D-Riders #1 is a comic written by Chris Moses with art by Pablo Verdugo Munoz and colors by Pedro Estouco. A woman is whisked away by the Goddess of Chaos to take part in a high-stakes motorcycle race. This is a supernatural racing comic that has desperate drama, vehicular combat, and a pair of leading ladies. The first woman we meet is Anaya, she lives with her elderly parents and her father is confined to a hospital bed. She works a stressful 9-5 and longs to get back into bike riding. Eris is the Goddess of Chaos and she wants to win the race in order to get her wish granted. This story begins with Anaya dreaming about a golden apple before waking and rushing downstairs when her mom calls her. Her mother has fallen while trying to assist her father with his oxygen and Anaya helps her up and walks her to bed. The next scene we see Anaya running late(literally) to work. This takes place in a world where mythological and supernatural beings are real. The violence here is explosive with some gore but no blood. This moves at a steady pace with a Death Race-like tone as characters can attack each and have clear, sometimes loud, personas. There are a number of violently intense moments with some dramatic ones as well. The dialogue here is straightforward with a decent bit of thought narration from Anaya. There aren’t any word-heavy pages here. This is an exciting debut issue for a series that has intriguing dramatic undertones and high-speed, destructive, vehicular action.
The art here is drawn in a detailed modern style that is reminiscent of comics from the 90’s/2000’s with strong lighting and shading. This comic boasts a realistic color palette with some faded and low-saturated tones. For scenery there are the rocky roads and jagged cliffs of the first ring of Hell, Limbo. The primary real world locations are the city streets, Anaya’s home, and her stuffy office job. Backgrounds are split between showing a stylized gradient color and actual physical surroundings like décor or architecture. The expression level here is above-average as these two ladies react to just about everything. We’ll see almost the entire emotional gamut from sorrow and sadness to anger and rage; there is also some happiness, shock and fear. Faces here have a decent amount of detail especially in the eyes, with most of the expressions being clear. When Eris uses her powers they tend to be some variation of purple. Physical weapons shown here include ball-and-chains and maces. Violence here is explosive with some goriness and implied gruesome moments. The race serves as one long action scene as the terrain is unforgiving and competitors can damage each other; the flow is decent as there are some sections where you can get confused. Eris wears a revealing skirt that is one swift breeze away from not doing its job; she also has some suggestive poses and is subject to lewd angles.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes, if this is up your alley
“Would I like this?”
If you like supernatural racing stories that star two women and feature mythological and supernatural creatures with Death Race-style violence and desperate drama then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence, gore, gruesomeness, lewdness.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“You will do as a rider. The apple chose you.”
Digital Link: https://redseacomics.com/products/d-riders-1
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chrismoses/d-riders-1/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 22
Violent Pages: 9, for 41% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 2, for 9% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 3
“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 – 4
“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 – 1
“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.”
