By the Time I Get to Dallas #1 is a comic written by Colin Devonshire with art by Juanfrancisco Moyano, Dario Fas Marin, and Jacinto Moyano. An unexplained phenomenon causes people to randomly travel to a specific location. This is a comic that is part supernatural part science fiction with plenty of drama. Our leading man for this story is Rudy Deckart, he is a medical student in his fourth year and he primarily works in the trauma center. He is good at what he does but he lacks care and empathy. He has a girlfriend named Karen who also works in the medical field. The plot begins in the present after the phenomenon has been going on for some time but then we flashback to before it happened. It is during this prolonged flashback where we see the different personalities and motivations of these characters. This story takes place in Boston and besides this phenomenon is the same world as ours. There are themes of unanswered questions and self-doubt here. The action here can get bloody and slightly gory though some of that is due to medical procedures. The pacing is slightly slower than average with a tone that starts off somewhat light before getting serious. The intensity gets higher and higher as the story goes on. The dialogue is a mix of narration and conversation with a few pages that sit on the precipice of being word-heavy. This is a debut issue that gives us an interesting premise, intriguing characters, and heavy themes in this story that is centered on a hospital.

            The art here is detailed with a focus on the shading and it is a bit reminiscent of 90’s/2000’s comics. The color range is both wide and realistic with the lighting playing a big part. For scenery we do see the occasional lawn but it primarily consists of looking at buildings. The main location for this story is the hospital and various areas are visited from the individual rooms to the auditorium. Some city streets, subways, and apartments are shown as well. The backgrounds always show part of the scene except for one instance. The expression level here is above-average as Rudy is a character and isn’t the best at hiding his emotions. The emotional range here is goes from happiness and joy to sadness and depression with some anger thrown in. The faces here are well-detailed but they can occasionally look stiff. The violence here is bloody and there is light gore present but that is for medical reasons. The action scenes tend to be short flow well.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like stories about unexplained phenomenon effecting millions of people and starring a man in the medical field with drama and violence then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

PG-13. Violence, light gore.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“That was a 20-year old kid dying like a dog.”

 

Physical Link: https://pitdocpress.gumroad.com/l/YPfkw

Digital Link: https://pitdocpress.gumroad.com/l/xThEp

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pitdocpress/by-the-time-i-get-to-dallas-an-er-docs-apocalypse-comic/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 32

Violent Pages: 6, for 19% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 1, for 3% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 2

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 3

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 2

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 2

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”