The Last Driver, Sean Gordon Murphy's comic about the only man left in America who still knows how to drive, is getting an NES-style cover built on Rad Racer. Image Comics confirmed yesterday that issues #1-3 have sold out again and will return on Wednesday, December 16, with Simon Gough's Rad Racer homage on the second printing of #3. Check out the official post down below:
In Murphy's near-future America, cities built the GRID, a robotic transportation system that first made cars obsolete and then made them illegal. An outlaw named Clutch has no choice but to get behind the wheel one more time to save his granddaughter's life, and the trip turns into a rebellion against the system that took driving away.
Image's solicitation for #1 opens with the line "No one knows how to drive...except for him!" and describes Murphy, who writes and draws the series, as a "longtime gearhead." The publisher compares it to Escape from New York meets Vanishing Point and calls it a "high octane cyberpunk action comic."
A Car-Fixing Cover And An 8-Bit Driving Tribute
All 3 reprints have something new. The #1 fifth printing features new coloring. The #2 third printing has new cover art by Selena Bell showing the character Shelby working on cars. The #3 second printing carries Gough's cover, which Image describes as an NES homage to Rad Racer.
Murphy has already turned the reprints into a run of '80s tributes. He drew an Escape from New York homage for the second printing of #1 and a Back to the Future homage for the fourth, which arrives tomorrow, November 11. "I should have known a Back To The Future homage would have sold out," he said yesterday. "I'm so thrilled people are liking these '80s movie homages!"
He did not expect car comics to sell this well. When #1 sold out on its August 19 launch, Murphy said, "I'm shocked it sold out! I just assumed most readers weren't into cars, a grindhouse vibe, and books that you have to tip sideways."
What Rad Racer Was
Rad Racer, released as Highway Star in Japan, came out on the NES in 1987 from Square, with Hironobu Sakaguchi directing, Nasir Gebelli programming, Kazuko Shibuya on art and Nobuo Uematsu on music. It reached Japan on August 7, 1987, North America in October 1987 and Europe in January 1988.
Players drove a Ferrari 328, listed in the game as the 328 Twin Turbo. The view sat behind the car, and the run went coast to coast through 8 stages with different skylines, from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Athens, with traffic that ranged from Volkswagen Beetles to Ferrari Testarossas.
The car reached 100 km/h before the turbo kicked in and pushed it to a top speed of 255 km/h. The dashboard showed a speedometer, tachometer, progress bar, score and time remaining, and players could switch the music while driving. Hitting traffic or roadside obstacles could flip the car.
Rad Racer also had a 3D mode. Pressing Select while wearing the included red and blue anaglyph glasses turned on stereoscopic 3D, and the game worked with the Power Glove and Japan's Famicom 3D System. To make the road bend convincingly on old CRT televisions, Gebelli scrolled the image line by line. The game sold 1.96 million copies, got an NES sequel called Rad Racer II and showed up in the 1989 film The Wizard.
Where The Series Goes Next
The Last Driver runs 5 issues. Issue #4 arrives November 25 with covers by Murphy and Bengal, and #5 lands December 30 with covers by Murphy and Fiona Staples. Image's solicitation for the last issue promises Clutch and Cuda putting "the pedal to the metal" to bring down Kowalski and the GRID for good.
The December 16 reprints of #1, #2 and #3 will be available in comic shops, and the series is also sold digitally on Amazon Kindle, Google Play, Apple Books, Nook, Kobo and other platforms.
If you could take one car from the 1980s into a world like The Last Driver's where driving is banned, would it be the Rad Racer Ferrari 328 or something else?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.