NOT WORTH THE TRIP: A review of ONE WAY TRIP

Shane and Emily are newlyweds on their way to Fiji, where they’re going to visit Shane’s grandfather. They fall asleep, and when they wake up, the plane is empty. Where did everyone go? A cool concept . . . if it hadn’t already been done in THE LANGOLIERS. But . . . let’s see where this goes.



They get off the plane (because luckily, the plane landed before whatever happened, happened), and they wander around the airport, which is covered with blood. Maybe we’re headed in more of a NIGHT FLIER direction . . . . The whole vampire thing is backed up a bit when Shane finds a stranger who can apparently see every vein through his skin and hungers for fresh food, which apparently these guys haven’t had in a while (despite the fact that Shane and Emily arrived with a plane full of people, and there is blood everywhere, indicating that someone sure as hell has been "feeding").


Then, everyone else shows up, and our heroes escape and manage to make it to Shane’s grandfather’s place. As it turns out, the old man is a renowned explorer, and there’s a news story on about him. And here’s where the SPOILER ALERT begins:


What with all the natural disasters going on in Fiji, Shane’s granddad taught everyone on the island how to survive through cannibalism. Yes, they ate everyone and have now run out of weak and elderly people to eat. In the fifth to last panel, Shane realizes that because he’s a travel agent, his grandfather probably wants him to send more people to Fiji to become dinner.


WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY FUCKING ABSURD AND MAKES NO GODDAM SENSE IN THE FUCKING WORLD!


That’s not the worst of it. As soon as Shane realizes the truth, he says fuck it and eats Emily. WHY? Why does he just buy into this bullshit? It doesn’t make sense!


END OF SPOILERS. Okay, with that mad bullshit out of the way, (and shame on you, Ryan Alexander, for trying to tell this story full of Swiss cheese plot holes), the art is actually kind of nice. Laura Williams maybe over-inks everything a bit, but she’s a very serviceable artist. When Emily looks at her wedding ring, she has a perfect look of bliss and contentment on her face. And when Shane does that last, horrible thing mentioned in the spoilers, there is an utter look of sadness on his face.


But the art doesn’t make up for the story. Don’t buy a ticket for this trip.


ONE WAY TRIP
Writer: Ryan Alexander
Artist: Laura Williams
Publisher: CCP
19 pages
$2.99