Black Diamond On Ramp 1 NM AIT Fabio Moon Larry Young Jon Proctor 1st print

Description

Black Diamond on Ramp (2005) #1
Published 2005 by Astronauts in Trouble

Writer: Larry Young
Art: Jon Proctor

Flipbook with Smoke and Guns

Smoke and Guns
Writer: Kirsten Baldock
Artist: Fábio Moon

What do two bikers, a diner cook, an orthodontist and an elevated superhighway of the future have in common? They’re all heading back east at 100mph in “Black Diamond,” the new mini-series from AiT/Planet Lar. Written by Larry Young and illustrated in full-color “Comicscope®” by Jon Proctor, “Black Diamond” is a high-octane action adventure story set fifty years in the future, when commercial flying is outlawed, society has abandoned the socio-eco-political notions of “left” and “right” for “up-top” and “down-below,” and the future of it all depends on one San Franciscan orthodontist named Don. CBR News spoke with Larry Young about his new six-issue book, the first of which ships next month.

In the post-post-post-9/11 world of “Black Diamond’s” future, fear of terrorism has resulted in a complete ban on commercial aircraft. As such, a massive eight-lane highway was constructed to bisect the United States from San Francisco to Washington, DC. Known as the Black Diamond, the transcontinental motorway was designed to facilitate commerce and travel, but it quickly became a mess of misfits and gearheads, drug runners and “grey market” tech dealers; a society unto itself with its own shanty towns and oil barons, where auto mechanics live like rock stars and diner waitresses are worshiped as celebrities. In other words, the Black Diamond is no place for your average tax-paying citizen.

Meanwhile, down on the ground, life goes swimmingly for America’s “desirables.” Old ladies walk their dogs, paperboys work their routes, and nobody’s got a care in the world. Unless, as Young wrote in “On Ramp,” the “Black Diamond” “prequel” AiT/Planet Lar published way back in 2005, “an avocado-colored 1972 AMC Gremlin with laughing-gas boosters and 250-gallon drums of gas will careen off the highway 150 feet above your head and squash your mom like a bug when she’s getting the mail.”

Enter San Francisco’s Dr. Don McLaughlin, orthodontist at large. In Young’s words, Don is a green wheelman better used to braces and retainers than hot asphalt and four-on-the-floor. Don’s married to Katie, who unfortunately for him just happens to be the daughter of one Jim Maddox, the architect of the Black Diamond. It’s unfortunate because the government has decided to clean up the super highway, provoking its outlaw denizens to take drastic measures to preserve their concrete heartland and kidnap Katie in Baltimore. Dr. Don borrows the keys to a hugely illegal 1973 Cougar and hits the road to rescue his wife.

Proctor’s artwork is almost entirely unlike anything else on the stands today. Simple yet intensely stylized; distorted yet deliberate, Proctor’s “Black Diamond” work leaps off the page with a psychedelic urgency that’s sure to get him noticed by more and more readers as the series progresses.

“Black Diamond’s” politics-heavy premise is more than just the foundation for the story’s high-concept set piece. The series promises to wrap a good deal of social commentary in its jacket of action and attitude. “You can see political commentary in it; economic commentary, even class issues and religious issues,” Young explained. “Without getting into ‘author’s intent,’ Jon and I just want to say now that everyone is correct with their own interpretations.”

Of the inspiration for the series, Young said, “[My wife] Mimi and I were heading down to LA for some meetings and there was some guy driving the speed limit in front of us in the fast lane. I thought it’d be cool if I had my own lane to drive in. Then I thought ‘Drive-in,’ which leads me to ‘Vanishing Point’ and ‘Mad Max’ and ‘Two-Lane Blacktop’ and all of a sudden I’ve got a place with its own history in my head.

“Then I think, ‘What if Mimi was trapped on the East Coast and I had to go get her?’ I’d steal a car if I had to and not slow down for the cops. ‘Hmm, there’s plot taken care of. Wonder what Jon Proctor’s working on now?’ Zoom! We’ve got us a convoy”.

Near mint, 1st print.