Villordsutch reviews Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency #1…
An all-new comic series based on Douglas Adams’ beloved holistic detective! Dirk arrives in San Diego to face a new country, new cases and new threats: reincarnation, for starters…!
If like me – and I’m sure there is more than one Douglas Adams fan out there – you’ll be more than aware than Mr. Adam’s works were translated numerous times and have been released in several formats. I say this just in case any nay saying people have begun to dust off any sort of soapboxes for a good old fashioned stand on. Myself, I was always more of a Hitch Hikers Guide fan compared to a Dirk Gently one though I have read the books, listened to the BBC Radio 4 Show and I rather enjoyed the Stephen Mangan BBC 4 TV version too, so I know my Gently.
Here we have the beginning of a new Dirk Gently investigation and it’s across the pond in America, though it actually begins in Ancient Egypt and continues with a Dirk arriving in San Diego via the luggage compartment of an aeroplane and absconding with a random piece of luggage – which previous Gently fans will know nothing really is random. We soon discover the bag belongs to a perfect couple of blonde haired, white teethed serial killers who separate to hunt down Dirk (with the bag) and also to kill beggars on the street. Meanwhile Dirk has found a detective themed tearoom to set up home, as his Agency is no more – the Editor informs us we’ll find out why in a future issue – and he’s also opened the random piece of luggage too.
Now instead of trying to ignore the elephant in the comic shaped room I’m going to first point out that Dirk Gently looks suspiciously like David Tennant’s incarnation of The Doctor in Doctor Who; if we could extend his jacket ever so slightly further – to a trench coat – we would be looking at an almost dead cert here. Again, as highlighted above, Dirk has been portrayed in numerous formats so there is no reason why he can’t have this face, but I’m sure there are going to be a fair few comparisons being made to Gently and the Tenth Doctor and I wonder why nobody at IDW HQ said, “Hang on he looks like David Tennant! We’ll need to have a rethink here.”.
Taking the lookalike issue and putting it to one-side, this opener from Chris Ryall is a great one that moves along at the perfect pace and it’s clear that he knows Dirk Gently as in amongst this organised chaos, there is a mystery unfolding and I’m looking forward to seeing it unfold; along with the artwork from Tony Atkins this comic is full of energy making it a very enjoyable read.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency #1 is a perfect opener to what will hopefully be a fantastic series.
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5&v=8HTiU_hrLms
Originally published May 20, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
