Very dark, very ominous. Definitely would like to see more. What happened to the magazine you linked in? I checked it out and its one of those 'parked' but empty sites.

Wally Wood is one of my favorites too--great interview! Considering Steinbeck is an inspiration, I'm doubly curious to see how this story arc plays out.

@Illinest: it made you think of Miyizaki because of Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. (That's a GOOD thing)

I like this one a lot.
.
the concept remembers me some European Comics and the image of the traveller makes me think in Desert Punk.
.
By the way EL ETERNAUTA has the same concept and is really master piece of the Argentinian Comic.
:)
Now Zuda has a Traveller an a ROAD (jijiji really bad joke)

@ rkb - i disagree when you say that the flow is interrupted.

it felt ridiculously easy to read imo, and although i have not wracked my brain trying to come up with clever criticism this month the reason it has my vote is just because it seemed to have a 'flow' to it.

for some reason it made me think of miyazaki.

Your art style reminds me of spy vs. spy (as has been said before) but also a little heavy metal in there, or humanoids, and maybe some sunday funny newspaper strips. I'd be interested to know what your artistic influences are??? Or what works in general got you to think up red country??? It's a well written synopsis but you sort of have to read it to follow along with the story.
*************************************************************
Screen 1 I liked narration better than text box thought balloons so good call on that -so far. The artwork here has a 'painted' feel to it, liked the contrast between our leads dreams and reality. If you win never show this persons face. Good panel layout for the traveler putting on his suite nice sequential art -so far.
*************************************************************
screen 2 'and he is happy not to have passed in his sleep, good character insight, your going the narration route was an intresting choice for Zuda. Plus if we don't get to read his thoughts in text box thought balloons, that makes the character so much more mysterious. Again good sequential art as opposed to a bunch of pin-ups with rectangles drawn around them. Finding the bleached by the sun book/ could have used a distraction was a nice touch. You used the same basic panel layout from screen 1 to screen 2 -watch that!!! it could get real boring.
************************************************************
Screen 3 panel 1 Who is the woman??? My guess some old love before all the **** went down in this world. The plane! the plane! i thought pirate planes would look more scary -like maybe a crossbones on that crop duster somewhere???? I think you handled the perspective very well, and nice sound effects.
*************************************************************
screen 4" a dust storm is moving this way" was kind of needless unless your going from some golden age style tribute. You could have had the caption "the traveler knelt down and talked to himself" just as easy and it would have been just as needless. As the screens go on I couldn't tell if the text boxes were narration or this guys thoughts, it seemed like you changed your voice around on this, but used the same box. It threw me off. Best panel in the whole strip for me was panel 4, loved the sunlight poking through the holes, and seeing the plane fly off.
************************************************************
screen 5 "he dashes for the dust storm" why tell us what we see in panels 1,2, and 3??? It's reading more and more like that was a style choice on your part. My guess to keep the mystery factor high with the traveler. panels 5 and 6 looked way too cramped you could have made that 1 better looking panel. The perspective in panel 8 looked a little off but i still enjoyed it.
***************************************************************
screen 6 panel 2 So now are we reading the traveler's thoughts??? I liked the way you handled the art on this screen -very good panel layout. I lied the detail of cheap inferior suites, and the fact they were "half dead before the crash. This reinforced the fact everyone is dying from this great divide. Very well done panel 7, one of the strongest.
***********************************************************
screen 7 So he found a map, and this will no doubt set up the next beat of him trying to get to that town. Your pacing should have peoples interest building in the story. The land squid came out of nowhere and was totally random -I loved it!!! It also helps set up the fact there are unknowns in this world you created that can surprise the viewer. It's tood bad they used the monster for your comics pic, it would have been a nice surprise. You seem to have a habit of going for more than 1 panel to show a event (for ex. panels 4 and 5 and panels 6 and 7) when it would have had more story impact to just show 1 panel of darth vader;) shaking and hearing rrrrrruuuuuurrrrrrr, thenone bigger panel of land squid grabing for the plane. I like the sequential stuff and I like a fair number of panels, but this was some pretty big action screen bigger panels= more impact on your readers.
**********************************************************
screen 8 panels 1-6 again cut down on the punch value, but i thought it was kind of funny seeing him fall. Kind of like silent movie slapstick. As a contrast the way you hadled the land squid attack in panels 7-9 was done very well esp. panel 8 I liked the creeping monster lets add to the horror. The traveler with his words/ picking up the gun let's the ready know our lead can handle himself. The eating of the plane was great -the monster could have been bigger- Panel 9 should have been a pin-up panel actually.
**********************************************************
This at times looked more like movie storyboards than a comic. I get you like/ can do sequential panels, but you really cut down the flow on the page and this wrecked the pace of your story. Too many little panels lessened the panels that should have had a real dramatic impact, by taking up space on the screen. The art didn't really grab me, but it almost did there was just something missing this time around with me. The story seemed fairly straight forward, but I bet you have some twists planned. Colors fit and letters were easy to read, it just read too much like a storyboard. 3/5 stars from me.

Great story! The art is not exactly my style but as someone else said the scene with the bricks is money. Also it does a really good job of setting up atmosphere and mood. It got my vote.

It took me a couple of reads to put my finger on it, but the look of the art reminds me a lot of "Wizards" by Ralph Bakshi.
 
In fact, it was your animation piece that sparked the answer.
--Gabe

I admire the way you're able to capture mood here, Philip, both in story and art. Made me really want a drink of water, which I think proves it's successful!

I like the story on this one alot and the art is pretty good too. It seems like everyone wants to do some sorta post-apocalyptic world story lately.

The only thing that really jumped out at me writing wise was the "He dashes for the dust storm... and the planes follow" I dunno, I think the narrators voice sounded different to me there. I think you could've better conveyed that with just the art. The narration takes me out of the story some.

A small gripe really. A pretty well realized comic!

Fairly interesting story. The characters seem a little too simplified visually for this sort of tale. But maybe that's just me.

As troylbowen said, there is some disparity between the first and following pages. I like the color palette on this one and though it is not the best rendered work, I think the style fits. (I think it's 'cause I like just about anything with crazy tentacles...mmm, calamari)

This is perfect in every way. I have no complaints at all for this strip, whatsoever. Great job. The inkwork reminds me of Frank Miller's in a way. With the colors, it had a real Dark Knight Returns vibe. I love the sequence of the hero grasping for the two bricks but falling. This kind of mixes the best of Will Eisner's Spirit gimmicks with the clarity of European comics. I only have one more entry to read this month, but it is almost a guarantee that I will be voting for this beauty!

I'm a sucker for a post-apocalypse story. The art isn't the best I've seen on this site, but it's not the worst either. But then I'm a big Order of the Stick fan, for me it's more story than art (I'm also not an artist, which probably helps. Heh.) You've got my vote, I want to see what happens.

I like this. Its simple, yet makes me want to know what's going on next. I think the artwork needs some work, though it's very dynamic in its movement, its lacking in line and structure - sometimes it looks rushed and not very solid. I think working on line-weights and structure would do wonders. It would really solidify the strip, I think. Good stuff.

got my vote, good job.

Love the last line.

This is another that I had to think about. This comic almost seems like page one was done by a different person to me. It has some intricate linework and looks really cool. But once you step off into page two and beyond things get a bit strange for me. Things turn a bit more cartoony and the artwork doesn't seem as solid. And what is up with panel one on page three? I flipped back and forth four or five times trying to figure out what that panel was doing. Anyway, other than that one panel the story is fairly easy to follow and could have potential. I think the art would have to pick it up to the level of page one.