By Chris Tresson

've been lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of Ian Livingstone's Freeway Fighter #1, which is out this May from Titan Comics. The series is being written by Andi Ewington (who's work I like to follow), drawn by Simon Coleby, colored by Len O’Grady and lettered by Jim Campbell.

Freeway Fighter is based upon a roleplaying game book of the same name from a series of RPG books created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston called fighting fantasy... Going into this, I have absolutely no idea what to expect as I've never read/played any of the books from this series, I’m not a roleplayer and the whole thing is a little before my time… I can see from the Wikipedia entry that the Freeway Fighter book was originally released in 1985, whereas I was released in 1989, haha… Anyways, I like the creative team for the series and I’m going to give it a bash. If I hadn’t have been sent it, I’d still pick it up because the cover is pretty badass and is enough to make me curious about what’s inside... I’m going to stop babbling now and get into this. Here goes. Ian Livingstone’s Freeway Fighter #1.

When you get a book this far in advance, it’s probably best to keep as tight-lipped as possible, so I’m not going to be giving away any details. This is spoiler free but I will tell you, as you can tell from the cover, the book features a lot of cool vehicles. Immediately I can see where the source material has its inspiration from and it’s all the more clear to me due to a recent reboot… but this is cool. I’m into it. I like the setting and I like the idea of it. There’s a lot of action in this and some great art from Coleby and O’Grady who are an awesome team. I’ve seen them work together before on the 2000 AD series Jaegir so I half expected the artwork to be great going into this anyway. It was great and I really enjoyed Simon Coleby drawing cars, and I’m not a car guy, haha.

I think the most awesome thing for me is to see Andi Ewington with his name on this series. I know he’s pretty passionate about the books and he really wanted to get this series off the ground. His fondness for Freeway Fighter shows in the writing of this issue. It’s got great pacing, loads of action and just the right amount of intrigue to make the readers want another dose of the story. Another thing with this comic, I think it’s made me a bit curious about what’s in the original game book more than anything. That’s a good thing for the franchise, surely. If more people get into the original book, the more likely we are to get a few more cool comics like this one.

So overall, it’s a solid first outing for Freeway Fighter and its creative team. I’m looking forward to seeing the story unfold in the upcoming issues. It’s a series I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on. High-fives for everyone involved

For comic fans reading this, if you like strong female leads, dystopian worlds and badass vehicles, Freeway Fighter is definitely a comic you’ll be wanting to pick up. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to wait until May 17th, you poor bastards… Even then, there’s a good chance your local comic shop will sell out of them before you get there. I’d get down there ASAP and pre-order it if I were you…

SCORE: 5/5

Freeway Fighter #1
Titan Comics