‘Ian Livingstones’s Freeway Fighter’ – Ewington, Coleby, O’Grady, Campbell (Titan Comics)

Page Count: 112 Pages

When I was in Forbidden Planet last week, I thought I’d try and be good, sticking to the ‘Sale’ shelves while my daughters trawled through the Manga. ‘Freeway Fighter’ was sat there and it was only 99p so I thought, ‘why the hell not?’ ;o)

I was a massive ‘Fighting Fantasy’ fan back in the nineteen eighties and am still partial to the occasional trip back to Darkwood Forest, Port Blacksand or Deathtrap Dungeon. I really need to go back to Firetop Mountain and finish it once and for all… Anyway :o) I didn’t spent a lot of time with ‘Freeway Fighter’, back in the day, but did enjoy and thought the setting would be worth exploring a little more so… that’s what I did.

Bella De La Rosa was heir to a great I-400 racing tradition before the virus hit, before most of humanity was wiped out, and civilization fell.
Eighteen months after the collapse of society, she and her blue and red Interceptor prowl the remnants of what once was America, eking out a life among the ruins, trying to evade vicious car gangs like the Doom Dogs, and find enough gas, food, and water to survive.
But is there more than this for her in the wasteland? Can hope for humanity be found with one young woman and her tooled-up survival rig of a car?

It has been years since I last read ‘Freeway Fighter’ (it may be on one of my shelves, I’m really not sure) and I couldn’t help but feel that if I’ve read the book a little more recently, maybe I would have got more out of this book.

Not that there’s anything with the plot, it’s a little too straightforward for my taste but to be fair, how much can anyone be reasonably be expected to do with cars in a post-apocalyptic desert? No, you work with what you have and keep it simple. That’s what Ewington does and it works well for a quick read. And Ewington keeps the focus right where it needs to be, the characters work but we’re all here to see how much damage the cars can do; Ewington and Coleby combine to deliver a series of spectacular set pieces against a bleak backdrop. They definitely keep to their end of the deal.

Now, this comic serves as a prologue of sorts, to the game book, so you don’t necessarily have to have played the ‘Fighting Fantasy’ book before you pick this book up. It would help if you do though. This book is (rightfully) a homage to the original book and clearly written by fans; I could tell where the Easter Eggs were but didn’t quite get why they were a big deal. It wasn’t a deal breaker for me but it was clear that a little prior reading would have made a big difference. That’s on me though, not the book. Just something to bear in mind.

This particular tale remains a lot fun to read and given the week I’ve had, that was just what the doctor ordered, It was definitely a welcome reminder that good reads can turn up when you least expect them. I might just have to go through my shelves and see if I still have a copy of the gamebook.