THE RIDE: BURNING DESIRE #4
Writer: Doug Wagner
Artists: Daniel Hillyard, Tomm Coker
Colorist: Charlie Kirchoff
Letterer: Ed Dukeshire
When another dancer is murdered, Vega must choose between freedom, death, and a merry band of misfit exotic dancers. All this and the strangest backup story so far! TOMM COKER (THE BLACK MONDAY MURDERS) returns to THE RIDE to tell the story of how a devil-worshipping biker cult drives a woman to nunhood.
Print copies of THE RIDE: BURNING DESIRE #4 will be available in comic stores on September 25, 2019. The issue will also be available digitally on platforms including comiXology, Amazon Kindle, Google Play, and Apple iBooks.
BIRMINGHAM, AL (September 23, 2019)—THE RIDE: BURNING DESIRE reaches its electric penultimate chapter this week, aided by another veteran of the THE RIDE universe—Tomm Coker. The co-creator of THE BLACK MONDAY MURDERS, Coker both wrote and illustrated the THE RIDE #7-one shot “The Key to Survival” in 2007 as well as the Faustian 8-page short from THE RIDE: SOUTHERN GOTHIC #2, published in 2012. His new back-up story with series writer Doug Wagner, “Nun,” stems off that history for a visceral showdown between a dancer and a sect of motorcycle-straddling devil worshippers.
“The book is a blast and something I hope to contribute to for years to come,” Coker explains. “Everything about THE RIDE is an exercise in doing the best I am capable of, and the stories I’ve contributed to have helped me understand and define what I do more than most other projects I’ve worked on. (THE BLACK MONDAY MURDERS and UNDYING LOVE being the other two books that have pushed and challenged me beyond my comfort zone.)”
Every issue of THE RIDE: BURNING DESIRE features a main story from the PLASTIC team of Wagner and artist Daniel Hillyard, with an additional segment from a rotating group of artists who all worked on the original series—including Adam Hughes, Chris Brunner, and Cully Hamner for the first three issues.
This issue witnesses ex-detective Sam Vega (the star of 2004’s original RIDE series) facing ghosts from her past as she unites with the fetish dancers of the titular Burning Desire club, now reduced to ashes. Each back-up story, including “Nun,” features the origin of one dancer.
“Fetish dancers are being murdered. A dance club has been burnt to the ground. Samantha Vega’s past has caught up with her and merged with her nightmares. Her only hope is to surrender herself to the mercies of a man obsessed with destroying everything she cares for,” Wagner says of the main story. For his collaboration with with Coker, Wagner embraces a tale of drive-through exploitation havoc.
“In a back story simply entitled ‘Nun,’ Tomm Coker and I dive deep into grindhouse satanic panic fun. Tomm came to me with two requests: he wanted to incorporate a badass, take-no-prisoners lead and lots of crotch rockets. I had only one: could I tie it back to his one-shot story that had the dark lord himself driving the Ride. We agreed and created something that can’t be undone.”
