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Artist Sean Gordon Murphy has always had an independent, rebellious streak in his work.
He wrote and illustrated a creator-owned book for DC’s imprint titled Vertigo Punk rock Jesuscentered around the cloning of Jesus Christ. Even his major work, in particular Batman: The White Knightoperating on the fringes of the superhero universe as it became a surprise franchise for DC.
And let’s not get into his obsession with drawing vehicles, cars and motorcycles alike. (Actually, we’ll get to that, just keep reading.)
Now, Murphy takes his anti-establishment vibe — and the cars, we can’t forget the cars — into high gear with his first creator-owned work in nearly a dozen years.
Murphy wrote as he painted The last drivera new ongoing series set to debut in August from Image Comics. It is described as having shades of the dystopian atmosphere of John Carpenter’s classic Escape from New York The classic chase across America Vanishing pointthe cyberpunk action comedy will tell the story in a way not seen much in modern publishing. And she, The last driver It will be published in landscape format to be read horizontally.
The story takes place in America where as technology advanced, cities began to create the grid, an automated transportation system that not only made cars obsolete, but made them illegal. Against this backdrop, the outlaw named Clutch has no choice but to get behind the wheel once again. What began as a race to save his granddaughter’s life quickly turns into a rebellion against technology, fascism, and the future of a divided America.
In an email, Murphy said he was inspired to write the book while in France, where he saw old race cars being put out to pasture.
“I was in France when I started thinking about this book, at the race track at Le Mans,” he wrote. “The museum was doing construction work, so they moved nearly a billion dollars worth of cars to a nearby barn located in a cow pasture. It was an amazing sight! And it made me wonder who would care about such valuable cars in the future – not just race cars, but movie cars.”
“Not only would this story be an excuse to draw cars, but I could compare the death of car culture — the shift to electric cars that drive themselves — and use it as a symbol of people ceding control to government control.”
He also decided to make his main character someone who symbolizes the country’s loss of freedom.
“For America, I wanted the main character to be a Native American — someone who understands freedom in a different way, because of the way it was taken from him.” Murphy wrote.
But let’s get back to cars. Murphy described himself as a big car guy, someone who loved the open road and car culture. He also admits that drawing vehicles is “very difficult to draw”, which is why a lot of artists lean away from it.
“I like the technical challenge,” he explained. “It’s given me some work outside of comics as well – from Harley Davidson to designing vehicles for Warner Bros.
Murphy doesn’t just talk the talk. He’s driving the car. The cartoonist owns a restored and modified 1978 Datsun that he takes to car shows. It has so far won two awards for Best Muscle Car of the 1970s.
“The Japanese car that wins this award usually upsets the traditional American car guys,” he said.
presence The last driver Being a vehicle-centric book made him open to changing his reading style and choosing to present it in a landscape format.
“Cars are usually long and wide, so I felt the horizontal shape allowed me to frame them and move better,” he said. “Two pages were definitely a challenge, my paper was quite wide which made it difficult to fit on my desk in the studio!”
The first issue of The last driver It’s scheduled to hit shelves on August 19. Check out the preview below.
