Graphic Novel Review: The Dead Hand Volume 1: Cold War Relics

Posted on August 22, 2019 at 10:46 am by Gene Ambaum

The Dead Hand Volume 1: Cold War Relics by Kyle Higgins (writer), Stephen Mooney (artist), Jordie Bellaire (colorist). 9781534308398. 162pp. Publisher’s Rating: M / Mature. Collects #1 – #6.

This was booktalked to me by the good folks at Austin Books & Comics, officially my new favorite comic store, when I was poking around their indy comics rack.

The pitch I was given went something like this: At the end of the cold war, a black ops American agent, Carter Carlson, enters Chelyabinsk-70 to track down a new piece of tech that could give the Soviet Union a new lease on life. Instead of a research center filled with top minds, he finds a few terrified, hungry scientists building vacuum cleaners. Flash forward to now. Carter is the sheriff in a small, all-American town with a huge, weird secret that has a lot to do with that mission. There’s a huge reveal at the end of the first issue, and things just get stranger after that (but not in a supernatural sense).

It was as good a read as the folks at the comic shop promised. Stop by if you’re near Austin, TX, and ask them to recommend a graphic novel or two for you — you won’t be disappointed.