Petrol Head #1: Hotrod Racing In A Climate-Ravaged World [Review]

Written by Rob Williams. Art and lettered by Pye Parr. Published Image Comics.

Writer Rob Williams has been a regular on 2000 AD’s Judge Dredd (and spin-offs) for about 20 years. Through these stories, he’s added layers to the dystopian future’s dark satire to great acclaim. Everything is terrible in these stories, and any chance of improving that world is swiftly taken away. However, with the new series Petrol Head, he and artist Pye Parr have taken a more hopeful approach to the dystopian future.

In this debut issue, readers are introduced to a climate-ravaged world where the last of humanity lives in protective domes. They pass the time with government-sanctioned entertainment, which includes robot-operated car racing. One of the washed-up racers, a robot named Petrol Head, crosses paths with a 12-year-old girl who could hold the key to fixing the world’s problems.

The issue spends most of its time with the title character, going into his history as a racer and then brings us back to the present, where he’s obsolete, hated, and down on his luck. In many ways, he reminds me of Hellboy or Fantastic Four’s The Thing. Perhaps this is because Parr depicts Petrol Head with a large frame, a slight slouch, and chomping on a cigar. He’s indifferent to other’s struggles, a product of past experiences rather than his general nature. However, he can be sympathetic when he realises it’s the right thing to do. It’s just hard when the world treats you like literal garbage.

Lupa is the other core protagonist. While she isn’t featured isn’t given as much space in this debut issue, she’s positioned as a glimmer of hope in this climate-ravaged world, holding a potential way to reverse the damage to the planet. She’s not as fleshed out as Petrol Head at this stage. However, I’m assuming that this will be corrected in subsequent issues.

The world these characters inhabit is established well in this debut issue. It certainly helps that this comic has extra pages, with Williams and Parr doing a great job at introducing locales and concepts with them. The city is washed in a cold blues and the complementary glow of a warm red. It makes it feel futuristic and appealing. Contrast that with the muted greens of the industrial area, known as the “Smogzone”, and you can see that colour goes a long way to set the tone for locales. The previously mentioned places appear expansive, a visual trick when it’s revealed about halfway through that they are actually housed in a dome, making them small in reality. This is revealed through a two-page spread that shows the dome’s place in the outside world, putting everything in perspective.

Petrol Head #1 also dedicates a large chunk of the issue to car-racing action. This is where Parr is at his best, using various storytelling techniques to make it exciting on every panel. The car designs look cool. Each souped-up vehicle has a distinct look and bursts off the page due to great flat colouring that creates depth while still providing finer detail. (It appears that cars are Parr’s passion if his Instagram page is anything to go by.) Not a panel is wasted when these cars are featured, with compositions that help to highlight the action, whether it be the establishing spread featuring a crashing car coming directly at the reader or the panel with a car skidding into view. The whole thing feels like it’s going incredibly fast, as any good racing scene should, through the use of carefully placed speed lines, light trails from breaklights, and lettering that contorts with the movement of the cars. All these elements combine to make for an exciting read.

Petrol Head #1 is a solid debut. Its dystopian world feels well-established, with plenty of room to grow further. However, the world-building doesn’t get in the way of the story, introducing readers to likeable characters with distinct worldviews. Combine this with the exciting car-racing action and it becomes a comic you should be paying attention to.

Petrol Head #1 is available in all good comic book shops, online retailers, eBay, and Amazon/Kindle.