butchering those he's judged as irredeemable sinners, but our protagonist (who is exceedingly dull) never even becomes aware of these killings, and the subplot is kicked off quite out of nowhere in the middle of another subplot. It's weird, and not in a fun way. Much to its own detriment, Drifter, uh... drifts, far too freely.
It's not totally worthless, though. There's a lot to like in here; the art is superb, and there's some really crass and odd elements that piqued by interest - a crucifix made of piss leaking into cracks in the street, some cool sci-fi gun violence, a really creepy formless villain type who commands a figurative army of zombie-like, cave-dwelling demons from the comfort of a tidy office - but the story itself seems to be lead along by shock and confusion alone, and after six chapters, I can't say anything has really happened. And I don't mind aimless narratives when they're done well! This one isn't really done as well as the opening pages might have promised, and the characters (except the protagonist) aren't developed beyond their otherwise intriguing introductions.
If you get the chance, maybe check it out all the same. It's just not memorable or engaging in the way it really should have been.
It's not totally worthless, though. There's a lot to like in here; the art is superb, and there's some really crass and odd elements that piqued by interest - a crucifix made of piss leaking into cracks in the street, some cool sci-fi gun violence, a really creepy formless villain type who commands a figurative army of zombie-like, cave-dwelling demons from the comfort of a tidy office - but the story itself seems to be lead along by shock and confusion alone, and after six chapters, I can't say anything has really happened. And I don't mind aimless narratives when they're done well! This one isn't really done as well as the opening pages might have promised, and the characters (except the protagonist) aren't developed beyond their otherwise intriguing introductions.
If you get the chance, maybe check it out all the same. It's just not memorable or engaging in the way it really should have been.
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